User Studies in the Context of Bibliographic Information Systems

User studies play a pivotal role in understanding users' information needs, behaviors, preferences and challenges when interacting with bibliographic information systems, such as library catalogs and digital libraries. This presentation will review four user studies conducted over the past 10 years that use different methodological approaches and address different research questions related to bibliographic information systems.

The strengths, weaknesses, and utility of each study design will be discussed, as well as the implications of each study for evaluating and improving current systems and developing future systems.

Tanja Merčun is an assistant professor at the University of Ljubljana, Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies, situated within the Faculty of Arts. Her research focuses on the design of bibliographic information systems, human-computer interaction and user experience in virtual and physical library environments. Her scholarly contributions have been published in journals—including JASIS&T, Library & Information Science Research, Journal of Documentation, and Cataloging & Classification Quarterly—and presented at international conferences.