2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Analyzing the patterns of and factors affecting public library users' behavior using a location Identification system

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23500300
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Library and information science/Humanistic social informatics
Research Institution	Surugadai University
Principal Investigator	NORIKO Sugie 駿河台大学, 人文社会・教育科学系, 准教授 (50383295)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	情報探索行動 / 利用者調査 / 情報サービス / レファレンスサービス
Research Abstract	To analyze the information-seeking behavior of public library users, an RFID location identification system was used to collect data on the time users spent in each zone and their traveling paths. The results showed that one third of library users stayed in the library for less than 30 minutes, whereas a few users stayed more than 120 minutes. Users spent about 80% of their time in the general book zone and less than 8% in the computer zone where they could access the internet and databases. It was confirmed that the method can gather sufficiently accurate data to explain library users' information-seeking behavior, which will be useful for future studies.

(4 results)