Search scenarios

Scenario 1: What do you have about...?

An exploratory searcher is not searching for a known item. They are searching, for example, for subjects, organisations, movements, objects, people and author/artist. They are likely to be interested in a specific time period; for example, the use of tear gas between 1920 and 1935. They may also approach us with a vague and specific request: “where are your books about medical training”? Someone searching in this mode typically wants to know everything that we hold that matches their criteria, although they might only be interested in a subset of our collection (e.g. archives, manuscripts, images), and so may wish to exclude everything else before seeing results. Anyone new to a topic or library starts this way, even experienced researchers.

Goal:

Find the totality of material in the catalogue that match the mixed criteria.

Scenario 2: Do you have this?

A targeted searcher wants to check whether we have a particular item or collection. This user will likely have some details, either a full citation from a reading list, or recollected information about an item. They are likely to want to see the physical or digital copy, and might be preparing for their next visit or already in the library

Goal:

Check for an item that we hold in the catalogue and access it.

Scenario 3: I know you have this.

A targeted searcher is looking for a specific item, normally following a citation or previous use. This user uses what they know about the item to locate it. This type of search is more likely to include reference numbers (collection, system, references, accession numbers, etc), but most often starts with a mix of title and contributor.

Goal:

Locate specific details relating to this item, so I can verify information or share it with others.

Scenario 4: I'm looking for something that looks like this…

A searcher is looking for representations of real-world concepts. We're likely to see this type of scenario when a user is trying to find images to illustrate an idea, or to narrow down to items that have specific physical characteristics or visual qualities.

Look for:

• Physical nature: marginalia, illustrations, annotations, signatures, binding style, patterns

• Visual nature: specific photographic or imaging media (e.g. x-ray, photographic slides)

• Colours

• Emotions, moods

Note: we haven't seen too much evidence of this in the search logs but it has come up in interviews. In the physical building, this might look like a user browsing old medical journals to compare medical illustration over time; this might not manifest itself in a search query.

Goal:

Find a variety of images or items that have a specific quality or characteristic.

Scenario 5: I'm not sure what I'm looking for but I'll know it when I see it.

Users in this scenario are typically in the early stage of their research, attempting to see the breadth of material available and to see whether the institution's collections generally match their assumed needs. The search box is a potential entry point in the absence of any browse functionality. Search behaviour then likely mimics Scenario 1 where the user is not searching for known items, but instead trying to get a feel for the collection. This scenario is better served by browse features, including subject, genre, topic tags; and aggregation pages.

Goal:

Explore categories to get a feel for what's available