An Analysis on the Factors Affectingy Online Search Effect

온라인 정보탐색의 효과변인 분석

The purpose of this study is to verify the correlations between the amount of the online searcher's search experience and their search effect. In order to achieve this purpose, the 28 online searchers working at the chosen libraries and information centers have participated in the study as subjects. The subjects have been classified into the two types of cognitive style by Group Embedded Figure Test. As the result of the GEFT, two groups have been identified: the 15 Field Independance ( FI ) searchers and the 13 Field Dependance ( FD ) searchers. The subject's search experience consists of the 3 elements: disciplinary, training, and working experience. In order to get the data of these empirical elements, a questionnaire have been sent to the 28 subjects. An online searching request form prepared by a practical user was sent to all subjects, who conducted searches of the oversea databases through Dialog to retrieve what was requested. The resultant outcomes were collected and sent back to the user to evaluate relevance and pertinence of the search effect by the individual. In this study, the search effect has been divide into relevance and pertinence. The relevance has been then subdivided into the 3 elements : the number of the relevant documents, recall ratio, and the cost per a relevant document. The relevance has been subdivided into the 3 elements: the number of the pertinent documents, utility ratio, and the cost per a pertinent document. The correlations between the 3 elements of the subject's experience and the 6 elements of the search effect has been analysed in the FI and in the FD searchers separately. At the standard of the 0.01 significance level, findings and conclusions made in the study are summarised as follows : 1. There are strong correlations between the amount of training and the recall ratio, the number of the pertinent documents, and the utility ratio on the part of FI searchers. 2. There are strong correlations between the amount of working experience and the number of the relevant documents, the recall ratio on the part of FD searchers. However, there is also a significant converse correlation between the amount of working experience and the search cost per a pertinent document on the part of FD searchers. 3. The amount of working experience has stronger correlations with the number of the pertinent documents and the utility ratio on the part of FD searchers than the amount of training. 4. There is a strong correlation between the amount of training and the pertinence on both part of FI and FD searchers.