The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to find out how information seeking habits and experiences of people in different generations affects their expectations on information retrieval systems like OPAC. Two OPACs are used, one web-OPAC and one mobile-OPAC. The following questions are asked: how can theories about information seeking behaviors explain why and in which way one seeks information? In which way does information seeking behaviors and habits affect the experience of OPAC? Which differences and/or similarities can be found between the web-OPAC and the mobile-OPAC? How does generational aspects affect experiences and preferences in an information seeking context? The theoretical framework of the thesis is information retrieval with several models about information-seeking/searching needs and behaviors. The empirical data contains interviews with nine people in different generations and protocols about two different OPACs. The results of this bachelor thesis show that generational aspects do not affect information habits and experience in a broader sense and that it depends on the contextual environment. The results also show that earlier experiences of information retrieval systems do affect the users in many ways and brings high expectations when they interact with other systems, like OPAC. One connection that we found is very important for the evolution of the modern OPAC, the users habits of social media and the interactive web environment. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The object of this study is to examine the effective functionality of an OPAC-system while a few participants interacted with the catalogue. I’ve used Carl Martin Allwood’s (1998) four designed usability factors to be able to estimate the effective functionality of the online catalogue. Theoretic basis is Human Computer Interaction together with Allwood’s four defined usability factors. They are: adjustment, ease of use, user acceptance and user competence. This study is conducted with a verbal protocol method which encourages the seven participators to “think aloud” while performing tasks. The study shows that the participants interact most effective in those functions they’re accustomed with. Which indicate that the OPAC-system have a high grade of user acceptance. The end users with more experience of using Internet search engines requested similar search capabilities and settings in the online catalogue. They tend to lack a little bit of understanding to the limitations of the OPAC which therefore indicate their lack of user competence. Some task problems occurred while the participators interacted in steps and functions they weren’t familiar with. They also spoke of the difficulties with subject searching and that they would like to know the best way to make search queries. I estimate some need of more user friendly functions and services, especially in the help section. The study shows that it is essential to educate users in ways to interact with the OPAC-system in a more effective manner.

Die Universitätsbibliothek berichtet jährlich über die geleisteten Aufgaben als zentrale wissenschaftliche Einrichtung der Technischen Universität Chemnitz und Teil des Bibliothekssystems des Freistaates Sachsen. Darin enthalten sind z.B. Informationen aus den Bereichen Nutzerservice, Medienbearbeitung und Pateninformationszentrum.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to examine how user-friendly the OPAC of the Märsta public library is considered to be.Theoretical basis are HCI and Allwoods definition of usability. Issues are: Is the OPAC suited to its task? Is the OPAC user-friendly? How well does a user accept the OPAC? and What degree of competence is shown by users of the OPAC? The source material consists of six interviews in the form of .avi files. The method I have chosen is qualitative semi-structured interview form. The result is that, based on Carl Martin Allwood’s defini-tion and with exception for the using of help-resources, the usability of Märsta’s library OPAC can be considered less good.

Die Universitätsbibliothek berichtet jährlich über die geleisteten Aufgaben als zentrale wissenschaftliche Einrichtung der Technischen Universität Chemnitz und Teil des Bibliothekssystems des Freistaates Sachsen. Darin enthalten sind z.B. Informationen aus den Bereichen Nutzerservice, Medienbearbeitung und Pateninformationszentrum.