A library or just another information resource? A case study of users' mental models of traditional and digital libraries: Research Articles

  • Authors:

  • Stephann Makri;Ann Blandford;Jeremy Gow;Jon Rimmer;Claire Warwick;George Buchanan

  • Affiliations:

  • UCL Interaction Centre, University College London, Remax House, 31–32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7BT, United Kingdom;UCL Interaction Centre, University College London, Remax House, 31–32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7BT, United Kingdom;UCL Interaction Centre, University College London, Remax House, 31–32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7BT, United Kingdom;School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, London WC1E 7BT, United Kingdom;School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, London WC1E 7BT, United Kingdom;Department of Computer Science, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

A user's understanding of the libraries they work in, and hence of what they can do in those libraries, is encapsulated in their “mental models” of those libraries. In this article, we present a focused case study of users' mental models of traditional and digital libraries based on observations and interviews with eight participants. It was found that a poor understanding of access restrictions led to risk-averse behavior, whereas a poor understanding of search algorithms and relevance ranking resulted in trial-and-error behavior. This highlights the importance of rich feedback in helping users to construct useful mental models. Although the use of concrete analogies for digital libraries was not widespread, participants used their knowledge of Internet search engines to infer how searching might work in digital libraries. Indeed, most participants did not clearly distinguish between different kinds of digital resource, viewing the electronic library catalogue, abstracting services, digital libraries, and Internet search engines as variants on a theme. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.