Electronic Resources and User Behaviour

1. Electronic Resources and User Behaviour Carol Tenopir University of Tennessee ctenopir@utk.edu web.utk.edu/~tenopir/

2. I will talk about today: • Changes in reading patterns with e-resources (and what has not changed) • A deeper look at journals, articles, and parts of articles

3. Data From: • 40,000+ scientists, engineers, physicians, and social scientists • 1977 to the present • University and non-university settings • Recent surveys at U.S. and Australian universities, pediatricians, astronomers • Observations of natural scientists searching for tables and figures

4. Journals and journal articles • Widely read as a reliable source of information • Read for many reasons, including research, writing, teaching/learning, and current awareness • Highly valued and essential to work • Some reading patterns are changing

5. 1) Scholars read more, more quickly...

6. Average Articles Read per year per University Faculty Member Average number of articles read per scientist *280 with outliers

7. Average Articles Read per year per faculty academic discipline Year of Studies

8. Average Minutes per Article by University Faculty Member Average Minutes Per Article Year of Studies

9. Average Minutes per reading per University Faculty Member Average number of articles read per scientist

10. 2) Scholars read for many reasons • Students and academic staff differ • Differing measures of value

11. Purposes of Readings by Students • Help complete a course assignment or required reading in a course (46-50%) • Thesis/dissertation (33-37%) • Keep up with the literature (7-8%) • Personal interest (2-4%)

12. #2 #4 #5 #1 #3 Purpose and Ranking of Importance: All Faculty at One US University

13. #2 #4 #3 #5 #1 Purpose andRanking of Importance: Medical Faculty

14. 3) Scholars read from many sources • More reading from library e-collections • More reading of older articles

15. Proportion of Readings of Scholarly Scientific Articles

16. Readings of older materials may be increasing (university faculty)

17. Older articles are judged more valuable & are more likely to come from libraries 2-5 Years 1stYear Over 5Years

18. So... • Need to read for many purposes and • Read more and more quickly.... • Sometimes a reader needs a whole journal, sometimes an article or articles and sometimes only part of an article

19. Granularity of Journals Granularity= Divisible: Made up of conveniently small and independent parts Encarta Dictionary

20. 1. JournalIssue

21. 2. Article Granularity

22. 3. Objects granularity: Extract and index figures

23. CSA Tables and Figures Prototype • Objects Database • Record includes: • Full image • Captions • Index terms • Link to full text • Other metadata

24. Participants • 9 institutions • 60 scientists (mostly life sciences) • Over 350 searches

25. Multiple Methods of Data Collection Observing Searches Pre and Post Surveys Search Diaries

26. What they currently do • Search for photographs and maps more than tables, figures or graphs • Use Google most often • Level of satisfaction with searches consistently rated low • locating objects is “difficult” • “in general, academic figures, tables, and graphs are not available to search”

27. Potential Use: To find articles they would otherwise miss • “Sometimes tables, figures, maps, etc. are ‘hidden’ in other papers. This search tool gives me the opportunity to find these items too” • “…possibility to find information that might be unnoticed in a traditional database” • “…ability to find data that may not be reflected in the title and abstract of the article”

28. Potential Use: To find articles they would otherwise miss Would Information Be Found Without Tables & Figures Search Capabilities?

29. Potential Use: To find articles they would otherwise miss

30. Potential Use: To retrieve and use images • It would be useful “when looking for information difficult to retrieve in written form” • Specific instances noted: • “looking for geologic maps of a specific area” • “for a quick assessment of photographic quality in cytogenetics research” • “when I need a specific graph, map, photograph, or figure that would be for presentations or teaching”

31. Potential Use: To retrieve and use images

32. Potential Use: To compare their work with others’ • It would be useful when “writing original manuscripts and comparing data from other researchers to your own findings” • “…made me think about different ways that data is conveyed…I’ll design my own future graphs and figures to better ‘stand alone’ as a result.” • To “be inspired by how other researchers set up figures/tables”

33. Suggestions for Success • Images must be of high quality with ability to enlarge thumbnail images • The context of the whole article is very important—in fact it may be dangerous to see images without the context • Allow table contents to be searchable and support extraction of data from tables

34. In conclusion • Scholars use journal issues and articles for many different reasons, including current awareness, research and writing, and teaching • They read many articles each year, from a variety of journals and the amount of reading is increasing • Reading from library e-collections is increasing

35. And… • Journals are good for browsing and current awareness; articles are important for research and teaching • Sometimes scientists need just a part of an article and they need systems that help them read more quickly • Librarians and publishers must think at many levels of granularity—journal issues and whole articles and parts of articles such as tables and figures.

36. The future • E-resources help readers, publishers, and librarians think more broadly about information • Help people read more, more quickly • The more we learn about work patterns, the better we can anticipate information use and needs • Quality and convenience are both important