Intention and task context connected with session in a cultural heritage collection

Abstract

In this paper two methods are used, analysis of web access logs together with a web survey, to connect sessions with task context and intention. The dual methods approach connects information seeking behavior with actual IR-interactions to get a more holistic view of the information seeking and retrieval (IS&R) process. The studied collection is a cultural heritage web site containing digitalized material and artist information. Based on different navigation strategies task context and intention was related to session length and arrival level in the site. Some statistically significant relationships were found between the factors. Users in a work context more often access the site by direct navigation for looking up facts. Users in a hobby or leisure context more often access the site by links or topical searches in search engines and they arrive further down in the site structure and their sessions are shorter. How and to what extent survey data and log data can be combined is discussed.