Enhancing HCI In Library Research: A Literature Review

Significance of OPAC Interface

Nowadays, Most of the libraries developed their own customized OPAC for enabling suitable interface to browse library resources through internet. Rather than providing limited service to some specific university or campus, libraries are offering worldwide access to global information resources. Most of the cases, resources are vast amount of digital and physical content. Many researcher are trying to enhance the interface design for browsing effectively by practicing digital and physical information spaces. OPAC interfaces offer convenient access to library resources while act as public library. This is one of the most highlighted significance of the OPAC interface. Generally, users browse those interfaces to find information about their desired content. However, most of the interfaces lacks to provide optimal functionality and result. The practices of physical and digital contents are still in actions for developing a better interface. Several published literatures ware reviewed in order to understand and evaluate the interaction between the scholars and interfaces. Some of the literatures provide useful insights related to the identified topic. Even though it is a broad topic, this paper will focus on value of alternative in-situ approaches for systematic library research. The main critical issues occurred to impart media library through the support of in-situ and systematic search in public libraries.

Most recent researches confirm that, peoples find hard to browse the OPAC interfaces comparing to the canonical web search engines. It is often found that, interfaces are unable to provide information about any certain content which is already presented in the library resources. Current trends in OPAC interface design go toward search paradigms as exemplified by canonical web-search engines. This approach can lessen the gap between the visitor’s expectations and reality. Peoples are more familiar with canonical web search than critical web-research. Additionally, the general OPAC interfaces does not provide efficient functionality such as category specifications, search criteria and other filtering options which could provide optimal usability for better experience.

Designing search interfaces:

The typical role of the Libraries has evolved to whole another level. Libraries are not just used for accessing information in physical form, nowadays most of the libraries provides information in several data format such as video, presentation and many more. To overcome the interaction issues, some old researches provides promising result after analyzing the collective Diver which could be combined with touch interaction and a large display. Uta and other co-authors in their article describes and showcase a qualitative analysis on common OPAC interface and a collective driver. They also compared the search activities of both of the interfaces. The collective Driver consists of many useful functionality which enables user experience sharing facilities, provides a transparent search process, make the systematic search more effective and promotes active approaches.

The interaction between human and OPAC interfaces can be enhanced though proper development of smart technologies. According to the authors, technologies such as RFID sensor, tangible tokens and direct touch display can provide rich experience for the visitors. Even though many old literatures provides multiple perceptions and alternatives to general the search interface. The development process is running very slowly. The advanced interface for example typically incorporate large displays to upsurge awareness of the search processes among group members and to facilitate shared interactions. They also developed an advanced interface with multiple functionality to ease the search process. The advanced catalog was designed by simplifying some modification and interaction techniques of the Boolean logic to enable intuitive use. They also obtained a contextual inquiry by gathering information from 75 visitors through surveyed and interviews along with some librarians.  They were able to extract useful background from the vast amount of resources collected from previous studies (Large and Beheshti 1984). The result shows that majority of the visitors comes alone in the library and some visit in small groups. The libraries catalog were used mainly for target searches. Most visitors are familiar with the interface and also use it within the library. However, most in-situ explorations focus on browsing the shelves, and many visitors still rely on in person interaction with librarians to find media of interest (Cochrane and Markey 2000). They build the advanced interface including “quick search” and “advance search” sections. To evaluate the usability of the interface they installed the collect Driver at a public library which shears the same back end of the OPAC interface. The system were consist of two direct touch display of 1920* 1080 resolution and controlled by a single computer configured with the i7 processor, * GB RAM, GTX 780 and windows 7. They compare the usability of two interfaces and collected data is followed:

	Online catalog	CollectDrive
Information Structure	Layered	Flat
Search & Results	Integrated  in one view	Visually and physically separated
Display Hardware	Small display	Large vertical + horizontal display
Interaction Design	Mouse & keyboard	Combination of tangible + direct-touch
Presentation of Search Criteria	Textual approach	Combination of tangible, textual, and visual elements

Interaction Issues with OPAC Interfaces

Most recent researches confirm that, peoples find hard to browse the OPAC interfaces comparing to the canonical web search engines. It is often found that, interfaces are unable to provide information about any certain content which is already presented in the library resources. Current trends in OPAC interface design go toward search paradigms as exemplified by canonical web-search engines. This approach can lessen the gap between the visitor’s expectations and reality. Peoples are more familiar with canonical web search than critical web-research. Additionally, the general OPAC interfaces does not provide efficient functionality such as category specifications, search criteria and other filtering options which could provide optimal usability for better experience. 

As the technology is developing and the popularity of mobile devices are increasing to a whole another level, most of the interfaces are also designed for the mobile devices in order to provide wide areas of access and ease interference. With sophisticated mobile devices the information access has shifted increasingly away from the desktop and into the mobile environments. Romona provides a clear framework to investigate trade-off by constructing a prototype of mobile search application for university of Texas library catalog. Some literatures identified the slow development of such applications as most of the libraries are unable to develop a sophisticated mobile interface. They also identified several advantages which can be gained by developing a proper application such as large color display, high resolution, built in touch display and high speed connectivity (Luftman et al. 2004). Combinations of these features, dramatically alter the experience and possibilities of information access comparison to the other platforms. Several application construction tools are also available to construct such application effortlessly. Even though, these approaches can provide enhance services and other optimal possibilities, universities and other communities are not showing that mush of interested to develop customize catalog access applications. To evaluate the advantage of the mobile application over typical catalog, they develop a mobile application to analyze some certain questions. The whole analysis was conducted to understand compare the effectiveness of the mobile application over the typical OPAC interface. The preliminary evaluation of the mobile application are also outlined with the functionality of the application (Butcher and Williams 2006). The result shows that, libraries can build such applications with just a little effort. The mobile applications are also easy to construct as they are supposed to provide limited functionality. However, the functionalities are totally depends on the construction process.

Feature	Included in	Description
Scan	1 of 10	Only WorldCat provides a scan feature; it is a paid app only for iPhone users.
Call number and location	All applications	Usually included on detailed results page.
Status of book	9 of 10	WorldCat did not provide unless clicking on the specific library page.
Author and title	All applications	Usually included on initial results list pages
Cover image	3 of 10	Only WorldCat, DCPL, NCSU provide the cover image
Search type options	8 of 10	Ball State use checkbox layout; all others use drop down menu
Search box and button	All applications	Always on front page; Usually on same line

Our experience suggests that in comparison to existing browser-based OPACs, libraries can build simple, well liked mobile applications at relatively low cost and effort.   

With the web spreading worldwide alongside providing many utilities and support them. To learn some thing or get familiarized with any specify topics, appropriate information is necessary. Libraries are thoughts as the best place to search for authenticated piece of information. As the technology is growing rapidly, the typical learning approaches are also evolving. In this digital age, one can found vast amount of information related with any topic while staying at a corner (Fayen 1984). High speed connection and rapid data transformation around all over the world transferring this interaction into reality. Libraries all over the world, extends their functionality by constructing OPAC interfaces. To evaluate the effectiveness of the library online public access catalog, Authors conducted a primary analysis quiet similar like Uta. In this case, they surveyed new students who took admission on these year (Borgman 1986). Reason behind the decision is, the students should not have any pre knowledge of library search and their first place. So author could understand the adoption process of such application. On other hand, other team surveyed the experienced students in order to get their responses on new application (Kalin 1991). The CAT has never implement such application. The proposed search engine was able to search by multiple sort function for instance, if some performed Journal title searches thinking they were looking for articles by title words. More problematic is that users showed minimal curiosity about the inner workings of the catalog. They also describes some major problem of the interaction process (Borgman 1986). In 1996, one researcher found that, the search engines are designed for skilled searchers who had developed a set of conceptual idea to utilize the system. It is hard for beginners to extract appropriate information just by searching key words. As Patricia Wallace noted, users want to accomplish their task in the library catalog as quickly as possible. Armatures just search by different keywords to find the optimal solution. The survey result proves the theory. For instance many student tries quick search option to gather information (Ensor 2012). However, when they were asked why they used this option, most of them replied they are trying something new. It is hard to convey in print the impatience and occasionally near-random search habits exhibited by novice users.

Alternative Approaches for Systematic Library Research

Experienced user are those who has the clear idea of the internal search algorithm. They were more efficient and effective searchers then novice users. They also spent less time to search for any specific result. Even though, the optimal way for search any topic is searching by the keywords. Results provided by the keywords contains vast amount of content related with the keyword. While searching through keywords, minimal use of Boolean is necessary and there is no need of demonstrating understanding of LC subject headings (Allen 1991). Usually, experienced users used the same keyword as other but in a more specified way with focused searches. They are also good to find the desired content among shown solution. Where, novice users frequently change their keywords. Experienced users also benefited from their knowledge of library terms and jargon. On the other hand, invoice users found it difficult to extract desired information by searching. Generally, novice users search for different keyword and checks one or two results before going to the new page (Alzofon and Van 1984). The also frequently ignores to sort and filter the search results to extract desired information associated with the topic. They shows hasty decision making while evaluating results of their searches. This is one of the main obstacle behind the unsatisfied experience. Study of Internet search engine users revealed similar tendencies and documented a downward trend in the percentage of searchers willing to view more than one page.

Nowadays, for higher studies students must research to gain valuable information related to their study area. Internet has been the most reliable source to gather such information (Dinet, Favart andPasserault 2006). A study revealed that most of the student get used to the internet by the time they are eight and familiar with most of the internet functionality before joining collages.  This generation found easy to use the internet functionality and familiarized with the technology from childhood (Borgman 1986). As they grow in their life and study to acknowledge themselves about various key areas. Internet can provide many useful resources from different areas as it stores vast amount of information. An OCLC survey reported that three out of four students agree that they are successful in finding school-related information on the Web. Given this background, it is not surprising that many users in this study expected the library catalog to function as an Internet search engine (Antelman, Lynema and Pace 2006). Even though, these approaches can provide enhance services and other optimal possibilities, universities and other communities are not showing that mush of interested to develop customize catalog access applications. To evaluate the advantage of the mobile application over typical catalog, they develop a mobile application to analyze some certain questions. The whole analysis was conducted to understand compare the effectiveness of the mobile application over the typical OPAC interface.

Conclusion: 

The library online public access catalog are one of the most important essence of the library system and needs to be focused in order to enhance the searching experience.  Even though typical OPAC interfaces provides the most basic functions to search for a specific content such as video, book and information, the interface were not user friendly and need systematic approach in order to generate the best result. Many researchers found the necessity of this applications as the visitor rates are still moderate. This paper provides key information about the interaction of the visitors and library interfaces.  Even though, technologies can alter the typical search process and alter to provide enhance experience and possibilities (Seymour 1991). Generally, users browse those interfaces to find information about their desired content. However, most of the interfaces lacks to provide optimal functionality and result. The practices of physical and digital contents are still in actions for developing a better interface. Several published literatures were reviewed in order to understand and evaluate the interaction between the scholars and interfaces. The introduction part of this report provides the general information associated with the library online public access catalog. Several published literatures were reviewed to extract useful insights to support the theories. Literatures which are more focused on the interaction between the human and applications. Some of the literatures provides clear description and development process of different interfaces which can assist visitors to get their desired information with rich experience. The advanced interface for example typically incorporate large displays to upsurge awareness of the search processes among group members and to facilitate shared interactions. They also developed an advanced interface with multiple functionality to ease the search process.

Reference:

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