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The purpose of this paper is to investigate fiction readers’ interest criteria when selecting novels in library catalogs for various search tasks.

The data of the book selection behavior from 80 genuine fiction readers were collected using recorded interviews and conversations. The data were qualitatively analyzed. Reuter’s categorization of the components of aesthetic relevance has contributed to the construction of interest dimensions.

A five-dimension categorization of interest criteria is presented based on fiction readers’ interpretations of the influential factors in fiction book selection in different search tasks. The findings revealed that readers apply the identified interest criteria in a flexible and multiphase way depending to the search task and the system used. The findings showed a context-related pattern in readers’ fiction book selections. A combination of readers’ search capacities, “behind the eyes” knowledge, affective factors and a well-functioning interaction with a system used results in a successful book selection.

A five-dimension categorization of adult fiction readers’ interest criteria was created based on their search behaviors in library catalogs. The results provide a systematic step toward a comprehensive understanding of readers’ fiction book selection in digital environments.

This paper continues the reporting of the Unit's work on a method of investigating how often readers fail to find what they are looking for on the shelves, why they fail, and what particular books they fail to find. The method used is a slight modification of the earlier one—readers were asked to record on a slip provided the details of the book or periodical they were looking for, or subject area they were looking in, their academic status, and the date, and then to place the slip in an adjoining box. From analysis of these ‘failure’ slips it was possible to determine the cause of the reader's failure, the individual book the reader was looking for, and the pattern of failure for different groups of volumes. A new development was surveys of samples of readers, carried out during the fortnight of peak demand. Answers to these surveys provided information on the effect of failure on a reader's work, what action he took after failing, whether he found adequate substitutes, how many books he found by browsing, and what proportion of the books he consulted he borrowed. Some of these answers could be checked by a direct count of the books used in, and borrowed from, the library. The investigations were carried out in three University libraries, each with its own characteristic library structure and teaching patterns. These differences were reflected in the results obtained. It is hoped that the methods of investigation used can be employed by librarians to investigate the effectiveness of some of the services in their own libraries.

The purpose is to explore the essential reasons for the differences between book awakening phenomena, to develop the critical factors in awakening the slumbering collections and to provide a reliable basis for maximizing book value and optimizing collection allocation.

The research employs the integrated learning algorithm XGBoost to measure driving factors. In the process of book circulation, the characteristics of collections and readers are worthy of attention. Therefore, this study also carries out feature selection and model construction from the two dimensions of books and readers.

The results show that reader features have a stronger impetus for the collection awakening phenomenon than collection features. Among reader features, education level, gender and major subject are the main factors, which are followed closely by the activity level; among collection features, publication date and price are the main driving factors. The indicators of book popularity are not significant, whose effect on the phenomenon of collection awakening is almost negligible.

This study aims to augment the theory of zero circulation from the theoretical level and, for the first time, seeks to define the phenomenon of collection awakening. This study attempts to present novel ideas for research in the field of libraries and to provide references for optimizing collection and maximizing the value of books.

This study seeks to examine, from the viewpoint of 12 adult fiction readers who are members of book clubs, how they go about selecting fiction books to borrow from the public library.

Each participant took part in an individual, semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interview. Using Williamson's Ecological Model of Information Seeking and Use as the conceptual framework, the study examined the role that fiction readers' “internal environments” and “external contexts” played in their book choices.

The selection of fiction books at the public library occurred, to a large extent, outside it. Fiction books were selected as part of everyday life information seeking, influenced by study participants' personal characteristics and circumstances as well as sources from their everyday lives, which typically included family, friends, book club and the mass media. While the public library was the main means by which study participants obtained their fiction books, it was not the first source to which they turned for ideas on what to read.

The study moves from a preoccupation of readers' actions at the public library to examine, more holistically, how everyday life information sources influence their choices of fiction books at the public library. It highlights the purposive and serendipitous dimensions of book selections and also underscores the importance of recognizing trust as a determining factor in book selection.

Not many weeks back, according to newspaper reports, three members of the library staff of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London were dismissed. All had refused to carry out issue desk duty. All, according to the newspaper account, were members of ASTMS. None, according to the Library Association yearbook, was a member of the appropriate professional organisation for librarians in Great Britain.

BOOKS are among the greatest and most wonderful achievements of human genius, they are also a powerful means of struggle for progress. The book accompanies man all his life; it is a creation of his brain and soul. It reflects the life of mankind and is the result of collective efforts of author and publisher, type‐setter and illustrator. But foremost a book is always and everywhere a social and political phenomenon. One of the most apt evaluations of the book was given by V. I. Lenin in 1917, when he was known to state to A. V. Lunacharsky, “The book is a great force indeed”.

Most academic libraries provide book recommendation services to enable readers to recommend books to the libraries. To facilitate decision-making in book acquisition, this study aimed to develop a method to determine the ranking of the recommended books based on the recommender network.

The recommender network was conducted to establish relationships among book recommenders and their similar readers by using circulation records. Furthermore, social computing techniques were used to evaluate the degree of representativeness of the recommenders and subsequently applied as a criterion to rank the recommended books. Empirical studies were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed ranking system. The Spearman’s correlation coefficients between the proposed ranking system and the ranking obtained using reader circulation statistics were used as performance measure.

The ranking calculated using the proposed ranking mechanism was highly and moderately correlated to the ranking obtained using reader circulation statistics. The ranking of recommended books by the librarians was moderately and poorly correlated to the ranking calculated using reader circulation statistics.

The book recommender can be used to improve the accuracy of book recommendations.

This study is the first that considers the recommender network on library book acquisition. The results also show that the proposed ranking mechanism can facilitate effective book-acquisition decisions in libraries.

Lending novels is the major service provided by public libraries. The efforts in developing search systems have been focused on retrieving non-fiction. There is a need for designing systems to support fiction searching in libraries. The aim of this study is to analyze readers’ methods of accessing fiction in a public library for informing the design of fiction search systems. This study seeks to find out which attributes of books readers perceive as indicators of a good novel, and what kind of tactics they use for finding these good novels in the public library.

The authors observed 16 adult library users by semi-structured interviews eliciting information about their literary competence, what characterizes a good novel and how they accessed and identified good novels in the library.

Based on the data this paper developed a tentative reader typology, which differentiated the attributes of good novels and major tactics for accessing them.

The typology was used for inferring user models and design ideas for systems supporting fiction searching.

This is the first empirical study to inform how readers’ literary competence is associated with the tactics used and indicators recognized in books for finding and selecting good novels to borrow.

The present study aims, by adopting bibliomining, to analyse the borrowing and collection records in self-service libraries at mass rapid transit stations in northern Taiwan to discover reader borrowing preferences and patterns.

The current study used data mining to analyse two years of book-borrowing information from self-service library stations; it made use of an association rule mining model and the bibliomining process to identify readers’ preferred books and to explore reader borrowing behaviours. In addition, the librarians’ perceptions of the proposed approach were also investigated.

The findings indicated that readers often borrowed books in the bibliographical classifications of Home economics; Medical sciences; Psychology; Commerce: administration and management; and Education in the self-service library stations. Based on the bibliomining results, 23 reader borrowing patterns as well as potential books favoured by readers were uncovered. In addition, the challenges of bibliomining and data mining applied to library operations are reported.

Among the studies on the application of self-service technologies in libraries, most examined the integration of the self-service system and investigated users’ opinions. The present study used borrowing records and collection records in self-service library stations to conduct bibliomining and to explore reader borrowing preferences and behaviours as references for collection development and book recommendation services.