| Despite tremendous advances in technical capabilities of online catalogs, users are unable to exploit these systems to their maximum benefit. Factors contributing to this are the information explosion coupled with the proliferation of computer-based systems of increasing complexity and the anxiety of many library users when confronted with new or infrequently used information resources.; The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of online catalog users' conceptualization of the system they must interact with to exploit library resources. The research question was: "What mental models do people construct and call upon when interacting with an automated library catalog?"; Research participants were nine graduate student (four masters and five doctoral) volunteers from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. There were five male and four female participants ranging in age from 23 to 40. The research design was qualitative and exploratory. Four types of data were collected: audio taped interviews, video taped search sessions, audio taped delayed "think-aloud" sessions, and recorded transaction logs of the search sessions. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method.; The grounded theory that emerged from the data was: motivated by an educational goal or information finding task, "adaptive response" enables information seekers to construct new understandings, accommodate the limits of their current knowledge, or resort to alternative means to attain their goal or complete their task. GALIN was but one component in a broader mental model of information retrieval constructed by the participants. The broader mental model of information retrieval included: the goal, the degree of need, domain knowledge, knowledge that information alternatives exist, and knowledge of information sources. Implications for instruction include recommendations to teach for error avoidance and to emphasize concepts over procedures. System and interface design implications include recommendations to design for error reduction and error correction and to provide performance support.; Recommendations for further research call for improving delayed think-aloud protocol procedures, inclusion of focus group interviews in data collection, comparison of mental models of users of OPACs with and without automated search reformulation or other search enhancement techniques, and investigation of OPACs with graphical interfaces. |
