Large-scale digital library user searching: What role does domain play?

This poster presents findings of an exploratory comparative analysis of user search queries in three largescale digital libraries: two domain-specific functioning in the domains of STEM education and US history, and one domain-independent (. This study measured search query lengths and frequencies, and categorized search queries into ten search categories based on content analysis. Results suggest that domain-based differences (i.e., differences in user searching between digital libraries representing different domains) are more substantial than differences in user searching between domain-specific and domain-independent digital libraries. Domain-based differences in distribution of search categories between search query length and search query frequencies are statistically significant. These findings may have implications for design and evaluation of large-scale aggregations of digitized materials.