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

06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 2 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 students Nearly 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 /10/2015© The University of Sheffield 3

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06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 5 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? 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 6

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. 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 7

06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 8 Introductory Questions What would you expect to find in StarPlus? How often do you use StarPlus? How do you generally search StarPlus? Activity Questions Find a specific title, did you find it easily? Can you save a search for future reference? Free text questions Do 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) 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 13

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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? 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 15

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? 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 16

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 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 17

What else? Why can’t we search everything? Trialling blended search in 3 rd 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-Shelf 06/10/2015© The University of Sheffield 18

Questions Rachel Fran