| Purpose. This is an exploratory study to examine document selection behavior of real users of bibliographic information retrieval (IR) systems. The purpose of the study is to build a model of the document selection process which can be used in improving the design of IR systems.; Methods. Twenty-five faculty and students from an academic department submitted search requests related to their work. After a reference interview, the researcher conducted online searches on DIALOG. The retrieved documents were printed out in full record format and presented to the users for selection. Participants went through the list and selected documents in the presence of the researcher; they were asked to read and think aloud. These concurrent verbal reports were audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed.; Results. Document selection is conceptualized as a decision-making process in which users process document information elements (DIEs), apply criteria, and make decisions on whether the retrieved documents should be obtained. Document selection is situational, multidimensional, dynamic, and cognitive. Four document values adapted from the consumer choice literature are tentatively supported by the data: epistemic value, functional value, social value, and conditional value. Users employed the following criteria, listed by decreasing importance; DIEs and personal knowledge used to judge each criterion are given in parentheses: topicality (title, abstract, geographic location), orientation/level (title, abstract, author, journal), quality (author, journal, document type), subject area (author's subject area, journal), novelty (title, author), recency (publication date), authority (author), and relation/origin (author). The combinations of DIEs used and their sequencing varied from user to user and for the same user from document to document. To minimize cognitive effort, users apply decision rules in processing information and in balancing decisions among alternatives: elimination, multiple criteria, dominance, scarcity, "satisfice," and chain rules.; Implications. These results suggest that the DIEs should be displayed to support document selection decisions; search output should be organized to facilitate decisions. A knowledge-based system incorporating knowledge about authors, organizations, journals, and subjects, including evaluations specific to each individual user, can help users in both document selection and IR. |
