Research on E-Books’ Publishing Online Library of Beijing Normal University Yingmei Wu

Outline  Concept and Method Information Architecture (IA)  Library’s Practice The Mode of Digital Collection About the Publishing System  Organizing, Labeling, Navigation, Searching, Integrative Services About the E-Book  Book details 、 Other relative information(statistics, review, etc.)

In a study of library users’ requirements for a successful digital library, “almost all the participants considered usability as the most important criterion for a useful digital library” Hong (Iris) Xie, Evaluation of digital libraries: Criteria and problems from users' perspectives, 2006

How to be usability under the idea of “User Centered”?

Concept and Method: IA  Concept organization of Information - Make the information understandable presentation of information – Make the information available  Method Organization Labeling Navigation Searching

Library’s Practice  The Mode of Digital Collection  About the Publishing System Matching the system and user activities  About the E-Book Providing more details; Presenting more correlations

Library’s Practice —— The mode of digital collection  Cooperative mode Based on some library consortium eg. The CADAL Project  Subject mode Based on a single library’s collection in some special subjects More appropriate for a single library

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Organization System On the homepage of the library website  Organize the library website from the perspective of users but not that of librarians. Organize the library website as a one-stop shop to meet users’ research and not reflect the administrative structure of the library.  Reasonable Layout and Clear Function. Be sure users can easily see and understand what materials or content your library have. Place links to different types of research materials and sources ( such as E- books and other databases). Minimize the number of clicks users must take.

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Organization System On the homepage of the E-books Database  Provide a clear overview of the E-books, include the content coverage, year range, total counts and classifications.  Offer a search function or a browser of the E-books. Finding E-books is a user’s primary goal, so it makes sense to let users search or browse E-books on the homepage of the database.

` From Tsinghua University Library, see:

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Organization System Offer Help Links and Explain Details  Place a help link on every page. This way, when users need help, they know where to find it. Make help the central place for various help tools: help text, tutorial videos question submittal form and so on.  Offering brief but excellent descriptions can help speed researchers on their way. Users like to know how they can access E-books. Is the fulltext available? If so, from home or campus only? Is a password needed? Explain up front the most critical details about access, and you help users obtain needed content.

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Organization System Classification Navigating System  Select some criterions to classify the E-books Organize E-books in multiple ways, such as classifications( like China Library Classification ), subject areas, course or time-space character. According to Reeb and Gibbons (2004), “Undergraduate students’ mental model is one focused on courses and coursework, rather than disciplines.”

From Peking University Library, see:

From Beijing Normal University Library, see:

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Labeling System Hypertext and Linking  Treat links according to conventions. Underline links or put them in a color that is different from any other text on your website. Also be sure to use a different color to indicate links users have visited.  Use consistent design elements. Across all pages of your website use fonts and colors consistently for a uniform and professional appearance. Also strive to be consistent in the layout of pages, use of terminology or wording, and how your site allows users to interact with it.

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Navigation System Use consistent navigation To orient users to the site’s resources, use one navigation bar, use it consistently and use it well. Usually a navigation bar appears at the top of every page, as a series of buttons or tabs. By highlighting the tab or button correlating with the user’s current location on the website, you provide a visual clue and keep the user from getting lost. To give another clue to a user’s location on your site, you might also include a “breadcrumb” trail indicating the location of the page the user is currently visiting relative to the homepage (e.g., Home > E-books>…).

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Searching System Offer a clear search function  Basic search first, then Advanced search Provide search fields according to users’ need Present the search term and the count of results in the search result page

` From University of Michigan, see:

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Searching System Sort results by relevance, titles, date, etc. Refine search result / Relevance search Place a Link to fulltext Search help

From National Library of China, see: Relevance search

From The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library, see: Relevance search

Library’s Practice —— the Publishing System  Integrative Services Recommend Readings: Recommend books to readers according to readers’ recommendation, like readers’ recommendation form, readers’ clicks on E-books, and paper readers’ borrowing, etc. New listings The RSS/RDF push service Personalized Services ： search history ， personal bibliography, other personalized information about e-readings

From Peking University Library, see:

From Library of Wuhan University of Technology, see:

From Library University of Pennsylvania, see:

Library’s Practice —— the E-book  E-Book Details Objective Information ： title, author, Imprint, Description, etc. Overview of the book’s content ： subject, classification, call No., contents, abstract, book review Full text

From Shanghai Jiaotong University Library, see:

Library’s Practice —— the E-book  Correlative Information Relevant resources Library’s Catalog Record ： location, borrowing records, to borrow the paper one from library Web interface of interlibrary loan system Reading Counts ： for recommendation for readers; for measuring the use of these resources Book review ： for readers and experts to write and read

From CADAL, see:

From National Library of China, see:

Reference  Hong (Iris) Xie. Evaluation of digital libraries: Criteria and problems from users' perspectives, Library & Information Science Research, 28 (2006), 433–452.  Brenda Reeb, Susan Gibbons. Students, Librarians, and Subject Guides: Improving a Poor Rate of Return, Portal : Libraries and the Academy, Vol.4, No.1, 2004,  万里鹏, 郑建明. 超越传统：信息构建与图书馆服务再造, 中国图书馆学报, 2006(5),  刘青华. 信息构建 (I A) 与图书馆数字化服务浅谈, 数字图书馆论坛, 2006(4),