Thanks to Teresa for sending email listing this source:
http://iris.uoregon.edu/wag/redesign/usability-lessons.html
25 May 2005
Libraries Need to Discover the Academic Internet
Lossau, Norbert. Search Engine Technology and Digital Libraries; Libraries Need to Discover the Academic Internet. D-Lib Magazine, 10(6), June 2004.
..... excerpt from article....
In any market situation it is of paramount importance to take a close look at potential customers and their usage behaviour. For librarians this might sound obvious as it is their genuine perception that they consider implicitly the demands of users — or rather what they consider to be the demands of their users. But the new, competitive situation forces libraries to see things much more from the perspective of the user. First of all, this is an acknowledgement that, particularly at universities, libraries deal with a range of users with often different usage behaviours. It almost goes without saying that an undergraduate has other demands for information than a qualified researcher, and their usage behaviours can vary substantially. Young undergraduates will try much harder to transfer their general information seeking behaviour (using internet search engines) to the specific, academic environment, while established researchers have better accommodated the use of specific search tools. Before the WWW had been developed, this differentiation was, from the librarian's point of view, only relevant with respect to the level of training that various user groups required in order to use the library's resource discovery tools (printed catalogue, online catalogue, digital library portal). Today, with a whole range of general search engines available, users have the opportunity to use other catalogues (public or academic), and portals than those found in the library. Library users have been "empowered" by Google-like search engines to make their own choice about a search tool and to approach the world of information without any training. While librarians are mainly worried about the quality of information resources that are covered by mainstream search indexes, their users love these new tools and they would like to use them for any type of information search.
As a survey carried out at Bielefeld University in November 2002 revealed, students still make intensive use of the online library catalogue, but they would much prefer to access the catalogue through a "Google-like"-interface [16]. The simple reason why they still use the online catalogue is that, for this information type, they don't have an available alternative, as internet search engines usually don't cover the so called "deep" or "invisible" web. In any area where students think that they can find information, especially when they are looking for documents and full text, general search engines are even now much more popular than databases that have been made available through libraries. And it is only because of their level of experience and a certain habit that researchers still use databases, e-journals etc. that are not indexed by internet indexes. But a new generation of researchers will be coming in a few years time that will have grown up with popular internet search tools.
<<<>>>
[16] 625 undergraduates and graduates returned the questionnaire within a week.
....................................................
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june04/lossau/06lossau.html
..... excerpt from article....
In any market situation it is of paramount importance to take a close look at potential customers and their usage behaviour. For librarians this might sound obvious as it is their genuine perception that they consider implicitly the demands of users — or rather what they consider to be the demands of their users. But the new, competitive situation forces libraries to see things much more from the perspective of the user. First of all, this is an acknowledgement that, particularly at universities, libraries deal with a range of users with often different usage behaviours. It almost goes without saying that an undergraduate has other demands for information than a qualified researcher, and their usage behaviours can vary substantially. Young undergraduates will try much harder to transfer their general information seeking behaviour (using internet search engines) to the specific, academic environment, while established researchers have better accommodated the use of specific search tools. Before the WWW had been developed, this differentiation was, from the librarian's point of view, only relevant with respect to the level of training that various user groups required in order to use the library's resource discovery tools (printed catalogue, online catalogue, digital library portal). Today, with a whole range of general search engines available, users have the opportunity to use other catalogues (public or academic), and portals than those found in the library. Library users have been "empowered" by Google-like search engines to make their own choice about a search tool and to approach the world of information without any training. While librarians are mainly worried about the quality of information resources that are covered by mainstream search indexes, their users love these new tools and they would like to use them for any type of information search.
As a survey carried out at Bielefeld University in November 2002 revealed, students still make intensive use of the online library catalogue, but they would much prefer to access the catalogue through a "Google-like"-interface [16]. The simple reason why they still use the online catalogue is that, for this information type, they don't have an available alternative, as internet search engines usually don't cover the so called "deep" or "invisible" web. In any area where students think that they can find information, especially when they are looking for documents and full text, general search engines are even now much more popular than databases that have been made available through libraries. And it is only because of their level of experience and a certain habit that researchers still use databases, e-journals etc. that are not indexed by internet indexes. But a new generation of researchers will be coming in a few years time that will have grown up with popular internet search tools.
<<<>>>
[16] 625 undergraduates and graduates returned the questionnaire within a week.
....................................................
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june04/lossau/06lossau.html
21 May 2005
Examples
I am very excited about this project. In related activities, the IL committee asked for a focus group to discuss a marketing or branding of our IL program. We had the group meeting the last Friday of the semester and the group came up with some great ideas. I am forwarding the minutes to the IL group for their discussion. I think their thought is (Teresa and Red, want to weigh in?) that they work on marketing/a brand to premier at the August 26th Faculty Development/beginning of the semester/year event/General Assembly.
We will have a table and some ad speciality items with our new "look" for IL....I'm excited to see that the web group is looking at the web site (although I love our look now) so these two activities can be parallel...intersecting as they need to....I know several IL people are also on the web group so ideas can move back and forth.
We will have a table and some ad speciality items with our new "look" for IL....I'm excited to see that the web group is looking at the web site (although I love our look now) so these two activities can be parallel...intersecting as they need to....I know several IL people are also on the web group so ideas can move back and forth.
Vanderbilt Library Strategic Plan
... Develop further the library’s rich web-based services for library users. Portals, customization, integration of library collections and services into Learning/Course Management Systems, federated searching, ‘Amazoogle’ feature development, modular instruction tools and chunks, user communication—all web-based and e-delivered—are all part of enhancing the library’s user services.
................
Jean & Alexander Heard Library 1 July 2004
Strategic Planning--Digital Library Programs Working Group
Report to the Steering Committee (pp. 1-10 for main part of report)
http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/strategicplan/diglib/report/reporttosteeringcommittee.htm
................
Jean & Alexander Heard Library 1 July 2004
Strategic Planning--Digital Library Programs Working Group
Report to the Steering Committee (pp. 1-10 for main part of report)
http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/strategicplan/diglib/report/reporttosteeringcommittee.htm
Variety is the spice of life
From Thom Hickey --16 May 2005
What I'm getting at, is that one-size-fits-all isn't what people expect, and that we need variety in our interfaces. Libraries have known about variety all along. While I would maintain that resource needs across different academic campuses is very similar, the physical collections of libraries have quite a bit of divergence. This is because the libraries accommodate the people that make the highest demands and the most use of the library, and those people are always different at different campuses. The people our interfaces reach have differences too, and we need to accommodate them.
http://curtis.med.yale.edu/code4lib/
What I'm getting at, is that one-size-fits-all isn't what people expect, and that we need variety in our interfaces. Libraries have known about variety all along. While I would maintain that resource needs across different academic campuses is very similar, the physical collections of libraries have quite a bit of divergence. This is because the libraries accommodate the people that make the highest demands and the most use of the library, and those people are always different at different campuses. The people our interfaces reach have differences too, and we need to accommodate them.
http://curtis.med.yale.edu/code4lib/
Starting a dialogue for redesign
The first document I created to stimulate dialogue is at
http://insideirt.austincc.edu/library/lweb/design06/digital-natives.htm
http://insideirt.austincc.edu/library/lweb/design06/digital-natives.htm
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