1. Catalog Use and Usability Studies: What Do They Show and How Should This Evidence Affect Our Decision-Making? ALA 2009 Annual Session Program of the ALCTS CCS Research and Publications Committee

2. Session purpose Invited researchers who have conducted catalog usability and user study findings to discuss their research and how they improved their catalog Evidence-based as opposed to anecdotal (no one pays attention to this field, etc.) Like venturing into a foreign-land

3. Online Catalogs: What Users and Librarians Want By Karen Calhoun, OCLC http://presentations.ala.org/images/5/59/Cal houn_Online_Catalogs_ALA_July_2009.pdf http://presentations.ala.org/images/5/59/Cal houn_Online_Catalogs_ALA_July_2009.pdf Some key points from her presentation: – “Evidence-based cataloging” – Digital visibility creates use

4. User Research at the University of Rochester’s River Campus Libraries Subtitle: Using an anthropological approach to build a better catalog by: Nora Dimmock, University of Rochester http://presentations.ala.org/images/1/18/Use rResearchandtheCatalogatUR_revised.pdf http://presentations.ala.org/images/1/18/Use rResearchandtheCatalogatUR_revised.pdf Key points: – Each user group has their culture – Many of the problems with opac were not immediately fixable and had to be store until later

5. Competitive Usability By Beth Thomsett-Scott at the University of North Texas Libraries, Denton http://presentations.ala.org/images/b/b0/ALA _Competitive_Usability.pdf http://presentations.ala.org/images/b/b0/ALA _Competitive_Usability.pdf Key points: – Competitive usability used more widely in business to compare different sites – OPAC is often considered to be the most difficult resource that patrons use