An Exploration of the Database Search Behaviour of Law Librarians and Lawyers

Abstract

Presented in this paper are the results of an exploratory study into the search behaviour (as measured by search characteristics and search tactics) of two groups of professionals - law librarians and lawyers - using a Web interface to an information retrieval (IR) system, namely Brookers Online. Data was gathered from 20 participants who all undertook the same four predetermined search tasks. A feature of the study was the use of a multi-database IR system and it is this factor from which the key difference in search behaviour between the two groups resulted. The law librarians mostly searched in only one source and were more inclined to search using multiple fields, while the lawyers preferred to search across multiple databases and use only one search field. The search tactics used suggest that the law librarians more clearly formulated a search strategy than the lawyers. The data was further analysed to determine if a relationship existed between domain knowledge and search experience, and search behaviour. No relationship was found. The study results are discussed in the context of the cognitive framework of information seeking and retrieval developed by Ingwersen and Jarvelin (2005).