Title searches in text vs. Web OPAC

["Card, Sandra" <scard@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Title searches in text vs. Web OPAC

During the past few months we have been doing some analysis of the OPAC transaction logs.  An interesting phenomenon has been discovered.

The zero hit rate for title searches hovers around 50-55%, currently 53%.  However, if we limit by terminal to separate text OPAC searches vs. Web OPAC searches, the zero hit rates for titles are as follows:

Text OPAC   currently 43%

WEB OPAC    currently 63%

This pattern has held for the past 4 months that samples have been analysed.  For some reason, the failure rate (zero hit) for title searches is substantially higher in the Web OPAC than in the text OPAC.

Author and Subject searches have similar zero hit rates in both versions of the OPAC.

We have not yet examined the actual searches to see if people are doing different kinds of title searches in the two versions; they are doing similar amounts of title searches.  Also, our initial search screen in the Web OPAC defaults to a keyword search unless users specify otherwise. 

Has anyone seen similar patterns in their OPAC or have any suggestions as to why our users are failing more often with title searches only in the Web OPAC?  We are a state university; the bulk of our users are students.

Sandra Card
Library
Calif. State Univ., Los Angeles
scard@xxxxxxxxxx
(323)343-4894