Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Undergraduate Use Of Federated Searching: A Survey Of Preferences And Perceptions Of Value-Added Functionality, C. Jeffrey Belliston, Jared L. Howland, Brian C. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Randomly selected undergraduates at Brigham Young University, Brigham Young University-Idaho and Brigham Young University-Hawaii, all private universities sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, participated in a study that investigated four questions regarding federated searching: (1) Does it save time? (2) Do undergraduates prefer it? (3) Are undergraduates satisfied with the results they get from it? (4) Does it yield higher quality results than non-federated searching? Federated searching was, on average, 11% faster than non-federated searching. Undergraduates rated their satisfaction with the citations gathered by federated searching 17% higher than their satisfaction using non-federated search methods. A …