Department of Library Science, National Taiwan University 國立臺灣大學圖書館學系
0000-0002-2909-3090
Abstract
This research used an information processing approach to analyze the behavior of end-users in searching online bibliographic databases, emphasizing their pausing behavior. It is based on viewing the search as a series of actions and pauses
(rests). The end-users are 40 students and 4 faculty. After instruction, subjects searched throughout the semester, doing 79 searches. From interviewing data, 250 different kinds of pauses were identified. Most of the pauses occurred
in the function of "create and develop sets" and "print records", in the moves of "select steps", "display" and "type", and in the elements of issuing'ss" commands, selecting terms, making sure of the set number (for both "ss" and
"print"), solving logical problems (especially when to use "and" and parenthesis ), and determining print format and document number for print commands. Also, the results indicate that end-users pause less frequently and for shorter
periods of time as they gain more experience and practice. In addition, searchers tend to chunk more information between pauses and their hesitation rates do decrease.
