Known Item Coding Procedures
- Liz Woolcott
Purpose: Following is an explanation of fields and terms used for coding the Known Item fields. The purpose is to analyze if Known Items are available to the user, if they show up in the results list (and where) and to see what roadblocks are present.
Tools Needed
Airtable – Discoverability Research Base
Library Discovery Layer (Encore: http://library.usu.edu )
Google Scholar
WorldCat
Procedures
Procedure 1a – Identify the title of the object
Select the “Known Item” view in the URLS tab
Copy the scraped search terms and search in WorldCat and Google Scholar to find the title of the object
Note, if the search terms are vague and neither WorldCat nor Google Scholar return adequate results, paste the search terms into a browser search to find the correct title for the item
Copy the title of the object and paste into the “Title of known item” field in Airtable.
This creates a record in the Known Items tab that will be coded later in this procedure. However, it may be useful to keep a second window open to the known Items in order to code step 16 and 17 at the same time. The record can also be edited by clicking on the title in the Title of Known Item field once it is generated.
Procedure 1b- Identify if/where a known item showed up in the search results
Open two browsers windows, side by side. One should show the “URLs” tab –> “Known Items - Batch [1,2, or 3]” view and the other should show “Batch [1,2, or 3] Search Result”s -> “All results in order view”.
For each known item in the URL tab, you will be using the URL ID and the Title of the Known Item.
Note that the same known item might show up repeatedly in the list of known items. Repeat the steps 6-9 for each line separately. Do not drag to copy results down the “Known Item – B[1,2,3] Search” column for the same title. For example, the video “The Act of Killing” shows up in 6 searches. In most of the searches, it shows up as the first result. For two searches it does not show up at all. This is due to the search parameters (which are hidden in this view). Each of these searches is unique, even if the Known Item is the same:
Copy the URL ID and use it to search for OR filter for that URL ID in the Batch Search Results tab. This should typically bring up a set of 25 (or less) records
Note that sometimes the URLs IDs are doubled on this page. Such as: “Batch-1_URL-846, Batch-1_URL_3490_EncoreResult.” This is okay.
Examine the Item Titles within this list of 25 (or less) that match the URL ID and determine if there are any Item Titles that match the Title of the Known Item.
Note that there may be more than one matching title in the result set list. If so, you will need to determine which is the actual item. It is important to not include results that are not the actual item. An example of this would be a search for a book where the results include the book along with journal articles that are reviews of that book. Because most reviews are titled the same as the book, they show up the same in searches. Some tips include:
For Books and some e-books, there should be a bib record number in the URL. This would be the correct item.
For articles, if there are only two titles that appear and they are listed at the top of the results list, they are typically both applicable and can be copied over. (This is caused by two indexes appearing at once in the search results. Both are valid)
If more than two results show or you are uncertain, click on the Item URL. (This will either show you the record itself, or more likely, it will rerun the original search. Examine the search results to see if any of them appear to be the correct item and see if the same item can be identified in the list.)
When the correct items are found, copy the Result ID (RID) number for the “Batch [1,2,3] Search Results” tab and paste into the “Known Item_B#-Search” column in the URLs tab. This will create a link between the records and generate a number in the “Known Item – B[1,2,3] Search Result Number” column.
Copy the information from the “Known Item – B[1,2,3] Search Result Number”column into the Known Item Type Result Number field. Where there are no results, select “Not Listed”. This populates the master Known Items tab.
Procedure 2 – Code the Known Item for Availability and Access Paths
Go to the Known Items tabs, “Availability Coding” view
For each known item, determine the accessibility of the item and record in the “Listed in Results,” “Reasonable Availability,” “Physical or Electronic,” and “Location” fields.
Determine by searching for the item by the correct title/information in Encore. If not found there, a search of the catalog, e-journals list, and associated databases. Note that you may need to facet or be creative in looking to determine if the item is available from the Library. (Note: Known items such as the DSM IV or the Oxford English Dictionary are difficult to find because there is a lot written ABOUT them – which obscures the actual item in search results.)
Listed in Results
Yes – the exact item is among the Encore search results
No – the exact item is missing from the Encore search results
Unknown – use for “POTENTIAL TITLES VARY” (and any similar ambiguous entries)
For all E-Resource items, attempt to access the item and record the path taken to get to the final object. Record them in the order used, ending with the page where the object was either accessible or could not be accessed (i.e., ends at an abstract or record page that does not provide access to the object AND Article Linker has been used). (If multiple series of paths were attempted, record the shortest successful one, if applicable, or the shortest unsuccessful path.) For all E-Resource items, the Number of Steps field automatically counts the number of steps recorded in the “E-Resource Access Steps” field.
Options include
Database record page (w/ item)
Database record page (w/o item)
Article Linker
Direct Access
Journal record page (w/ item)
Journal record page (w/o item)
Platform record page (w/ item)
Platform record page (w/o item)
Journal Title list
Journal Homepage
Intermediate Vendor Page (w/o item)
When/if found, record the following:
Reasonable Availability
Available – if the item is listed in the search results AND (if electronic), it can be accessed
Not Available – if the item is not listed at all during your search or e-resources where the citation to the item has been indexed in Encore, but the library cannot provide access to the item without going through Interlibrary Loan. Examples include: citation-only databases, reviews of books (when the book itself is not available), etc. For our purposes, count any Print DDA records as “Available”. Use “Not Available” for electronic items after landing on a record page without the item, following Article Linker without gaining access, and clicking to search the catalog by ISSN or book title from the Article Linker screen and not seeing the item in the catalog.
Unknown – This applies to known items where the final title could not be ascertained – for instance all known items called “Potential Titles Vary”
Physical or Electronic (can select more than one) – only select if item was available
Physical – for all print or analog media.
Electronic – for all digital and/or electronically delivered media
Location (can select more than one)
Logan campus – if the item is a physical item that can be accessed anywhere on the Logan USU campus (this includes Special Collections, general stacks, BARN, LMC, Moore, Quinney, etc.)
Online – these include all items that are accessible through links to databases or through catalog records that link to digital versions of an item
USU Eastern ONLY - These include items that are only available at USU Eastern campuses and not at the main Logan campus. If both are available, only select “Logan campus”
For all E-Resource items, indicate the where that record is coming from
If clicking on the title brings you to a record within Encore/Sierra – put “Sierra” in this column – this will apply to most books and e-books
If the item comes from an article indexer (such as Scopus, Gale Academic OneFile, etc.) indicate the indexer in the column. It can also be found by clicking on “more” in the description and scrolling to the bottom of the pop up box.
For all E-Resource items, indicate the final content provider of the object
Note that there might be more than one provider. List all that show up in the search results when you try to access the item.
For direct access items, look up the title of the journal in the Journal Title list and record each name of the content provider for the date range of the item (usually listed in the result list).
For all E-Resource items, rerun the title search in Google Scholar and indicate if the item was accessible or not
For all E-Resource items, record the number of steps to access the e-resource object in Google Scholar
Note that steps 14 and 15 may have already been completed during Procedure #1a.
Procedure 3 – Code the Success of the Search Query related to the known items.
On a separate tab, keep the same Airtable base open to the “Search Query Analysis tab”. Record the following:
Group the Known Items by Associated Search Query
Known Item Available?
Indicate if the known item is available or not. Note that it can be both “yes” and “no” if there is more than one known item in a search query and they have different availabilities
Success of Search
Select the following indicators of success that are appropriate for the search query:
Exact item checked out
This is true if there is a bib number in “Circulated Items” column in the Search Query Analysis Tab
Item record accessed
This is true of one of the URLs in the search query group is for a record page that is appropriate for the known item
Item appeared in search results
This is true if anything was linked in the Known Item – B3 Search column in the URLs tab
Available item did not appear in search results
This is true if a known item was found during the steps above, but is not listed in the search results for any of the Query URLs
Patron looked for unavailable format
This is true if the user searched for specific format that is not available from the library (see facets)
An item from results list was checked out
This is true when the Circulated Items column includes a bib number (indicating that a record that appeared in the search results for that query was connected to an item that was checked out).
This typically applies to searches that are not coded for “known items”, but exceptions might be present. Known items should usually be coded “Exact item checked out”
Exact item appeared in search results but was not checked out
This is true when the known object has been verified as accessible, but does not have a bib record # recorded in the Circulated items field OR none of the bib records #s there match the title of the known item
Unknowable
This is true when none of the above factors can be verified
Notes
Record any information on the item that will be useful at the time of analysis.
How these fields will be used
Title of Known Item
Used to search in multiple databases and for further reference during analysis
Status of Known Item
Used to analyze how often items are available and what formats are available
E-resource Access Path
Used to sketch out typical steps to access an e-resource item. Also highlights how often users are direct to record pages without the item and/or the need to use the Article Linker
Number of Steps (E-Resource Access)
Used to assess how may steps are typically taken to access an e-resource item and compare to Google Scholar
Listed by
Used to assess which indexers are providing access to the content
Final Content Provider
Used to determine which content providers provide access to the items needed by patrons
Accessible in Google Scholar
Used to assess how well Google Scholar provides access to items needed by patrons
GS Steps
Used to compare with the Number of Steps (E-Resource Access)
Known Item (B1, B2, or B3)
Pulls in the Result Number, which is used to calculate how many results displayed the known item and where in the results list they fell. Also helps to identify which results list did not return appropriate records.