how is our discovery system perceived by users? fran abbs metadata manager rachel collier-wilson...

How is our Discovery System Perceived by Users?Fran Abbs Metadata ManagerRachel Collier-Wilson Resource Discovery Manager

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• Introduction

• Outline the format of the user feedback methodology undertaken

• Look at the information the feedback showed

• Identify issues, what we have done so far and still need to do to improve the user experience

University of Sheffield• Over 26 000 students

• Nearly 6 500 staff

• Library has approx. 1.3 million print volumes and a lot of e-titles

• Very high use of self-service, especially in 24/7/365 Information Commons (including requests)

• Building more Information Commons space ‘The Diamond’ Sep 2015

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University of Sheffield Library

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• We recruited Fanbo Kong, a second year Biomedical Science undergraduate.

• Overseas student from China

• Interested in Undergraduate experience and that of the overseas student

• Links with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA)

Format of the user feedback undertaken

Objectives of the Internship• Carry out a review of the Library's

discovery interfaces primarily StarPlus with the aim of establishing how useful these discovery systems are to our broad range of customers.

• What barriers do customers experience when they carry out their key tasks?

• What problems do we need to solve?

• What solutions could we implement?

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Methodology

The discovery of material must be considered from the customer perspective, not a librarian perspective. It would be helpful to use the “Jobs to be Done” methodology

Library customers should be consulted.

“Use Case” scenarios prepared which may provide a starting point.

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Introductory QuestionsWhat would you expect to find in StarPlus?How often do you use StarPlus?How do you generally search StarPlus?

Activity QuestionsFind a specific title, did you find it easily?Can you save a search for future reference?

Free text questionsDo you have any advice for us to improve the results page?What do you like about StarPlus?What do you dislike?

How would you rate StarPlus overall?

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They said, we did*

*or, are in the process of doing…

The layout is so 1990s!

• No technical resources in-house – bringing in an outside agency to refresh the design

• NOT rebuilding Primo interface!

• Limited to rewriting static HTML, amending CSS & minimal Javascript

• More up to date, responsive & easier to add content (probably by using WordPress API)

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Enhancing the experience, enriching the content• Search results pages – more images,

please!

• Can we ‘look inside the book’, like on Amazon?

• Evaluating options for additional images & enrichment of search results

• For the future – further enhancements with Linked Open Data?

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Displaying Location in search results• Don’t like having to click ‘Get It’ to see

location details

• When title has multiple holdings, Brief Results only displays 1

• Maybe displaying 1 ‘and others’ is better than not displaying any?

• Title link goes to Details tab – change to Get It?

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Reporting problems with eresources• From ‘View It’ tab, no easy access to

help

• Need a way to report broken links or access problems

• Link to a Google form, report details to Library Helpdesk

• Include some self-help instructions

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What else?

• Why can’t we search everything?• Trialling blended search in 3rd tab

• We don’t want to share ‘Likes’ to Facebook

• Why aren’t online resources included when search results limited by Library?

• Did you mean…? No, I didn’t!

• Clearer labels & resource type names

• Raise awareness of facets and e-Shelf19/04/23 © The University of Sheffield

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Questions

Rachel Collier-Wilson r.m.collier-wilson@sheffield.ac.uk @rachelmcw

Fran Abbsf.abbs@sheffield.ac.uk @tarn_lass