Electronic Resources: : Use and User Behavior

Citation

Rowley, J. (1999), "Electronic Resources: : Use and User Behavior", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 334-335. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.4.334.4

This is an exceptionally useful and topical collection of papers, which includes a number of articles on access to and the use of electronic information resources. The text has been published simultaneously as The Reference Librarian, Vol.28 No.60. This collection of research‐based articles covers a range of issues and thereby forms a reader which offers access to the wider literature and research on the use of electronic information resources. Key themes are theories of use and users, Internet organisation and searching, geographic information systems, and managing electronic resources.

Specifically, the articles included are: Modelling the users of information systems: some theories and methods; The retrieval power of selected search engines: how well do they address general reference questions and subject questions? Visual maps of the World Wide Web: helping the user find the way; Search tactics of web users in searching for texts, graphics, known items and subjects: a search simulation study; Geographic information systems in library reference services: development and challenge; Managing Ñreference services in the electronic age: a competing values approach to effectiveness; Patron attitudes toward computerised and print resources: discussion and consideration for reference service.

Perhaps my main criticism lies with the rather brief introduction, which is less than one page in length. This is a missed opportunity to reflect on the interaction of the various factors that are identified in the contributing articles, and to draw key messages for the range of different audiences who might find this collection useful. Furthermore, it offers the reviewer no clear picture of the editors intentions or the underlying framework which makes this a book, rather than simply a re‐printed journal issue. This gives the reviewer the license to present their own angle on this text.

The most interesting and substantial section in this book is that on Internet organisation and searching. The first article reports a study which evaluated the effectiveness of eight major search engines in response to 21 real reference questions, and five made‐up subject questions. Results show that the best engines were determined by the type of question. A second paper explores the “lost in cyberspace” phenomenon by examining the cognitive aspects of arrangement and organisation on the Internet and some of the techniques being used to create maps of the intellectual content to be found there. Search tactics of Web users are the focus of another article. The study investigated how users searched for text and graphic information, how they searched for known items and topics, and how they dealt with search difficulties. The authors flag the need for additional research into the extent to which the theories and practices of information retrieval can be applied to networked information.

Among the other articles in the volume, the one which caught my attention covered the competing values approach to effectiveness in the management of reference services. This paper argues for a new approach to the concept of effectiveness. The competing values approach is an integration of four existing models of organisational effectiveness. These are the human relations model, the open system model, the internal process model, and, the rational goal model. It is suggested that this approach might support managers in responding to the influx of rapidly changing information technologies.

This volume raises a number of interesting questions concerning the use of electronic information resources. It presents some work in response to these questions, but most importantly it identifies a number of facets of the agenda for research and practice in relation to the use of electronic information resources. I recommend it to all information professionals who need to reflect on the use of electronic information resources.