Keywords contain important contextual information about search results within academic digital library search interfaces. However, such information tends to be underutilized within modern search interface designs. In prior work, methods for visually linking keywords between search results have been proposed and studied. In this research, we analyze the design space and propose a new approach that aggregates the keywords over all items on the search engine results page (SERP), visually linking them back to their source search result. We have created interactive and static versions of both interfaces, and conducted a controlled laboratory study to assess the impact of the interfaces on measures of utility (efficiency, effectiveness, feature use) and perceived value (usefulness, ease of use, satisfaction, user engagement, knowledge gain, and interest gain). The findings from this research show the merit of using keywords to provide summaries of documents and search result sets, the value of making keywords interactive, and the benefit of using visualization to interactively link information within a search engine results page. The differences between providing the keywords along side each document or aggregated over the entire SERP were minimal, suggesting that it does not matter how the keywords are represented as long as they can be used to interactively reveal relationships among the search results.

Information seeking in an academic digital library is complex in nature, often spanning multiple search sessions. Resuming academic search tasks requires significant cognitive effort as searchers must re-acquaint themselves with previous search session activities and previously discovered documents before resuming their search. Further, some academic searchers may find it convenient to initiate such searches on their mobile devices during short gaps in time (e.g., between classes), and resume them later in a desktop environment when they can use the extra screen space and more convenient document storage capabilities of their computers. To support such searching, we have developed an academic digital library search interface that assists searchers in managing cross-session search tasks even when moving between mobile and desktop environments. Using a controlled laboratory study we compared our approach (Dilex) to a standard academic digital library search interface. We found increased user engagement in both the initial (mobile) and resumed (desktop) search activities, and that participants spent more time on the search results pages and had an increased degree of interaction with information and personalization features during the resumed tasks. These results provide evidence that the participants were able to make effective use of the visualization features in Dilex, which enabled them to readily resume their search tasks and stay engaged in the search activities. This work represents an example of how semi-automatic search task/session management and visualization features can support cross-session search, and how designing for both mobile and desktop use can support cross-device search.

Academic search tasks that are complex may require that a searcher undertake the task over the course of multiple search sessions, and possibly using multiple devices. One of the key challenges in cross-session search is resuming the previously started search task. If task resumption can be supported well in a mobile environment, we may be able to encourage academic searchers to make use of the small down-times they encounter while away from their computers (e.g., while in line at the market). If it is supported well in a desktop/laptop environment, the work that was done on a mobile device can easily be accessed and used. In this paper, we demonstrate an academic digital library search interface that supports cross-session cross-device search, using visualization approaches to support browsing and selection of past search topics, and faceted navigation features to support investigation and examination of previously saved documents.