A Study on Users’ Mental Models of the Bibliographic Universe: an Examination of FRBR Group One Entities Based on the Works of the Bible
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Hsu, Ru-Hsing
Abstract
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) is a model with great potential for library catalogs, especially for organizing and collocating bibliographic records, displaying relationships, and improving navigation. Since its inception, FRBR has become a widely discussed topic in the library community. Although FRBR assumes a user-focused approach, there were no user studies actually conducted during the development process of FRBR. With FRBR’s user focus, the lack of user engagement is a problem needed to be explored. The aim of this study is to fill the research gap. What do users think about the library catalog and the related bibliographic universe? How similar are users’ mental model of bibliographic universe and the FRBR conceptual model? The current study attempts to investigate these questions from user’s perspective. Instead of testing of FRBR prototypes, the study adopts a user-oriented approach to examine and verify the FRBR model. The study chose the Holy Bible as the bibliographic entity of investigation because previous researches suggest that complex works would benefit most from the implementation of FRBR model. A homogenous group of 18 Christian undergraduate and graduate students was purposively selected as research subjects. In order to obtain a more reliable and thorough result, the study employed a combination of three methods for elicitation of mental models, including card sorting, concept mapping, and pairwise rating. The results show three cumulative mental models of the bibliographic universe elicited and produced from the corresponding methods. Through comparing users’ cumulative mental models with the FRBR conceptual model, it is confirmed that they share a similarity of about 70%. The findings also present the similarities and differences between users’ cumulative mental models and the FRBR conceptual model from the persepectives of bibliographic entities and relationships. Finally, based on the research results, several suggestions in both aspects of theory and practice are proposed in the conclusion, which are for the conceptual model of FRBR and the implementation of FRBR-based library catalogs respectively.
Subjects
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)
user study
mental model
conceptual model
the Bible
Type
thesis
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