#ECIL2023 Clicks, Queries, and Searches: Uncovering User Behavior through Transaction Log Analysis

Janice De Castro Peñaflor from University of Manila where the university serves over 24000 students. There is increasing use of broadcast search services. This study aimed to understand the most common search strings used, and how this affects search success. Transaction logs from the search system were analysed, this is an unobtrusive way of understanding user search behaviour, and qualitative analysis was used to classify the searches. There was a predominance in the search for covid 19 information, also users searched for the names of specific databases e.g. Euromonitor or Statista. Boolean operators were not commonly used. Known item searches (23% of searches) used the title most often as the search team. Exploratory searches (77 % of searches) focused on using keywords. Peer reviewed journal articles were the most popular sources. More research is needed to understand the motivations for these behaviours, but this study will be useful to support the design of a new information literacy programme, as students are not engaging in sophisticated search behaviours.