Bennett Ponsford & Christina Hoffman Gola, Texas A&M University Libraries
Erica Reynolds, Web Content manager, Johnson County LIbrary
Bennett Ponsford - Texas A&M University Libraries
How do users want to search?
What type of items are users searching for?
How do they discover new resources?
What is the last thing they look for?
What search do they want to default to?
What should we do with subject and class guides?
What would make these more relevant? - Terminology, Format, Location, etc.
What Web 2.0 features do users actually want?
Methodology: Phases
- Initial surveys
- Discussion forums
- Focus Groups
Will add in other items.
Recruited through traditional forums (blanket campus emails - best response) advertising in student papers and also facebook group and undergraduate blogs
- Undergraduates Vs. Graduate Students/Faculty
- Both groups are looking for our stuff - not the web page, but rather the articles, books, etc.
- There were searching differences
- Graduates and Faculty want just the search, no clutter
- Undergraduates need more tutorials and so forth.
- Graduates and Faculty often look for a specific item/Undergraduates often look by subject/keyword
- Graudates & Faculty do more with the library's site such as renewals, and so forth.
Web 2.0 Features
Less than 30% of the users were interested in user-generated content
Traditional Preferences for communicating with the libraries; most want to email or come in to the library in person.
Second Survey confirmed First Survey Results
Everyone discussed simplifying the home page - without any consensus on what the simplification would entail. Grad students & Faculty simply wanted their favourite search engines, Undergraduates wanted more help on the home page.
Seem to be searching for Articles first, but suggest books as default search (confusion about what they are associating with the library?)
Users were often so confused they couldn't describe where they got lost.
Christina Hoffman Gola
Results: Focus Groups
Google Scholar - Undergraduates didn't always go to Google Scholar because they didn't know Google Scholar existed. Graduate students were sometimes Google Scholar and sometimes Databases, Faculty mostly went to Google Scholar.
Integrate Systems - Students wanted to be able to login to the website once and to never have to login again in the catalog or through ILL, etc.
Discovery of Databases - They don't use the website to discover databases; primarily word of mouth - Graduate students will tell other students about databases.
Subject & Class Guides - Audience was different than assumed. Faculty & Graduate students are not necessarily using subject guides, Class guides were very helpful. Largest problem was interdisciplinary issues on the campus. Might need to use multiple databases with different subjects. Have a keyword search for databases.
Location and format issues were the main thing keeping students from Subject & Class Guides. Undergraduates are interested in a Wiki format for their class guides, Faculty are not so interested in this.
Need more customization ability! Faculty, Graduate & Undergraduate want ways to share knowledge.
Visual & "sexy" is good - Sell us on it!
Use of Web 2.0 tools:
Undergraduates & humanities mentioned potential uses for Wikis.
Use of RSS - glass half full or half empty - people
Personalize their library website to them. Have their library web-site; personalization of librarians - have their pictures up there - more facebook like, pictures, etc.
Email was the best method for recruiting. Facebook: didn't keep up with this as well, might be useful to use student workers for this type of recruitment.
Web 2.0 in Academic Libraries
- How far should we go?
- Academic standard Vs. Web 2.0?
- How much education do we provide for users?
- How useful is it to faculty, students, and so forth to use these features and if we educate users will they be more interested?
Recommendations
- Help them find our stuff and then get out of the way
- Reaffirmed tradition design rules
- Let the user control the interface
- Integrate our systems
- Better personalization options
- Determine user groups needs before using Web 2.0 tools on website
Erica Reynolds
Lessons from 4,000 years of art: design, philosophy, change, and endurance
You can be prestigious and playful at the same time.
Lesson #1: Have a back-up plan.
Give access to the old library web page as well as the new web page.
Lesson #2: Be bold. Be dynamic. Be human.
Different theme options available to teens
Lesson #3: When you paint to sell, you paint people
People are interested in themselves - we should give them people, allow them to see themselves and other people!
Read poster thumbnails for kids.
Give staff the option of posting their favourite books and themselves online - a 'profile'.
Lesson #4: Enliven your collection through reorganization and presentation.
Break apart all your content and put it back together.
Recommended Reading Lists - photos, scrollable, links to catalog.
Change the interface based on patron needs: Create pages with direct links, giving options
Lesson #5: Technology changes everything
Expectation of videos, podcasts, and such for our patrons.
Lesson #6: Experiment with small studies and prototypes
Usability studies, months and months of these usability studies.
Card sorts to determine labels.
Paper prototyping: put it on paper
78 Card sorts (4-5 phases to whittle it down)
22 paper prototype studies
21 interface usability studies
1 staff feedback survey
Lesson #7: A desire for beauty and serenity endures
We want things to be quiet and serene; our new website needed to be simple and clean and focus on the things that users look for.
Lesson #8: We like surprises. And anticipating the surprise is even more delicious.
Created a button called: 'Surprise!' - off the front page; 90% people will click on 'surprise!' for library news/statistics, fun things we want them to know.
Lesson #9: A good guide enhances the experience exponentially
Librarians are passionate and excited about the information and connecting people to the information - can we create this online?
ww.jocolibrary.org/
Lesson #11: Never stop innovating
Lesson #12: We can be both prestigious and playful
We can maintain creditibility while still having fun!
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