Handling Spelling Errors in Online Catalog Searches

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to add to our understanding and knowledge of spelling errors in online catalog searches based on empirical studies of spelling errors in online catalog searches and suggest ways in which systems that detect such errors should handle the errors that they detect. One study of spelling errors in online catalog searches involved a categorization of user queries for subjects that were extracted from four university libraries’ online catalog transaction logs. The results of the analysis demonstrated that less than 6% of user queries that match the catalog’s controlled and free-text terms contain spelling errors. This percentage did not account for spelling errors in user queries that failed to match the catalog’s controlled and free-text terms, because of the difficulty of verifying certain terms and phrases and of collection failure. The results of a related study involved user responses to an experimental online catalog that detected possibly misspelled words. While the majority of users corrected misspelled query words, a sizable proportion made an action that was even more detrimental than the original misspelling; for example, they added another word or phrase to the query in addition to the misspelled word. This paper concludes with three recommendations for improvements to online catalogs to assist users in the correction of misspelled query words and the detection of queries that fail due to collection failure.