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The development of Library Websites has been rapid over the last few years. However much of this has been haphazard, responding to technical developments and the availability of Web‐based services. This paper proposes a new approach, whereby the Website is considered an integral part of library services and is subjected to the same strategic planning as other library services. In this way, it can be used as a new and innovative method of delivering library services.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu of the Centre for Interactive Systems Research, Department of Information Science, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1 0HB contributes a research paper “Methods for Evaluation OPACs” to Library and Information Research News, Vol. 13 No. 47, Spring 1990, pp. 20–30. She concludes, from her examination of 31 papers, that the state‐of‐the‐art in the evaluation of Online Public Access Catalogues is still at a diagnostic stage and finds it necessary to warn that, when seeking better performance, user instruction must not be regarded as a substitute for system improvement. The article is a good starting point for anyone attempting evaluation of their own OPAC system, but shows that reliable evaluation of information systems remains elusive.

The notion of user friendliness is discussed in terms of the relationship between interface design and the nature of human‐computer interaction in OPACs. Menu driven interfaces, boolean searching and document representation are identified as major barriers to interaction. It is argued that user friendly interfaces cannot be developed independently without developments in the functionality of the search software and enhancements of the raw database. WIMP environments, probabilistic retrieval and knowledge base structures are suggested as a combined strategy to improve the quality of interaction in online catalogues.

OLIVE, a transaction logging facility enhanced with online questionnaires, was used to collect data from users of public and academic library catalogues. The comparative analysis of subject searching behaviour focused on the role of browsing subject headings and brief references in search formulation. Opportunities for browsing are greatly constrained by indexing practices. It is suggested that a more integrated approach to pre‐coordinate and post‐coordinate searching would be more effective. The logging software has been developed for a number of commercial online catalogues including Geac, CLSI and LIBERTAS. The use of a diagnostic and monitoring tool in the evaluation of OPACs is advocated.

An online library catalogue served as a testbed to evaluate an interactive query expansion facility based on relevance feedback for the Okapi probabilistic term weighting retrieval system. The facility was implemented in a graphical user interface (gui) environment using a game‐board metaphor for the search process, and allowed searchers to select candidate terms extracted from relevant retrieved items to reformulate queries. The take‐up of the interactive query expansion option was found to be lower, and its retrieval performance less effective, compared to previous tests featuring automatic query expansion. Contributory factors including the number, presentation and source of terms are discussed.

Following a general trend in software development, CDROM applications are increasingly implementing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The general assumption is that GUIs offer advantages in terms of ease of learning and use, especially for non‐expert users. Moreover, the adoption of GUIs for CDROMs has been suggested as a means of providing a de facto standard interface. This study assesses the appropriateness of GUIs, more specifically Windows‐based interfaces for CDROM. An evaluation model was devised to carry out an expert evaluation of the interfaces of seven CDROM products. The model identified two levels of interaction, the dialogue level and task level, and focused on general interface features, search and retrieval tasks, and output and processing options as well as the help facilities. The results are discussed in the light of HCI Usability Criteria and design guidelines (including general interface design guidelines, specific Windows design guidelines and The CDROM Consistent Interface Guidelines) to assess to what extent the applications comply and appropriate recommendations are made.

An automatic query expansion (AQE) facility in an online catalogue was evaluated in an operational library setting. The Okapi experimental system had other features including: ranked output ‘best match’ keyword searching, automatic stemming, spelling normalisation and cross referencing as well as relevance feedback. A combination of transaction log analysis, search replays, questionnaires and interviews was used for data collection. Findings show that contrary to previous results, AQE was beneficial in a substantial number of searches. User intentions, the effectiveness of the ‘best match’ search and user interaction were identified as the main factors affecting the take‐up of the query expansion facility.

The second half of a ‘before and after’ study to evaluate the impact of an online catalogue on subject searching behaviour is reported. A holistic approach is adopted encompassing both catalogue use and browsing at the shelves for catalogue users and non‐users. Verbal and non‐verbal data were elicited from searchers using a combined methodology including talk‐aloud technique, observation and a screen logging facility. An extensive qualitative analysis was carried out correlating expressed topics, search formulation strategies and documents retrieved at the shelves. The online catalogue environment does not appear to have increased the extent of subject searching nor the use of the bibliographic tool. The manual precis index supported a contextual approach for broad and more interactive search formulations whereas the opac encouraged a matching approach and narrow formulations with fewer but user generated formulations. The success rate of the online catalogue was slightly better than that of the manual tools but fewer items were retrieved at the shelves. Non‐users of the bibliographic tools seemed to be just as successful. To improve retrieval effectiveness it is suggested that online catalogues should cater for both matching and contextual approaches to searching. Recent research indicates that a more interactive process could be promoted by providing query expansion through a combination of searching aids for matching, for search formulation assistance and for structured contextual retrieval.