Toward a User-Centered Academic Library Home Page

ABSTRACT

In the past decade, academic libraries have struggled with the design of an effective library home page. Since librarians' mental models of information architecture differ from those of their patrons, usability assessments are necessary in designing a user-centered home page. This study details a usability sequence of card sort and paper and online survey methods conducted at the Auraria Library, which serves the University of Colorado Denver, the Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the Community College of Denver. The three top complaints about the existing Web page included information overload, lack of visual cues and guidance, and difficulty getting to what students knew was the heart of the library's Web page: online resources. Using qualitative and quantitative data from the card sorting sessions, the Web librarian, under the direction of the Web Advisory Committee, was able to create a more user-centered home page. Unique to this study are the use of undergraduate students in creating test instruments and a means of gathering information about what students value most in their library's home page.     

Social media as a platform in academic library marketing: A comparative study

Social media like Facebook have become popular tools for different organizations like libraries in marketing practice. To build relationships with library users, libraries hope social media can engage its user communities actively with their collections, services, and activities. This paper aims at evaluating the effectiveness of using social media as a platform in marketing through a questionnaire on the Facebook page of the University of Hong Kong Libraries (HKUL), comparing the perspectives of students and faculty members. Both the current situation of HKUL's Facebook page and the reasons affecting users' interest and participation in the page are evaluated, in order to suggest better strategies for the library to deal with the needs of library users in the future. Other university libraries can also gain new insights from the study.This research has the following key findings: 1. The marketing practices of HKUL's Facebook page generally did not receive adequate attention and reactions from users; 2. Students were more engaged than faculty members in HKUL's Facebook page, as students use more varieties of library services than faculty members; 3. User needs, social media content, and interactions generally affected user acceptance of the library's Facebook marketing.     

Changing Research Patterns and Implications for Web Page Design

Abstract

Despite major, ongoing changes in the profession and in library school curricula, the basic principles of librarianship can and should always be applied, regardless of medium or situation. However, patrons have changed the ways they prefer to search for and access information. This means that librarians must both update their understanding of these principles and find ways to apply them more proactively. One effective response is to design and market library Web pages as preferred gateways to electronic information and instruction. Librarians can transform Web pages into “one-stop-shopping information portals” for users, providing not only information, but also instruction in how to find and evaluate information. Applying Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science to Web page designis a useful way to determine iflibrarians are providing the kind of Web pages their patrons need.     

The Reference Collection Development Decision:

Information brokers can exercise a subtle but significant influence on a library's collection development practices through the reference tools they produce. Traditionally, reference sources' use in collection evaluation and their capacity io direct patron demand have helped shape collection building. New optical disc reference devices may have a more pronounced impact on general collections than their predecessors. The expense of the optical systems will likely reduce general collection budgets, while their potentially heavy usage could cause changes in collecting patterns. To insure that these changes will not diminish the library's abilily to serve its community, selectors will need to evaluate each system in full recognition of broadest possible implications. Careful selection will require clearly established reference goals consistent with the library's mission.     

Data Warehouse Integrates Toxic Inhalation Hazards and Hazardous Materials Information,GIS, and the Intranet

ABSTRACT

A data warehouse, developed for United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (USDOE/NNSA) Pantex Plant in a multi-department collaboration, brings data from disparate datasets and spatial information about the site together into a single database accessible through an intranet web page or ArcGIS software. The web page directs queries of buildings, facilities, and areas through a Geographic Information System (GIS) viewer that displays spatial site information and chemical hazards data. The Spatial Database Engine (ArcSDE) provides the vehicle for linking mainframe datasets, downloaded daily, to current spatial information about buildings and facilities that store chemicals of potential concern to firefighters and other emergency responders. The system is available to the plant's shift supervisors and individual GIS users throughout the department.     

Focus Groups and Usability Testing in Redesigning an Academic Library's Web Site

ABSTRACT

As the World Wide Web has advanced since its inception, librarians have endeavored to keep pace with this progress in the design of their library Web pages. User recommendations collected from focus groups and usability testing have indicated that the University of Scranton's Weinberg Memorial Library's Web site was not working as intended, and the library's home page, in particular, was cluttered. Focus groups indicated that the process of accessing the library's databases from off-campus took too many steps, key resources were not located in key areas of the page, links were too close together, and the font was too small. Library staff determined it was necessary to rethink and redesign its pages. Self-reports from focus groups were insufficient to get at the mechanics of Web page use. Through usability testing, librarians were able to observe students and faculty completing simple research and directional tasks. Before “going live” with the new page in January 2007, users who had participated in the focus groups and in the usability testing were surveyed about the redesigned library Web page. The users indicated that the new Web page was less confusing, easier to use, and somewhat more intuitive than the previous library Web page. Web sites are always works in progress, and academic librarians should be proactive about making changes to their library Web sites to take advantage of emerging technology and to meet user expectations.     

Facebook as a Communication Tool for an Academic Library: East West University Library,Bangladesh Perspective

The primary objectives of this research article are to explore the concept of communication tools using Facebook, and to evaluate the performance of the East West University (EWU) Library Facebook page as a communication tool. The EWU Library Facebook page uses a variety of strategies and techniques to engage with its patrons. The author's intention is to examine this library Facebook page, which is explored using a case study method. This article also focuses on how Facebook facilitates collaborations between the library and the patron's community, as well as the implications for academic libraries in the future. This case study reviews the literature on the use of social networking while focusing on Facebook as a communication tool and engaging libraries in social networking. The article emphasizes the author's experience of working in an academic library to identify the main trends in providing services based on posting various topics through the Facebook page of the EWU Library, Bangladesh. The numerous issues in adapting Facebook as a communication tool and an exploration of the opportunity and drawbacks of the use of the Facebook application in academic libraries are also discussed.     

Fred Wilson,PTSD, and Me: Reflections on the History Wars

Abstract Our relationships with our audiences have proved parlous. But if history is destined to be contested, where should museums be in that contest and how do we get there? Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum has turned out to be a path not taken; Enola Gay was a cautionary tale. But we should have these fights in museums, where the national narrative is blocked out and staged, because of how museums teach us, opening hidden windows on cloaked realities. Museums can start by becoming clearer about what they think they are doing when they make an exhibition. Exhibitions can have a profound effect on visitors at many levels but it doesn't happen very often. Is that because visitors seek another kind of experience from what we typically offer?     

It's All About Me: The User-Centered Approach as a Solution to the Challenges Posed by Information Literacy Instruction

The Future Voices in Public Services column is a forum for students in graduate library and information science programs to discuss key issues they see in academic library public services, to envision what they feel librarians in public service have to offer to academia, to tell us of their visions for the profession, or to tell us of research that is going on in library schools. We hope to provide fresh perspectives from those entering our field, in both the United States and other countries. Interested faculty of graduate library and information science programs, who would like their students’ ideas represented in these pages, are invited to contact Nancy H. Dewald at nxd7@psu.edu

Samantha Sinanan is an MLIS candidate in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Here she proposes that librarians should seek to understand the Net Generation searcher's perspective in order to teach information literacy most effectively.

Accredited by the American Library Association with the Canadian Library Association, SLAIS is an internationally recognized graduate school at The University of British Columbia, in beautiful Vancouver. At SLAIS we are in the business of preparing professionals to exercise leadership in planning, implementing, and promoting the preservation, organization, and effective use of society's recorded information and ideas. We offer the master's degree in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) and the master's degree in Archival Studies (MAS). In addition, we sponsor a multidisciplinary Master of Arts in Children's Literature (MACL) with five other departments. Opportunities are also available for post-master's study, including a Ph.D. program in library, archival & information studies. For more information, visit www.slais.ubc.ca     

Cataloging & Classification Quarterly

Abstract

The World Wide Web site tor Cataloging & Classification Quarterly(CCQ) was created to address a serious need-timeli-ness-in communicating the results of research among librarians, while at the same time providing a number of new benefits to enhance the journal's relationship to its readers. Brought online in early 1995, it was the first such Web site for a professional journal in librarianship, and its characteristic method of making abstracts available well in advance of the print version anticipated a practice later employed by journals in a variety of other fields. Historical background to electronic texts is discussed in context with the beginnings of the CCQ Web page, along with providing an orientation to the relevant aspects of the still-evolving World Wide Web. By using the CCQ Web page as an example, an attempt to characterize the current state of electronic journal publishing will be outlined. With the decision early this year by CCQ's publisher, The Haworth Press, Inc., to begin a pilot program of publishing a select number of its some 160 journals via the World Wide Web, the CCQ Web site can be regarded as an influential forerunner for the publisher's development of electronic journals.     

Making Sense of an Academic Library Web Site: Toward a More Usable Interface for University Researchers

ABSTRACT

Library patrons familiar with Web searching conventions often find library searching to be less familiar and even intimidating. This article describes and evaluates a series of usability research studies employing two different and popular methodologies: user-centered redesign and usability testing. Card sorting and affinity mapping were used to conceptualize how information should be classified and presented on the library's main page. Usability scenarios and think-aloud protocols were used to explore how students, especially those new to the campus, conceptualize the information-seeking process and how they go about conducting a search. Participants included library employees, university faculty, staff, and students. These methods can be replicated by any library, large or small, and demonstrate that even small-scale usability evaluations can improve patrons' understanding of and access to library resources.     

Critical Information Literacy: A Model for Transdisciplinary Research in Behavioral Sciences

Librarians are instrumental in advancing the education of students and orienting tomorrow's professions toward the world in which they will practice: rich in information, diverse in perspective, and latent with the opportunities for transdisciplinary research. Critical information literacy offers a model for orienting theory and practice to create an integrated learning experience for students in the behavioral health sciences. This paper examines how different disciplines may be included in a shared problem, using psychopathy as an example. The role of the librarian is discussed in terms of critical information literacy, as a means to conducting transdisciplinary research.     

Rhetoric,region, and social science

In these remarks is the essence of what would have been said had there been time at the annual business meeting of the Central States Speech Association in Saint Louis this past April. Your Association's then president‐elect had occasion during the annual conference to discuss these problems with many of your colleagues. These comments are offered with assurance that they represent more than one man's view and with confidence that there is validity in the following assessment of our profession.     

Resilience orchestration and resilience facilitation: How government can orchestrate the whole UK ports market with limited resources – the case of UK ports resilience

Government departments have limited resources but they are responsible for the healthy functioning of whole markets. This tension is amplified by the opportunities to generate, share and use information from new data sources and digital technologies. Huge increases in volumes and types of data produced by sensors and firms' IT systems can potentially be shared between firms which can cause information overload. This paper uses government orchestration theory to investigate the problems and opportunities of the UK's maritime transport ministry as it supports resilience planning for the whole country's ports system. We build on the developing Lean Government (l- Government) literature by theorizing on the differences between government and other stakeholders. We use a case study to investigate how these differences hinder as well as support the role of a government department. And how the special perspective of an orchestrator can integrate and filter information, motivate diverse collaborators and support the use of orchestration platforms in l-Government.     

IFLA and other International Library Associations,Institutions and Organizations

Column Editor's Notes

This workforce column, guest written by Jill Mierke, evokes memories of the saying, you are not alone. The challenges of workforce and workplace leadership for any library chief executive officer are many and varied. We come to those roles usually as experienced (if not seasoned) professionals, but we do not always have the theoretical grounding and specific professional practice experience a dedicated human resources professional might bring to the organization. A Master's in library and information sciences qualification is no guarantee that you will have the requite knowledge, skills, experience, and abilities to be a good people manager or a strategic leader of the library workforce. This article paints a compelling picture of what success for library human resource management and leadership can look like, through the lens of an experienced and seasoned human resources professional. Recent workforce research is telling us there are many roles within our libraries that are now being successfully filled by “other” professionals. In our ever changing and dynamic information landscape, the human resources strategic advisory role is one of them.

As always, I invite further contributions to our ongoing discussion! Please submit articles for this column to the editor at vicki.williamson@usask.ca     

Latent transparency and trust in government: Unexpected findings from two survey experiments

Transparency is popularly believed to enhance the public's trust in government, yet experimental studies have found mixed results. One explanation is that public trust may respond more positively to a kind of “latent transparency” in which citizens highly value the mere potential for open access to government information, even if they may have more negative reactions when presented with the particular content of actual government information, documents, or data. To test this hypothesis, we designed two survey experiments in which samples of US adults were primed with general information about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or the existence of open government data.Compared to controls, we find that awareness of FOIA rights and requirements (latent transparency) tended to be unrelated, or even slightly negatively related, to trust of government agencies, contrary to our expectations. Our findings, combined with prior evidence, suggest that—even in the case of latent transparency—the popular belief in transparency's positive effects on citizen trust needs a more critical examination. Implications for the theory and practice of transparency are discussed.     

Does Ownership Matter?

Does media ownership affect the editorial page? Scholars such as Tim Groseclose, Jeffrey Milyo, and Tim Groeling have offered recent empirical tests for media bias in political news coverage. This article focuses on the editorial content of newspapers to examine whether a change in publishers affects a newspaper's editorial page's support for government action on public policy questions, the attention given to the major political parties, and the tone of coverage of the parties. Our content analyses compare the Wall Street Journal's editorial page before and after Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased the paper with two newspapers that did not change ownership structures over the same time period (New York Times and Washington Times). We show that Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is far less supportive of government intervention in the economy, much more negative to Democrats, and much more positive to Republicans than the paper's editorial page was under Bancroft family ownership. We also show that the Wall Street Journal's changes were unique as the New York Times and Washington Times generally did not exhibit similar changes to their own editorial pages.     

网络信息计量学研究(IV)——网站链接特征的分层研究

通过本节的研究我们发现:①网站各层在规模、文件类型和所拥有的网络链接数量等方面的变化具有明显的规律性,它取决于各层的功能定位;②对于链接密度和页面平均链接数在网站各层之间的变化,本研究未能给予精确的描述,仅就其变化趋势和原因进行了分析。从网站各层功能及其在链接上所表现出的特点来看,功能定位不同的层次,链接出现的频率是不同的,甚至应该能以链接出现频率的变化确切地判断其相应的功能定位,但依靠链接密度和页面平均链接数难以实现这个目标,必须考虑建立与页面功能和链接频率都相关的新的度量指标;③本研究结果证实,我们通过比较网站的网络影响因子筛选出的9个研究对象,其信息组织是比较合理的。这暗示我们,网站信息资源组织的合理程度与其网络影响力可能具有一定的联系。     

The relationships between work roles and information gathering of the faculty at SUNY,college at Fredonia

A survey of the faculty at the State University of New York (SUNY), College at Fredonia provided data for an investigation into the effect of faculty work roles upon information gathering. Faculty roles of teaching, research, and service are the key components of academic work. The extent to which these roles influence the faculty member's use of six categories of information sources forms the basis of this investigation. The findings indicate that there are discernible patterns in the faculty's use of various sources of information and that one's commitment to teaching, research, and service are factors that influence information gathering, although not always in the manner that had been predicted. Additional investigation of the research role reveals that the faculty member's age, possession of a doctoral degree, and quality of the doctoral degree have a relationship with commitment to research.