Focus group interviewing was a natural choice for this study as it is well suited to studying needs, perceptions, satisfaction, and user expectations. The primary use of the Gateway is networked resources. Patrons rarely consult Gateway Help. When they do, they find it is not helpful, or they get lost. Users have much praise for CUL and its librarians.
Full text is extremely popular.
Undergraduates use both keyword searching and Gateway subject captions to retrieve Gateway resources. Faculty and graduate students are more likely to do known item searching and to use only a handful of databases in their specialties. Most patrons are satisfied with the Gateway. The Gateway can be overwhelming. Many find the process of selecting a database confusing.