Library Services as if Users Mattered Roy Tennant, California Digital Library
What You’re In For Abject Failures and User Hostility What Library Users Want Ways We Can Give It To Them Signs of Life Where Things Stand
Abject Failures and User Hostility
User Hostile Interfaces
Inexplicable Screen Displays & Indefensible Cataloging Practices
Mishandling Added Entries Pop quiz: How many of these items were authored by Roy Tennant, and actually have the title “Crossing the Internet Threshold?”
The Dangerous Alphabetic List
What Library Users Want
The User Perspective I want my information needs fulfilled in the easiest, fastest, and nearest way possible Any given bit of information is easier, faster, and nearer if it is available by computer — no matter what the source I won’t wait to fulfill trivial information needs, but I will wait to fulfill important ones (and only I know the difference) I want tools that are easy to use and effective, and I know it’s possible since Google does it
To find what they want To find as much or as little as they need To experience as little pain as possible To not have their time wasted To have the option to control their experience and make informed decisions To be effectively advised What Library Users Want* * And what we should be able to give to them
User Principles Only librarians like to search, everyone else likes to find All things being equal, one place to search is better than more “Good enough” is the sum of gain minus pain; users aren’t lazy, they’re human The size of a result set isn’t as important as how it is presented (“the Google lesson”)
Ways We Can Give It To Them
Metasearch Services
Subject Guides to Resources
Leveraging the Cooperative
Stealth Information Literacy Advice, cautions, tips, tricks, etc. at the point of need Provided in an unobtrusive but apparent manner Integrated as well as possible with the purpose at hand Ubiquitous Consistent
Signs of Life
Luring Google Users Back to the Library
Creating User Friendly Systems Stealth information literacy
Institutional Repositories
Innovative Partnerships
OAI Metadata Harvesting
Going Beyond the Card Catalog
Mining the Catalog to Create New Services
Where Things Stand
The “Golden Age” of Digital Libraries Now seeing a critical mass of: Infrastructure Technologies Standards and protocols That will enable: Wide and deep collaborations Use of common “building blocks” to provide sophisticated services All to provide library services as if users mattered… because they do!