River Campus Libraries Find Articles Fourth Generation Design For Federated Searching at the University of Rochester Brenda Reeb, Usability David Lindahl, Digital Initiatives

Agenda  Serial Failure  Metasearch  User Centered Design Process  Culture and Politics  Generations of Design  Technology

Serial Failure  This is a title slide to be deleted (brenda)  Cite our article in this section

Serial Failure  Students cannot find articles  Students overwhelmed with database names, contents, and search protocols  Students insist on search simplicity  Eliminate the complexity of information retrieval  Technologies exist to make it simpler  “Serial Failure” The Charleston ADVISOR, Vol. 5., no. 3, David Lindahl, Brenda Reeb, Stanley Wilder, et al.

Behavior to build on for serial success:  Don’t make undergraduates choose anything before searching  Don’t expect users to read anything before searching  Forgiving search box tolerates single words, multiple words, Boolean, “ “ phrases.  Assume relevance ranking

Metasearch  This is a title slide to be deleted (dave)  What is metasearch – one slide Dave – we use “metasearch” in Serial Failure, not federated search. Br

Metasearch What is metasearch?  Federated Search  Single user interface to multiple databases  Simultaneous searching across resources  Merged results Metasearch technology:  Metasearch product with UI  Connectors  OpenURL Linking

User Centered Design Process  This is a title slide to be deleted (brenda)

Usability group Content group Design group Key tasks Test results Prototypes Issue responses Design iterations Test results User Centered Design Process

User focus Usability group Design group Content group Highest. No other goal than to represent the user. Medium. Competes with standards, technology, time and money Medium. Competes with exhaustive content, complex tasks

Artifacts of design process  Issue response document  Usability results  Key task list  Regular meetings (design = usability)  Project specific meetings. (usability=content and content=design)

Usability Program  This is a title slide to be deleted(Brenda)  What is a key task  Key tasks for finding articles  Key task questions

What is a key task? Key tasks are defined as frequently asked items, frequent actions or navigation to parent/child pages. Find a known article. Find a known journal. Find an article on a specific topic. Find articles on a multidisciplinary topic. Find a specific journal collection.

Tasks become test questions Find a known journal Find an article in the Journal of Fish Biology. Find a journal collection. Your friend told you there is a collection of political science journals called JSTOR. Where is it?

Characteristics of a task (long version) from Carolyn Snyder, Paper Prototyping Is based on a goal that matters to the user Covers questions important to the success of your product and business Has appropriate scope – not too broad, not too specific Has a finite and predictable set of possible solutions Has a clear end point that the user can recognize Elicits action, not just opinion Avoid red herrings – tasks with no solution.

Design Group  This is a title slide to be deleted(dave)  Style guidelines  Models for finding  Design of pathways  Group that knows the technology (what’s possible)

Web Design Process Overall Design  “Hide the technology”  Consistency with library website  Task oriented pathways  Usability testing program Page Design  Essential components  Prioritize  Simplify  Style guidelines

 Universal Design  Section 508  Web Style Guide  Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines  Page Editors’ Checklist “Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” Ron Mace Style Guidelines

Models For Finding: Google 1.Enter keywords 2.Browse results by title and snippet 3.View full text

Models For Finding: FRBR FRBR User Tasks  Find  Identify  Select  Acquire FRBR = Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records More information:

Web Design Process: Find Articles “Find Articles” project  Ongoing project to address usability issues  Our implementation of meta-search with Encompass

Knowledge Partial knowledge No knowledge Subject clusters Mapping your search to a subject Takes you away from your natural path User Databases by Subject Find Articles Clusters (courses) Google Databases A-Z User Pathways

User Pathways To Finding Articles  Knowledge of specific databases and how to use them (Databases A-Z)  Partial knowledge (Databases by Subject)  No knowledge (Find Articles, Google)

User Pathways To Finding Articles Scholarly and comprehensive results (more) (less) Knowledge and Training

Find Databases By Name User Pathways

Change color to green User Pathways Find Databases By Subject

Change color to blue Find Articles User Pathways

Content Group  This is a title slide to be deleted(brenda)  Pivital to key task development  Select appropriate content  Apply experience and education to the iterative design process

Staff Culture versus Student Expectations  This is a title slide to be deleted(dave)

Students say: “I need an article!” Librarians say:  “Select a database”  “This database has 435 journals in it.”  “These journals are peer reviewed.”  “Choose basic or advanced.”  “These journals predate the Civil War.” Staff Culture versus Student Expectations

 Balance user needs with librarian needs?  The user is always right!  Focus on user expectations  Focus on finding  Web pages that support “doing” not “telling”  Support beginners and experienced users

Staff Culture versus Student Expectations  Connect at courses, not at academic disciplines  Meet them where they are  Students attend POL250 – “Conflict in Democracies”  They do not relate to Political Science.  They do not envision themselves as political scientists.  Sustainability  Distributed workload (all bibliographers participate)  Dynamic, database-driven pages

Politics of User Centered Design  This is a title slide to be deleted(brenda)  You will encounter x, y, and z in your organization

Politics of User Centered Design  Accusation of dumbing down the site  Testing 3 users is not enough  Students are lazy  No one told me about this.  Where is your report?  This is so subjective!

Politics  Inform  Page design process document  Don’t leave home without the toolkit  Neilson’s Alert Boxes  Pages from Don’t Make Me Think  Engage  Observe tests  Publish results

Articles Committee  This is a title slide to be deleted

Generations of Design  This is a title slide to be deleted

Pre ERA design Circa 2002

Pre ERA design Circa 2002

Encompass UI 1.Enter keywords and select databases 2.Select databases or “SHOW ALL” 3.Select a result 4.View metadata 5.Select a full text source 6.View full text online

Encompass UI 1.Enter keywords and select databases 2.Select databases or “SHOW ALL” 3.Select a result 4.View metadata 5.Select a full text source 6.View full text online

Find Articles UI 1.Enter keywords 2.Select a result 3.View full text online

Mapping the Find Articles UI to FRBR Search Select Article Full Text (Gather) FRBR Tasks: Find Identify Select Acquire

Find Articles: Subject Clusters  Subject Clusters  Pre-selected databases  Search boxes anywhere  Course Pages  Connects undergrads to library resources  Top-5 resource  Usability success  Add Subject Clusters to Course Pages

Find Articles: What’s Next  Subject clusters  Testing across range of users  Direct to full text  Abstracts on selection screen  Results navigator  Shared knowledge base  Integration with catalog

Technology  This is a title slide to be deleted (dave)

Find Articles: How It Works Search Select Article Full Text (Gather) Library Web Server ERA Server Subscription Database XSLT User Page with Full Text XSLT XML HTML

Meta-search Issues  Speed and Reliability  Connectors  Index vs. Meta-search  Ease of use  Database selection  Abstracts on selection screen  Full text availability  One click to full text  Quality of results  How search terms are applied  Database selection  Relevance sorted results and de-duping

Meta-search Standards  Z39.50  SRW/SRU and CQL  OpenURL  NISO MetaSearch Initiative  OAI

Linking To Full Text  Use RE to test input variables  Determine full-text available  Based on item type and database  Create canned URL  Double dip  Requires published or discovered syntax

Standards Matter  Z39.50  SRW/SRU and CQL  OpenURL  NISO MetaSearch Initiative  OAI

OpenURL Fields  GENRE  ISSN or ISBN  ATITLE (journal-article title)  TITLE (book title)  JTITLE (journal title)  AUFIRST (author first name)  AULAST  VOLUME  ISSUE  DATE  SPAGE (start page)