Usability Test Results for a Discovery Tool in an Academic Library

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Still Desperately Seeking Citations: Undergraduate Research in the Age of Web-Scale Discovery

“…It is noteworthy that because discovery tools are relatively recent, most of the published literature compares or evaluates products (Rowe, 2010;Yang & Wagner, 2010;Luther & Kelly, 2011;Gallaway & Hines, 2012;Hoeppner, 2012;Vaughan, 2012;Asher et al 2013) or describes implementation or usability studies at individual institutions (Gross and Sheriden, 2011;Howard and Wiebrands, 2011;Williams and Foster, 2011;Comeaux, 2012;Fagan et al 2012;Kaufmann et al 2012;Kornblau et al 2012;Fyn et al 2013). Several specifically discuss librarians' reaction to discovery tools (Buck & Mellinger, 2011;Howard & Wiebrands, 2011;Boyer & Besaw, 2012) and how students use them (Meadow & Meadow, 2012;Mussell & Croft, 2013).…”

Usability Test Results for Encore in an Academic Library

“…They conclude, the "literature illustrates a current need for more usability studies related to discovery tools." 4 The most relevant literature to this study are case studies documenting a library's experience with implementing a discovery services and task based usability studies of discovery services. Thomas and Buck 5 sought to determine with a task based usability study whether users were as successful performing common catalog-related tasks in WorldCat Local (WCL) as they are in the library's current catalog, Innovative Interfaces' WebPAC.…”

Applying Hierarchical Task Analysis Method to Discovery Layer Evaluation

“…While most tasks were accomplished successfully, the study confirmed previous warnings that users do not understand the complexities of search and identified several interface issues: (1) users desire single search, but willingly use multiple options for search, (2) lack of visibility for the option to sort search results, and (3) the difficulty in finding journal articles. [3] Yang and Wagner offer one case where the aim was to evaluate discovery layers against a check--list of 12 features that would define a true 'next generation catalogue':…”

“…A comparison to usability study findings, as presented by Fagan et al, is offered as a way of conclusion. [3] …”

“…The resulting data sets are often incomplete and the scenarios are hard to generalize. [3] Discovery layers have a number of technical advantages over the traditional federated search and cover a much wider range of library resources. However, they are not without limitations.…”