Graduate student search strategies within academic digital libraries

• Published in: International journal on digital libraries 2024-06, Vol.25 (2), p.303-316
• Main Authors: Hoeber, Orland, Storie, Dale
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer Science; Database Management; Digital libraries; Digital systems; Graduate students; Information retrieval; Information Systems and Communication Service; Libraries; Search methods; Search process; Search strategies; Students; Task complexity
• ISSN: 1432-5012; 1432-1300
• DOI: 10.1007/s00799-023-00378-x

When searching within an academic digital library, a variety of information seeking strategies may be employed. The purpose of this study is to determine whether graduate students choose appropriate information seeking strategies for the complexity of a given search scenario and to explore among other factors that could influence their decisions. We used a survey method in which participants ( n = 176 ) were asked to recall their most recent instance of an academic digital library search session that matched two given scenarios (randomly chosen from four alternatives) and, for each scenario, identify whether they employed search strategies associated with four different information seeking models. Among the search strategies, only lookup search was used in a manner that was consistent with the complexity of the search scenario. Other factors that influenced the choice of strategy were the discipline of study and the type of academic search training received. Patterns of search tool use with respect to the complexity of the search scenarios were also identified. These findings highlight that not only is it important to train graduate students on how to conduct academic digital library searches, more work is needed to train them on matching the information seeking strategies to the complexity of their search tasks and developing interfaces that guide their search process.