Welcome to ADAM, the Art, Design, Architecture and Media Information Gateway

ADAM Project: 1996 Survey of User Information Needs and Search Methods

The aim of this questionnaire is to gain insight into the information needs and search methods used by people involved in teaching, learning and research, in the broad areas of art, design, architecture and media. We are interested in the views of regular Internet users and of those who have little or no experience of the Internet.

The purpose of the ADAM project is to provide a useful starting point, or "Gateway" to the Internet, for locating the kind of information that you might search for. If you would like more information, please contact Tony Gill , the Project Leader at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design on 01252 722441 (x2427), or by e-mail to tgill@surrart.ac.uk

We would be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill out and return this questionnaire - we want to develop a service that is relevant to your needs. If you wish to be entered in our £100 prize draw, which will take place on 31st May 1996, (This date has been extended!) please make sure you give your name and address (unfortunately, entry into the prize draw is only available to UK residents).

Name :

Address :

E-mail address :

Country : UK Other :

Section I User Background

1 What is your main place of work or study ? (please tick one)
Library
Teaching department
Image library
Museum/gallery/arts centre
Business or commercial organisation
Other - please describe

2 Which of the following best describes your establishment, in relation to the above ? (please tick one)
University
Public authority
Institute of HE
Independent/charitable trust
Institute of FE
Private or commercial
Freestanding or autonomous school (of art, design, architecture or media)
Other - please describe

3 Which of the following best describes your main areas of work/study ? (please tick one)
fine art - painting, prints, drawings, sculpture, other contemporary media
art - theory, history, philosophy, other contextual studies
art - other
design - fashion, textiles, surface pattern
design - graphic, illustration, typography
design - industrial, product, packaging
design - interior
design - ceramics, glass, metal, furniture, jewellery
design - theatre
design - theory, history, philosophy, other contextual studies
design - other
architecture
architecture - history, theory
town planning
landscape design
media - film, television, broadcasting
media - photography, animation
media studies
media - photography in design or art
media - other
Other - please describe

4 What is your main role or function, in relation to Question 3 ? (please tick one)
Librarian
Lecturer
Researcher
Undergraduate student
Practising professional
Postgraduate student
Other - please describe

Section II Information Uses and Retrieval Processes

5 General sources - please rank your use of the following media as information sources for your work:

books and periodicals :
Never Infrequently Frequently Very frequently
film/video :
Never Infrequently Frequently Very frequently
CD ROM :
Never Infrequently Frequently Very frequently
online search of Internet :
Never Infrequently Frequently Very frequently
electronic mail :
Never Infrequently Frequently Very frequently
Other - please specify

6 Approaches to searching - do you find it useful to search for information by the following ? (please rank)

subject :
Very useful Useful Of little use No use at all
keyword :
Very useful Useful Of little use No use at all
author :
Very useful Useful Of little use No use at all
resource type :
Very useful Useful Of little use No use at all
physical location :
Very useful Useful Of little use No use at all

7 Classification systems - do you find it useful to search by the following systems ? (please tick all that apply)
Dewey Decimal
An adapted version of Dewey Decimal
Library of Congress (LC)
Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)
Other - please describe

8 Have you ever encountered any difficulties in obtaining information? (please tick as applicable)
No - If no, please go to question 9
Yes - If yes, please tick all of the following that apply:
Locating material
Gaining access to material
Availability of material (restrictions on loans or borrowing)
Cost
Speed of access
Other -please specify

9 Do you ever rely on another person to carry out your information searches for you?
No
Yes - If yes, please indicate frequency :

Section III ADAM: Future developments

10 We envisage forming a consultation group later this year. Internet Training would be provided in return for evaluation of ADAM and regular consultation during its development. Would you be interested in taking part in this process? (You need to have filled in your name and address above)
No Yes

Section IV Experience and Use of Computers

11 Approximately how often do you use computers ? (please tick one)
Daily Weekly Monthly Spasmodically Rarely Never

12 Do you have any experience of computer based information searches?
None Very experienced

13 Do you ever use a thesaurus as an aid to information searching?
No Yes

Questions 14 and 15 are omitted as they are relevant only to the paper version of this questionnaire

16 Type of Internet access (please tick all that apply)
At work on your own machine
At work on a shared machine
At home on your own machine
At home on a shared machine

17 What services do you use ? (please tick all that apply)
Browsing world wide web
Electronic mail
Subscription to lists for reading only
Active participation in online discussion groups
Other - please describe

18 Which browsers do you use regularly? (please tick all that apply)
Netscape
Lynx
Mosaic
Internet Explorer
Other graphical browsers, please describe

Other non-graphical browsers, please describe

19 Approximately how often do you use Internet Services ? (please tick one only)
Daily Weekly Monthly Spasmodically Rarely Never

20 Awareness of Internet Search tools - which of these are you aware of? (please tick all that apply)
Lycos
Web Crawler
Yahoo!
Infoseek
Alta Vista
BUBL
Harvest

21 Do you find any online bibliographic services useful ? (please tick all that apply)
BIDS
BLAISE
CARL
DIALOG
OCLC First Search
Data-Star
OPACS in other libraries (via Janet)
Other - please describe

Section V Internet Search Tools And Useful Sites

22 Internet Search Tools - If you have used any of the search tools listed below, please evaluate them by completing as many or as few categories as you can.

Lycos

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

WebCrawler

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

Yahoo

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

Infoseek

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

Alta Vista

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

BUBL

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

Harvest

Frequency of use :
Daily At least once a week At least once a month
Spasmodically Rarely Never

Ease of use :
Difficult Easy

Speed :
Slow Fast

Number of matches in list :
Too few Too many

For those listed, how good is the quality of the description? :
Not enough Too much

Of those items listed, how many are relevant to your query? :
Mostly not Most are

Overall rating of search tool :
Poor Excellent

Are there any search engines that you use that are not listed above?

Add any comments or observations below :

Thank you for your co-operation.

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