Student searching behaviour in the JISC Information Environment

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Information Environment (IE, a development from the DNER - Distributed National Electronic Resource, ) is intended to help users in the UK academic sector maximise the value of published information resources by developing a coherent environment out of the confusing array of systems and services currently available. The EDNER Project (Formative Evaluation of the DNER, ) is funded to undertake ongoing evaluation of the developing IE over the full three years of the JISC 5/99 Learning & Teaching and Infrastructure Programme period i.e. from 2000 to 2003. The EDNER Project is led by the Centre for Research in Library & Information Management (CERLIM) at the Manchester Metropolitan University; the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT) at Lancaster University is a partner. This paper reports on work in progress and initial findings of the evaluation team.