Information Retrieval in Domain-specific Databases: An Analysis to Improve the User Interface of the Alcohol Studies Database

Abstract

Academic libraries are becoming more directly involved in the design and publishing of electronic information resources, including bibliographic databases, electronic journals, and digital archives. As a result, librarians are dealing with many user interface design issues that computer scientists and information specialists in other fields have encountered. Transaction log analysis can provide a rich source of information on user behavior and insights as to how user interfaces can be improved. This article describes the methodology and results of the log analysis for the Alcohol Studies Database (ASDB), a domain-specific database supported by the Center of Alcohol Studies and Rutgers University Libraries (RUL). The goals of this study were to better understand user search behavior, to analyze failure rates, and to develop approaches for improving the user interface.