The Impact of Web Search Engines on Subject Searching in OPAC

This paper analyzes the results of transaction logs at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) and studies the effects of implementing a Web-based OPAC along with interface changes. The authors find that user success in subject searching remains problematic. A major increase in the frequency of searches that would have been more successful in resources other than the library catalog is noted over the time period 2000-2002. The authors attribute this increase to the prevalence of Web search engines and suggest that metasearching, relevance-ranked results, and relevance feedback ( "more like this") are now expected in user searching and should be integrated into online catalogs as search options.