Tactics for Information Search in a Public and an Academic Library Catalog with Faceted Interfaces

This study examined a large number of searches conducted when the users are interacting with two Endeca-based faceted library catalogs (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [UNC] Library catalog and Phoenix Public Library [PPL] catalog). The goal is to investigate people’s search tactics with the faceted catalogs in an academic library and a public library environment. Two large data sets (with 504,142 logs for 40 days, and 1,010,239 logs for 60 days respectively) are analyzed. State transition analysis and maximal repeating patterns [MRP] analysis are conducted to identify the search tactics and action patterns. The results have both implications for designers in developing faceted library catalogs, and methodological contributions to the empirical research on faceted search systems.