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Dissertation Information for Thomas B. Wall

NAME:
- Thomas B. Wall

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Pittsburgh (USA) (1994)

ADVISORS:
- Christinger L. Tomer
- Mary Kay Biagini

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Doris Shinobu Hayashikawa
- Edie Rasmussen
- Michael Lewis

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Testing the efficacy of augmenting OPAC displays with bibliographic enhancements: A systematic study

Abstract: This research addresses whether or not the addition of bibliographic enhancements to an online public access catalog (OPAC), tables of contents and books reviews specifically, changes the information seeking behavior of end-users. These particular enhancements were selected because several previous studies suggest that many end-users prefer to browse shelves and thereby handle books when making decisions about their usefulness. Other studies suggest that many end-users have a propensity to describe books in words or phrases found in tables of contents and indexes, suggesting that these words and phrases may be a better indication of a books potential usefulness than standard bibliographic information, such as the title, author, and subject headings. Together, the findings of studies in these two areas suggest that end-users could benefit from having additional information about books in an OPAC display.

In this research five groups of lower-division undergraduates of the University of Pittsburgh were instructed to assign rankings and confidence ratings about ten books or OPAC-like displays on the history of jazz. Each of the five groups was supplied with different information about the books. The rankings and ratings of each of the groups were then analyzed to determine to what extent these bibliographic enhancements altered the relative information seeking behaviors among the groups.

Findings of the study suggest that end-users experienced greater confidence in their rankings of books when tables of contents and book reviews were added to the OPAC display. Rankings were also different among the groups, suggesting that such enhancements, if added to OPAC displays, may provide end-users with more confidence in their decisions on the usefulness of books they identify in the OPAC.

MPACT Scores for Thomas B. Wall

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:23:51

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Students under Thomas B. Wall

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None