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The purpose of this research was to investigate how Australian public libraries responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of management, planning and communication. The study also investigated operational approaches to the development and implementation of new and adapted models of service and resource delivery.

Utilising a multiple qualitative case study approach, interviews were conducted with 15 Australian public library staff members at three library services – one inner-city, one regional and one remote. Inductive thematic analysis was employed to generate insights into the operations and management strategies employed during the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings suggest that public library managers performed admirably in the face of significant logistical, budgetary and regulatory challenges. Five key themes emerged to represent the ways in which public library leaders responded effectively to the crisis: resourcefulness, flexibility, presence, sensitivity and communication. Results also demonstrate the importance placed on library users’ welfare.

This research represents the first study to focus on the response of Australian public library managers to the significant challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify the strategies employed by library leaders to respond effectively. In doing so this research provides valuable insights into how public library managers can prepare for future crises.

Examines some of the bibliographic advantages of a union catalogue with a central database over a distributed, or “virtual” union catalogue. Discusses the nature of these bibliographic advantages in the context of interlibrary document delivery, and also the circumstances which produce them, and make them more significant. Reports on a brief study of the extent to which two major library catalogues in Singapore have diverged following the adoption of a distributed model. This indicated that the bibliographic content of a distributed union catalogue may be significantly poorer than that of a central database, and in particular in terms of more: duplication; inconsistency; errors; and omissions. There are at least four important reasons why this may be so.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the lived experiences of Australian public library staff during the COVID-19 library closures. The study examines the effect of mandated physical library closures on staff well-being, along with the challenges they faced as library operations moved to a remotely delivered model. The paper includes an examination of staff perceptions of their library's value in the lives of their users.

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 15 Australian library staff from three library networks. A process of inductive coding resulted in a thematic description of the participants' experiences of continuing to work during a period of where their libraries were closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Australian public library workers experienced many challenges that affected their well-being during the period of library closures. These included challenges relating to moving library programming to a virtual delivery model, managing significant change in their work lives, managing the emotions of self and others, and concern for the well-being of library users. Positive outcomes relating to skill development and innovative thinking were also reported.

The operational responses to the COVID-19 library closures in Australia and elsewhere have been well reported. This paper takes a different approach by examining the emotional and well-being outcomes for public library staff during these periods of closure.

The purpose of this research is to examine search goal redefinition during users' interaction with information retrieval systems.

The study utilized transaction logs from the OCLC FirstSearch service. Within each search session, logged queries were coded chronologically, according to their conceptual relationships, and indices of goal redefinition were constructed. Redefinition levels for different databases were compared, and certain features were isolated for examination as possible redefinition factors.

The transaction log analysis showed that different databases induced goal redefinition to different extents and identified several factors which can contribute to goal redefinition, including the presence of abstracts and hyperlinking descriptors. On the other hand, no evidence was found to indicate that abstract length has much effect on redefinition, nor hit rate or retrievability of records.

The research needs to be followed up using other methodologies and other information retrieval systems. A range of other possible factors affecting goal redefinition should be investigated.

The paper shows that system feedback affects not only strategy, but also higher levels of information seeking behaviour interaction. This aspect of user‐system interaction has rarely been researched. An index of goal redefinition and an interpretative form of transactional log analysis are put forward as means by which it may be investigated.

The purpose of this research is to discuss the methodological aspects of a study, the results of which are detailed in a second paper.

Indices of search goal revision (or redefinition) were constructed based on the chronological coding of queries logged on the OCLC FirstSearch service. Queries within search sessions were coded according to their conceptual relationships, based on a set of rules designed to identify possible revisions of search goals, as well as strategic reformulations. Given the same user interface, similar types of user, and large datasets, it was assumed that the number of strategic reformulations would be reasonably uniform across databases, so that the indices could be regarded as indicators of relative amounts of goal revision.

The reliability of the coding used to construct the indices of goal redefinition was tested through parallel coding, and confirmed. Differences between the indices for various databases, on the other hand, were found to be statistically significant, allowing for the conclusion that the indices were able to show differences in the amount of goal redefinition occurring, given the assumption of similar levels of strategic reformulations across databases.

Transaction log analysis has mostly focused on syntactic issues; few analyses have examined the semantic content of queries or contextualised individual queries as part of an evolving search session. However, this paper shows that although transaction log analysis is a relatively indirect means of examining users' thoughts and intentions during their interaction with an information retrieval system, logs that provide sufficiently rich data may, in certain controlled situations, be used to provide deeper insights into information retrieval behaviour.