Interpreting Student Searches: Enriching Library Outreach through Search Query Analysis

At one point Google could predict a flu outbreak up to two weeks sooner than the CDC by evaluating users’ search queries. Analyzed in the aggregate, search queries hold the potential to reveal not only users’ information needs but also broader trends in searching behaviors. During the fall 2015 semester, librarians from two Indiana University campuses initiated a research project to examine user search terms from a semester's worth of data from each of their web-scale discovery tools (EBSCO Discovery Service). Queries were assigned both a class and subclass using the Library of Congress Classification schedule and then parsed using text analysis tools in order to identify common terms and search issues. This session will describe our method for text analysis, present the prevalent search queries and concerns at our institutions, and share the unexpected challenges and benefits we experienced during this project. We will illustrate how search query scrutiny may facilitate fortuitous conversations with instruction librarians and teaching faculty about student information needs.