Library Discovery Products: Discovering User Expectations through Failure Analysis

As the new generation of discovery systems evolve and gain maturity, it is important to continually focus on how users interact with these tools and what areas they find problematic. This study looks at user interactions within SearchWorks, a discovery system developed by Stanford University Libraries, with an emphasis on identifying and analyzing problematic and failed searches. Our findings indicate that users still experience difficulties conducting author and subject searches, could benefit from enhanced support for browsing, and expect their overall search experience to be more closely aligned with that on popular web destinations. The article also offers practical recommendations pertaining to metadata, functionality, and scope of the search system that could help address some of the most common problems encountered by the users.