AN INVESTIGATION OF THE USE OF AN ONLINE CATALOG - USER CHARACTERISTICS AND TRANSACTION LOG ANALYSIS

A total of 114 sessions on an online catalog were examined to determin e what types of searches were conducted and what search modes and fiel ds (title, author, etc.) were used. Implications for this kind of user study are also explored. Examination of transaction, logs revealed th at title and author searches predominated and that the opportunity to construct Boolean searches was rarely taken advantage of. The searcher s themselves reported that they were, on the whole, experienced at usi ng the system; most searched the catalog at least once a week. This ex perience is reflected in the relatively low instance of error and in, the fact that most searches produced at. least some hits. The majority of errors that were made in, the process of searching were typographi cal.