19 Recent Trends in User Studies

Dr Sarita Verma

Introduction

 

‘User studies’ means ‘library survey’. It is ‘library survey’ because studies of information need or information use behaviour or reading habits concentrate upon a wider range of information sources and channels other than simple libraries. ‘User Study’ is a difficult area of knowledge to define. It can include traditional or conventional survey of library borrowers and it may be the main form of activity which comes to mind when the term ‘user studies’ is mentioned.

 

A study entitled “Pilot Study on the use of scientific literature by scientists” conducted by Ralph R. Shaw (1956) is considered pioneer study in this direction. There was comprehensive bibliography on user studies compiled by Davis and Bail in 1964 containing 438 studies. One of the turning points in the history of user studies was the establishment of the “Centre for Research on User Studies” (CRUS) in 1975 at the University of Sheffield. The purpose of the centre is to create a national centre to act as a focus for research in user studies.

 

User studies have a number of impacts on library services and system. User studies are directly or indirectly, playing a pivotal role in systems and services, such as collection development, resource allocation, improvement of library techniques etc.

  1. Genesis and Development of User Studies

In the year 1948 User Studies was first introduced in the Scientific Information Conference of Royal Society. In this conference Urquhart and Bernal presented their research findings. The study was conducted in eight research and educational institutions. In earlier stage of user studies, it was mainly related to scientists who were associated disciplines like Biochemistry, Medicine, Engineering, Physics etc. The concentrations of user studies on these subjects were on the fact that the publication of professional and scientific information in these disciplines was adequate at that time of in comparison with the humanities. This resulted in the earlier development of information handling tools like indexes and abstracts. In early 1960s the presence of literature shows that the number of studies increased rapidly. At that time many user studies were focused on document studies. In the 1970s researchers targeted the user groups like Magistrates, Urban Citizens, personnel working in local authorities, University students, and they also mark the point that in the user studies the use of particular information systems, their efficiency would be examined. So we can say trends of user studies were system centred studies. The 1980s was the era which was known by an increasing awareness surrounding the conceptual frame work and methodological issues of user studies. The first attempts of this awareness were the publication in the journal of Social Science Information Studies. In the 90s the implementation of conceptual framework of theories was strengthened. With the presence of ICT driven gadgets, mainly Internet has been considered as the main source of information. Now the Internet has become the powerful source of information. These results a number of studies set out to investigate a multiple issues concerning the impact of the Internet on the user and the information community. >www.librijournal.org/pdf/1999-3pp132-141.pdf<

  1. Recent User Studies 

2.1    International Scenario

 

The upcoming trend in user studies as a result of technological advances and changes in economics of information systems. Modern digital libraries have multiple diverging requirements and expectations of the users and rapidly changing technological innovations. Many studies have looked into digital libraries in specific context. Bishop (1999), Covi and Kling (1997) studied the use of digital libraries by people from different social and economic backgrounds. Furnas and Rauch (1998) studied use of digital libraries and conclude that in searching for information a ‘one-shot query’ is very rare. >www. uclic.ucl.ac.uk/annb/ docs/DLuser.pdf<

 

A rather specific or a small group of Digital Libraries (DLs) are addressed by many studies and in development, DLs are seldom addressed. The know how to compare the user experience is essential to be able to compare DLs. Usability is the major forms of the study, and to contextualise specific DLs user studies and both information behaviour and user experience studies, a more inform approach needs to be followed.

 

Jones and Cockburn (1996) studied different www browsers in terms of their navigational support. Marshall et al. (1999) studied the use of digital reading devices. Adler et al. (1998) discussed categories of reading to discuss categories of writing in relation to document. These ideas will have an impact on the design of digital libraries as working environments. Allen (1998) discusses the user interfaces for different tasks. He found that users with well developed special abilities were better able to use specially organised query tools than those perception abilities were better developed. This will provide help to design of the digital library interfaces. Jones et al. (1999) studied the differences between user interfaces through experimentation. Sugimoto et al. (1997) also followed this approach when comparing five different user interfaces to support access to digital libraries. Similarly France et al. (1999) studied the use of digital library user interface by given subjects several task. Allen (1998), Bishop (1999), Park (1999) used experimental design for comparing the applicability of user interfaces for digital libraries and Jones and Cockburn (1996) in terms of www browser usability. Several studies (Bishop, 1998; 1999; France et al., 1999; Marshall et al., 1999) employed transaction logs to gain an understanding of the activities users were engaging in with digital libraries. >www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/annb/docs/DLuser.pdf<

 

Various data collection techniques have been used to analyze the use of digital libraries. Usability testing technique used by Allen, Bishop, Park and Sugimote et al. to compare the applicability of user interfaces for digital libraries. Bishop, Covi and Kling relied on interviews to access people’s perceptions and use of digital libraries. France et al. Jones et al., Marshall et al. used transaction logs to understand of the activities of users within digital libraries. Diary study method was used by Adler et al. and O’Hara et al. Other methods like questionnaire, observation and focus groups were used to understand the usability of systems.

 

User studies are moving into a mature generation by building on earlier foundation research. Wilson (2000) discussed that Action research and Qualitative research are appropriate methodologies for study of human information behaviour. According to French and Bell (1973) Action research is an integral part of the organisational development consulting process. “Action research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical frame work”(Rapoport,1970: 499).>www.bogliolo.eci.ufmg.br/…/WILSON%20Information%20Research.pdf <

 

Now Qualitative research is another emerging trend in information science, originated in social science. Under one school of thought “Qualitative research is concern with developing concepts rather than applying pre-existing concepts” (Half Penny, 1979) and given the stat of theory in information science, it can well be arranged that ‘developing concepts’ is what is needed. Qualitative research is suitable to study information seeking behaviour. >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_research<

 

Above studies reiterate that digital libraries is the focus area of many studies. Several studies have focused on user interfaces and search techniques. But there are less studies carried out as compared to studies in the area of hypertext, WWW, lesser extent browsing in digital libraries and information retrieval fields. There is a strong need to focus upon user’s requirement of information sources.

 

Academic libraries have now restored to introduce instructional courses such as library orientation, faculty development programme and bibliographic instructions to stimulating the use of library resources by students. It is more focused to the needs of its users. (Kronick, 1982)

 

Many studies conducted in the field of public libraries. These studies include mostly use studies, behaviour studies etc. of the users of public libraries. A study on library surveys in Australia revealed the social characteristics of public library adult users. This study found that most of the frequent users had a higher standard of education or belong to a higher professional group. The study found a likely increase in public library use with the exception of some disadvantaged groups (Rochester, 1982). In USA, because of the introduction of media in public libraries, the use of state and local libraries is in an uptrend among better educated and more advanced. (Brown, 1976)

 

Even in special libraries the impact of user studies is significant. It helped in understanding the basic requirement and preferences of users of such libraries. This led to networking and computerisation in special

libraries. They now use consortia on the network as bibliographic centres for interlibrary loan and reference services. (Murphy, 1976)5

 

2.2   National Scenario

 

A significant effort was made by INSDOC (now NISCAIR) and conducted a Use Survey entitled “INSDOC List of Current Scientific Literature” in 1964. After that INSDOC compiled “Indian Science Abstracts”. IASLIC conducted a seminar on “User and Library and Information Services”, and pay the attention towards users. In the year 1967, INSDOC conducted a pilot survey to access the information needs of the researchers of electronics. One pioneer study was conducted by M. S. Sridhar. This study conducted on ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore. The results of this doctoral work have been published under the title “Information Behaviour of Scientists and Engineers”.

 

The user studies take an exponential growth in recent years. It can be easily found in the literature of library and information science that majority of researches leading to M. Phil. and Ph. D. Degree are conducted on user studies.

 

4.2.1 Academic Libraries

 

Numerous studies in the field of academic libraries were conducted in recent years. Some well-known user studies and their results are below:

 

“Information Seeking behaviour of the academics of University of Kerala in the changed Library Environment” by Shibu Rays and M. D. Baby (2011) reveals that academics have welcomed the automation of library, and a shift towards electronic information seeking is visible, which implies that ICT has an impact on the information seeking behaviour of the academics. “Information seeking behaviour of the academics in Government Colleges in changing scenario” by Jogender Singh (2010) concludes that academics have welcomed the automation of library.

 

Some remarkable studies in this field are “Use of library resources in university libraries by the students” by Md. Sohail and others (2012), “User perception and use of library and information services in the higher research and academic institutions in Lucknow city” by K. L. Mahawar (2011), “Uses of e-journals by researchers in AMU” by M. M. Raza and A. K. Upadhyay (2006), etc.

 

The well-known user studies in this field were conducted by: P. Geeth (2003), Varghese (2006), M. S. Lohar and T. N. Roopashree (2006), Lalitha K. Sami and Rabia Iffat (2009), D B. Patil and S. Parameshwar (2009), Y. Srinivasa Rao and B. K. Choudhury (2008), B. U. Kannapanavar and K. V. Manjunatha (2010), B. D. Kambar and Gururaj Hadagali (2009) entitled “Use of UGC-INFONET journal consortium by faculty members and research scholars of Karnataka University” etc.

 

4.2.2 Public Libraries

 

User studies in the field of public library are less as compare to academic and special libraries. An important study entitled “User survey of selected public libraries of West Bengal by Amit Kumar Bandyopadhyay (2004) was carried out. This study highlights that only 14.13% of the users found during the survey are female. There is no reader of ST category although a high percentage of population belonging to this category. This was the part of major research project, funded by the UGC (India). A pioneer study in this field was “E-reading habits of public library users in Erode corporation, Tamilnadu: A survey” by M. R. Ramesh (2012).

 

4.2.3 Special Libraries

 

A number of studies have been conducted in the past to assess the information requirements of scientists, engineers and technologists. The important findings of some of the studies are below:

 

“Use of electronic resources by research scholars in CFTRI, Mysore: A study (2005) by Mallinath Kumbar and others. It is clear from the study that how electronic resources are useful to research scholars. This study helps the librarians in planning and developing electronic resources in providing modern services to their library users. Another important study entitled “Information used pattern of social scientists: An analysis of citation of journals of Asian studies” (2007) by Neena Talwar Kanungo. Study highlights the low use of electronic sources can be a good area of research in future. The accessibility of online electronic sources should be more utilise by the social scientists Some remarkable studies in various allied field such as forestry, was carried out by T. Hazarika (2005) entitled “Information use pattern of Indian forestry scientists: A bibliometric study”. M. Ahmad and S. Haridasam (2006) carried out the user survey on “Use of periodical by scholars at National library of Veterinary Science”. Another study on this subject was carried out by Biswas and Enamul Haque (2008).

 

In recent years user study on special organisation was also noticed. Mahawar and others (2009) studied on “Information seeking behaviour of Geologist”. “Information seeking behaviour of users of cyber library: A case study of Tata Institute of Social Science” by Kiran Kaushik and others (2011). The study revealed that at cyber library was extensively used by male users as compared to the female users and users preferred using particular database only.

 

4.2.4 Digital Libraries

 

Today in library and information centres various kinds of electronic resources have been produced by applying modern IT. The commonly available electronic sources are competing with and in some instance replacing, the print-based information sources, which have been in place as the primary media for storage and communication of recorded information. Because of this reason many user studies in this field were conducted by Lohar and Roopashree (2006), D. B. Patil (2009), A. Manimekali (2006), S. Patil (2007), Y. Srinivasa Rao (2008), Rama Devi (2006), Lalitha K. Sami (2009) etc. One remarkable study was carried out by Sadanand Y. Bansode and Shamin Periera (2008), entitled “A survey of library automation in college libraries in Goa State” concluded that the library automation began in the 1970 in a few special libraries and has now reached most of University library. It due to various problems many college libraries in India have yet to take off in India.

  1. Recent Trends in User Studies

Recent trends, which have come on the forefront during the recent years, are detailed below:

 

3.1  Field of User Studies

 

In the past few years, a considerable amount of user studies /surveys have been conducted to examine the users need, expectations and satisfactions with library services, facilities, collection and staff. Content Writer observed nearly about 120 studies from leading journals (ILA Bulletin, IASLIC Bulletin and SRELS Journal of Information Management) from 2000 to 2014 and concluded that maximum user studies were carried out in the field of academic library (61.6%) followed by special libraries (21.6%). The weak area of research in user study is public library (4.3%), where as other fields covered (12.5%). It is also observed that some area are less covered by researchers for conducting user studies, these areas are studies on women, rural areas, farmers, medical science and veterinary science, banking sectors and physical disabled persons etc.

 

3.2  Methods, Tools and Techniques used in conducting User Study

 

Survey approach was used for conducting maximum user studies and primary data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, schedules etc. Random sampling technique was adopted for various studies. Some studies used chi-square test for analysing data. Statistical tools such as percentage, chi-square, ‘t’ test and one way ANOVA were used to analyze the data using SPSS software package. Many researcher use the FoxPro Database Management Software (DBMS) to analyze the data.

 

3.3  Categories of User Study

 

On the basis of observation of about 120 User Studies (ILA Bulletin, IASLIC Bulletin and SRELS Journal of Information Management) from 2000 to 2014, Content Writer found that:

  • 42.5% studies conducted to find out the overall pattern of interaction of the users’ community with the communication system called Communication Behaviour Study.
  • 24.2% studies conducted to find out the use of communication media like primary, secondary periodicals etc.
  • 18.3 % studies conducted to find out the pattern of flow of information in the science communication system as hole.
  • 15% studies conducted to find out the extent of use of services and facilities offered by libraries.

3.4 Conferences and Seminars on User Studies

 

It is evident from the following data, that user studies including information seeking behaviour, information needs, use patterns, information sharing patterns etc. were the focal point of various conferences, seminars, workshops conducted in various parts of world. A list of some important conferences, seminars and workshops is given below:

 

(i) The Conference of Digital Information Technology held at Amman-jordan (2014). (a) “User studies for and evaluation of digital library systems and applications”, (b) “User behaviour and modelling”(c) “User’s mobility and context awareness in information access” and (d) “User’s interfaces for digital institutions” were conference topics.

(ii) 2nd National Conference of Society for Promotions of Libraries (SPL) on “Libraries: Towards Digital Paradigm” held at CSJM University, Kanpur (2014). “User Expectation, Experience in Modern Library System: Case studies, was one sub-theme.

(iii) National Conference on Management of Modern Libraries held at Manipal University, Manipal (2014). “Users, user needs and expectations” was one sub-theme.

(iv) National Seminar on Reengineering Academic Libraries held at Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur (2014). “Information Use and Information Seeking Behaviour” and “User Need Mapping/needs Mapping” were sub-themes.

(v) National Seminar on Challenges in Library Management Systems held at IACS, Kolkata (2012). “User Interfaces” and “User Needs and Satisfaction” was two sub-themes of seminar.

(vi) International Conference on Academic Libraries held at Delhi (2009). “User centric services, reference and outreach” was subtheme in International conference.

(vii) 49th ILA conference on “Responding to Users’ need in changing information landscapes” held Bundelkhand University Jhansi (U.P.) (2003-04).

  1. Implementation of User Study’s Results to Improve Library Services

Now electronic information resources are introduced in libraries. So library users seek new possibilities for obtaining the information. If the library provides remote access to the database, it becomes more physically accessible to the library users. Only by conducting user studies librarians can take necessary decisions to move to electronic resources. It is only possible by gathering library users, their interaction with library services and materials used.

 

Recommendations of various user studies may be applied to improve the library operations. It is to be noted that certain libraries may need special attention. Some prominent studies discussed below to help LIS professionals as the basis of decision making in libraries. First way to use this research results is as the basis of decision making in library. For example, the result of Johnson’s (2002) study could be used to plan the timing of a libraries implementation of online chat reference services, and that to develop a programme for marketing those services. Both Kuhlthau’s (1990) and Cool’s (1993) results could have been used to develop some in service training for reference librarians on how to augment their typical reference interviews.

 

The second way is to use this evidence to influence the vendors of online searching systems or the publishers of other library resources. Wildemuth and Moore (1995) suggested way to improve vocabulary support that could be implemented by the online vendors.

 

The third way is to use this evidence you have gathered to support your own development of library systems, either for individual library or for a consortium libraries. Wildemuth et al. (2002) has led us in this direction. While such development projects may stretch the resources available in individual libraries, they have the potential to advance the practice of librarianship across multiple libraries.

  1. Conclusion

In this module, an attempt has been made to explain and discuss the concept of user studies and its recent trends in digital era. User studies and user data are essential to system analysis. User information is the important part in measurement and evaluation of library services. It is also helpful for the planning of libraries. Libraries and information centres are so far for, being models of efficiency in their organisational and delivery systems. Several criticisms against user studies are as follows: lack of proper selection of population or universe, over generalization, lack of proper analysis, diverse classification of communication channels Because of the above mentioned criticism, several information scientists doubted the credibility of user studies. But now modern techniques including statistical analysis by using computers have accounted on a change in the situation. In spite of this, it can’t be said for certain that user studies are flawless.

 

Library and information science changed the world of the information environment called the information age or digital age. In the early of 21st century due to rapid growth of information technology, libraries were no going back to controlled. Now user studies have become an important area of information science and developing into a branch of information science. By this results user studies and information retrieval are becoming close. Gap between information seeking, information retrieval and information services are becoming narrow, because important themes are emerging in user studies.

 

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