Search results

The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing user selection of individual works in a collection of digitized sheet music.

Google Analytics page view data were grouped by source (directing link) and correlated with five factors: inclusion in a collaborative indexing project (Sheet Music Consortium); browse list order; cover appearance; inclusion in mini-collections; and presence of links to audio versions.

Four of the five factors examined showed some influence on user selection: Works listed in the Sheet Music Consortium had more views/work than those not listed; Works at the top of the Sheet Music Consortium browse list had more views by Consortium users than those lower down; Works with cover graphics had more views/work than those with covers containing words alone; Works included in mini-collections received more views/work from users with access to those mini-collections; Works with links to audio versions did not have more views/work than works without links.

The most important finding of this study is that the best way to increase the use of individual collection items may be to participate in a large and well-known collaborative index such as the Sheet Music Consortium.

This is the first study using Google Analytics to examine factors influencing user selection of individual digital collection items.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two research questions: What search engine queries lead users to the Auburn University electronic theses and dissertations (AUETDs) collection? Do these queries vary for users in different locations and, if so, how?

Search engine queries used to locate the AUETDs collection were obtained from Google Analytics and were separated into groups based on user location. These queries were assigned to empirically derived categories based on their content.

Most local users’ queries contained person names, variants for thesis or dissertation, and variants for Auburn University. Over a third were queries for the AUETDs collection, while the remainder were seeking theses and dissertations from specific Auburn researchers. Most out-of-state users’ queries contained title and subject keywords and appeared to be seeking specific research studies. Queries from users located within the state but outside of the local area were intermediate between these groups.

Over two-thirds of visits to the AUETDs collection were made by search engine users which reinforces the importance of having repository content indexed by search engines such as Google. The specificity of their queries indicates that full-text indexing will be more helpful to users than metadata indexing alone.

This is the first detailed analysis of search engine queries used to locate an ETDs collection. It may also be the last, as query content for the major search engines is no longer available from Google Analytics.