"The study of information searching behavior of the IranDoc database users (log analysis & questionnaire) "

<p dir="ltr">The analysis of logs or web transaction reports for the improvement of information retrieval systems, user efficiency from the system, and understanding how users interact with the system and their informational behavior is beneficial. This research aimed to analyze the information-seeking behavior of users regarding their usage of the Irandoc information database, conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a study of a 26-day period (Bahman and Esfand 1391) was carried out, focusing on the search logs of users on the Irandoc website. In the second phase, through a survey, we examined the reasons behind their search behavior. The analyses conducted on the logs included geographic coding analysis, statistical analyses, and detailed analysis of information-seeking behavior. Findings from the first phase indicated that users from cities such as Tehran, Mashhad, and Tabriz utilized the database more than users from other locations. The peak usage times were on Mondays and Sundays between 9 AM and 1 PM. The most common length of search queries was between 10 to 15 characters, and the most frequently searched topic was social sciences. However, results from the second phase, obtained through a questionnaire over a 15-day period, revealed that most users of this website were male, and their primary area of interest was in the humanities. Additionally, the results indicated that some users were not familiar with concepts such as search query reformulation or the correct use of search engines, and many users never seek help from others for their searches. These points lead to ineffective retrieval from the database. Weaknesses were also evident within the database itself, including the ineffectiveness of the retrieval algorithm regarding short keywords. The findings of this research demonstrated that using logs can be very useful in evaluating a retrieval system and understanding user behavior.</p>