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International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries

TPDL 2012: Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries pp 1–12Cite as

What Would ‘Google’ Do? Users’ Mental Models of a Digital Library Search Engine

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 7489))

Abstract

A mental model is a model that people have of themselves, others, the environment, and the things with which they interact, such as technologies. Mental models can support the user-centered development of digital libraries: if we can understand how users perceive digital libraries, we can design interfaces that take these perceptions into account. In this paper, we describe a novel method for eliciting a generic mental model from users, in this case of a digital library’s search engine. The method is based on a content analysis of users’ mental representations of the system’s usability, which they generated in heuristic evaluations. The content analysis elicited features that the evaluators thought important for the search engine. The resulting mental model represents a generic model of the search engine, rather than a clustering of individuals’ mental models of the same search engine. The model includes a number of references to Web search engines as ideal models, but these references are idealistic rather than realistic. We conclude that users’ mental models of Web search engines should not be taken at face value. The implications of this finding for digital library development and design are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The iSchool, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Michael Khoo & Catherine Hall

Authors
  1. Michael Khoo
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  2. Catherine Hall
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, Cyprus University of Technology, 3036, Limassol, Cyprus

    Panayiotis Zaphiris  & Fernando Loizides  & 

  2. School of Informatics, City University of London, Northampton Square, EC1V 0HB, London, UK

    George Buchanan

  3. School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, The University of British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Edie Rasmussen

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Khoo, M., Hall, C. (2012). What Would ‘Google’ Do? Users’ Mental Models of a Digital Library Search Engine. In: Zaphiris, P., Buchanan, G., Rasmussen, E., Loizides, F. (eds) Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries. TPDL 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7489. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33290-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33290-6_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33289-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33290-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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