A Swedish research project om a comparison on students search behaviour for information with Google Scholar and Metalib concluded with “The study concludes that overall, students were not very satisfied with either tool“. I could leave it at that, but there was this really important paragraph towards the end that concluded:
Our study showed that almost half of searches launched in Metalib by users without training resulted in 0 results and a large part of the reason was the expectation that a search was Google-like in nature, in other words keyword searching with quotation marks used to indicate a phrase. Instead Metalib often uses a default phrase search. The result is a disaster. Libraries need to work with Libris and Fujitsu to do whatever possible to change this discrepancy between student expectations and search rules in Metalib otherwise the product will remain seriously flawed. [Emphasis added]
We, at our library, have to give this conclusion really serious attention. Databases like Scopus and nowadays WoK as well have adapted themselves to become Google like. Our own catalog however, is more Metalib like.
Reading tip: the report consists for more than half of appendices.
Hattip: Nicole C. Engard
Nygren, E., G. Haya & W. Widmark (2007). Students experience of Metalib and Google Scholar. Stockholm, Sweden, Stockholm university library. 158 pp. http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_su_diva-1264-2__fulltext.pdf
great link - interesting study! I’d love to replicate that study with more mainstream vendor databases …
We’re always interested in comparative or other studies our customers complete with MetaLib.
We continually assess MetaLib’s features and functionality to identify possible improvements or enhancements. Our customers provide us with valuable feedback and suggestions; we seriously consider and often implement our customers’ ideas in MetaLib.
This study is a good example. In previous MetaLib versions (as was used for this study), our default search was a phrase search. Many of our customers felt that this no longer met the expectations of their users, who more commonly now expect a default search to behave like most Web-based search engines.
As of MetaLib 4 – our current version, released early 2007 – we now use a keyword search as our default search. If a user wants to search for a specific phrase, they enclose their search term(s) in quotation marks. Our MetaLib 4 customers are pleased with this change.
Best regards,
Karen Groves
MetaLib Product Manager, Ex Libris
@Karen,
I do realize that Metalib has actually changed the search experience since then. My point was actually directed to my colleagues who are responsible for our catalogue search interface. They haven’t chaged yet. Whereas I would love to see them change the user experience to become more Google like.
Another conclusion could be that “Google rules the world”.
@Jos, not entirely. This is common search engine practice. Take Yahoo, Live, Exalead or Ask, they all have the same search beahviour. Google is just a metaphor for search engines. And yes a popular one.