Evaluating the digital library: 3: Web site at Loughborough university library Dr Graham Walton, Service Development Manager and Honorary Research Fellow Users and uses of digital library module: University of Parma, 23/ 10/08

Introduction  Reason for evaluation  Mystery shopping approach  Metrics  Users survey

Reasons for evaluating Library web site  New Library web site launched in 2006 – does it work well?  Major way University staff and students access Library services – is it easy to use?  Vital as a marketing tool for the University Library – does it present the Library well?

Mystery shopping approach  Done in conjunction with another University Library (Keele)  Story developed that Library staff use when they ‘visit’ the other University Library’s web site  Use the story to do various tasks  After completing the task, complete a form evaluating the Library web site on various criteria: visual impression, colour, images, readability, navigation, ease of use, currency of information, quantity of information, level of information, support, overall experience  Rate the various aspects on scale 1 - 3

Results of mystery shopper project + Web site easy to use, good use of colour, good structure, news section - Better cross linking, make audiences for information literacy clearer

Metrics  Masses of data generated automatically but need to turn it into intelligence  ‘Google analytics’ heavily used in private sector. Significant transferability for university libraries

Hits on specific University Library web pages: Nov 07 – August 08

Hits on University Library home page and total number of hits: November 2007 – August 2008

Library web user survey  Important to establish how easy the Library web site is to use  Also numbers of ‘clicks’ needed to find relevant information  Survey undertaken where Library staff who do not use web site very often were asked to find 10 specific pieces of information from Library web site

Findings re Library web site from user survey  Most questions took between 2/3 clicks to answer and were seen as being easy to find  Some areas were particularly difficult (resource of the month, finding e-journal)  Site index and site search facility were not used much