Library and Information Science

Search strategies is a means to make an efficient search. Among several studies of search strategy, Bates' “Search Tactics” has been often cited and introduced, but their studies have been superficial. In this paper, the contents of Bates' “Search Tactics” are examined in detail, and we try to represent the actual online search process based upon Bates' “Search Tactics”. The following three kinds of survey are made in order to clarify which and how tactics are used: (1) Interview with 7 searchers who belong to different types of organizations, and use different kinds of databases. (2) Analysis of some online search records. (3) Analysis of written applications for a newspaper database during one year.

In conclusion, Bates' tactics falls into categories and new several tactics which often used are added. The following five factors affect online search activities, search strategy, and search tactics. (1) the difficulty of search requests, (2) the hinds of databases, (3) the charging policy for each online search, (4) the presence of the user during the search, (5) the searcher' online experience.

In the limited condition, typical tactics are suggested, but in order to generalize the pattern of using tactics, further investigation is necessary.