Expanded Search Premier Complete Librarian and Undergraduate Attitudes

Expanded Search Premier Complete Librarian and Undergraduate Attitudes Toward Interdisciplinary Aggregated Databases Amy Fry & Julie Gilbert ER&L Conference, Atlanta, GA 19 March 2008

Flickr photo by aeranthes

Photo of Barbara Fister by Mark Coggins

Academic Search Premier Statistics at GAC ;

ASP Stats Totals

Methodology Investigated databases Academic Search Premier Expanded Academic ASAP Academic One. File Surveyed librarians Disseminated via various listservs Targeted those who work with undergraduates Examined usage statistics 14 Oberlin group schools (like ours) Asked students Limited sample of GAC Communication Studies students

Survey

Database Satisfaction Best features Full text availability % respondents 63. 6 Search features 49. 7 Interface 48. 5 Titles indexed 37. 8 64. 6% of respondents chose at least two Least favorite features Interface 17. 8 Full Text Availability 15. 4 Search features 12. 7 Titles indexed 11. 7 13. 1% of respondents chose at least two

Desirability of additional features Features Very Somewhat desirable (%) Not useful Not sure Limit by discipline 23. 1 39. 8 13. 3 23. 8 Limit to core journals 16. 8 33. 1 24. 1 26. 0 Limit by expertise 15. 8 25. 3 26. 5 32. 4 Results ranked by algorithm 11. 4 30. 4 28. 2 29. 9 Limit to locallydetermined set of journals 9. 0 26. 8 34. 8 29. 4

“I wish all of them would offer better lists of subject headings. Not all students do well with key words. ” “Horrible subject heading consistency. ” “Students want to search databases like they search Google. I am constantly trying to break this habit. ” “I find that their definition of ‘scholarly journals’ sometimes doesn't match librarians' or teachers' definitions. ” “Many titles are claimed as full text, but specific issues and articles are missing. ”

What do librarians consider important to undergraduates? Very importa nt Somewha t important Not very importa nt Not at all importa nt Not sure Full text articles 98. 6 1. 0 0. 2 99. 6 % Current articles 70. 5 27. 1 1. 4 0. 0 1. 0 97. 6 % Familiarity 67. 0 27. 8 3. 6 0. 5 1. 2 94. 8 % Large number of journals 60. 7 32. 1 5. 7 0. 2 1. 2 92. 8 % Multidisciplinary 28. 6 47. 1 20. 2 2. 9 1. 2 75. 1% Simultaneous search of popular and scholarly 24. 0 40. 7 26. 7 5. 0 3. 6 64. 7% Smaller number of scholarly journals 4. 0 21. 2 42. 6 21. 4 10. 7 25. 2% Feature Very and somewh at

What challenges do librarians think undergraduates most often face when doing research? Challenges Very often Often Sometimes Rarely Not sure 53. 7% 30. 9 14. 3 1. 0 0. 2 Trouble identifying relevant 42. 5% results 34. 9 20. 0 2. 3 0. 2 Difficulty choosing good search terms Too many results 31. 2 34. 3% 29. 8 4. 3 0. 5 Topics too broad/articles too focused 27. 3 32. 8 33. 0% 4. 8 2. 1 Articles are too technical 12. 9 19. 3 51. 2% 15. 0 1. 7 Results not of high quality 5. 0 14. 3 55. 8% 22. 3 2. 6

Bridging the Gap?

Requested COUNTER Statistics for ASP, Expanded Academic, and Academic One. File Respondents (total) Sent statistics 46 27 Don’t subscribe to either database 6 Don’t collect statistics at all, or “they’re a mess” 6 Collect statistics, but don’t have for this product or don’t have in the correct format 3 Forwarded my request to someone else who didn’t respond 3 Said they would send stats (but didn’t) 1 Did not respond 33 Did not contact 1 Total Oberlin Group Libraries 80

Searches, Sessions and FT Downloads by institution COUNTER Database 1 results

Most downloaded titles at all institutions COUNTER Journal 1 results

Most downloaded titles at all institutions COUNTER Journal 1 results

Implications for librarians for vendors for undergraduates Flickr photo by Colin Smith

Photo by Sara Scholin Please see our forthcoming article in portal: Libraries & the Academy (July 2008) Amy Fry: alfry@stthomas. edu Julie Gilbert: jgilber 2@gustavus. edu