Scaling down transaction log analysis: a study of OPAC usage at a small academic library

Abstract

This study looks at a month's worth of On-line Public Access Catalog (OPAC) transaction logs from the Broyhill Learning Resource Center at Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute in western North Carolina. The study was conducted to look at usage of an OPAC in a smaller library setting; to understand any problems occurring in the OPAC that suggest needed changes in interface design and/or bibliographic instruction; and to identify sets of data that may be useful for the library managers to review on a regular basis. Over 83% of the 5,479 searches performed were executed as subject searches. The heaviest usage of the catalog occurred when classes came in to use the library. About 35% of the searches resulted in zero records being retrieved. Over 60% of the zero-hit searches were caused by problems with the controlled vocabulary. Information from transaction logs should be useful for the library to keep track of system usage, search failure rates, advanced feature usage, and common search strings.

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