List of Tables

Table 2.1 Summary of Retrieval Rules 17

Table 5.1 MARC Test Collection Statistics 111

Table 5.2 Summary of Data Types, Methods of Data Gathering and Analysis 119

Table 5.3 Searches Conducted to Find the Records Constituting the Recall Base for Query #211 125

Table 6.1 Users Participated in the Experiment 134

Table 6.2 Online Catalog Use by Participants 134

Table 6.3 Users' Knowledge of Applications 135

Table 6.4 Number of CHESHIRE Search Queries Conducted by User Type 135

Table 6.5 Distribution of Search Queries by Users 136

Table 6.6 Distribution of Search Queries by Session 137

Table 6.7 Distribution of Search Sessions by Users 138

Table 6.8 Distribution of Search Queries by Completion Time 139

Table 6.9 Number of Search Terms (excluding stop words) Included in Search Queries 140

Table 6.10 Spelling and Typographical Errors 142

Table 6.11 Ranked List of Stop Words Used in Search Queries 142

Table 6.12 Descriptive Statistics on Number of Records

Seen and Selected, and Precision Ratios 144

Table 6.13 Number of Records Displayed in Search Queries 145

Table 6.14 Number of Records Selected as Relevant 146

Table 6.15 Answers to Question #3: "Did you find what you wanted in your first try?" 147

Table 6.16 Answers to Question #4: Why Users Did Not Find What They Wanted 148

Table 6.17 Percentage of Retrieved Sources Users Found Useful 149

Table 6.18 Answers to Question #7: "Did relevance feedback improve the search results?" 150

Table 6.19 Percentage of Retrieved Sources Users Found Useful After Relevance Feedback Searches 151

Table 6.20 User-Designated Search Success 152

Table 6.21 Precision Ratios Before Relevance Feedback Searches 154

Table 6.22 Recall Ratios Before Relevance Feedback Searches 155

Table 6.23 Precision Ratios After Relevance Feedback Searches 158

Table 6.24 Recall Ratios After Relevance Feedback Searches 159

Table 6.25 Descriptive Statistics For Effective and Ineffective Searches 163

Table 6.26 Descriptive Statistics About Independent Variables 165

Table 6.27 Relationships of Measures That Are Correlated With ORPREC

(Precision Ratio Before Relevance Feedback Searches) 166

Table 6.28 Relationships of Measures That Are Correlated With ORRCLL (Recall Ratio Before Relevance Feedback Searches) 167

Table 6.29 Relationships of Measures That Are Correlated With AVPREC (Precision Ratio After Relevance Feedback Searches) 168

Table 6.30 Relationships of Measures That Are Correlated With AVRCLL (Recall Ratio After Relevance Feedback Searches) 168

Table 6.31 Summary of Multiple Linear Regression Analysis 169

Table 7.1 Causes of Search Failures 178

Table 7.2 Causes of Zero Retrievals 195

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