What do people search for on the State Library catalogue?

This report contains an analysis of the subject of catalogue searches undertaken by members of the public. It is based on an examination of 4,000 search queries entered into the main catalogue in the years 2005-2008 and is a companion report to Searchers Working Paper 5: Searching the State Library Catalogue (see http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/83283). Each search query was given one of fifty-two different subject tags to indicate the subject of the search. These subjects were combined into twelve broad subject groupings. Secondary tags enabled identification of whether the search query was about a general topic or a specific item and whether this topic or item was related specifically to Australia, Victoria, and/or Aboriginal Australia. These data give an indication of what searchers expect of the State Library collection. An interesting further topic for investigation would be the relationship between the types of content being accessed and their representation in SLV collections. Such a comparison would provide a useful additional indication of how intensively different parts of the collection are used, and whether some may need further development or expansion.