Comparative User Experiences of Next-Generation Catalogue Interfaces

Abstract

One of the presumed advantages of next-generation library catalogue interfaces is that the user experience is improved-that it is both richer and more intuitive. Often the interfaces come with little or no user-facing documentation or imbedded "help" for patrons based on an assumption of ease of use and familiarity of the experience, having followed best practices in use on the Web. While there has been much gray literature (published on library Web sites, etc.) interrogating these implicit claims and contrasting the new interfaces to traditional Web-based catalogues, this article details a consistent and formal comparison of whether users can actually accomplish common library tasks, unassisted, using these interfaces. The author has undertaken a task-based usability test of vendor-provided next-generation catalogue interfaces and Web-scale discovery tools (Encore Synergy, Summon, WorldCat Local, Primo Central, EBSCO Discovery Service). Testing was done with undergraduates across all academic disciplines. The resulting qualitative data, noting any demonstrated trouble using the software as well as feedback or suggested improvements that the users may have about the software, will assist academic libraries in making or validating purchase and subscription decisions for these interfaces as well as help vendors make data-driven decisions about interface and experience enhancements.

Discovering Usability: Comparing Two Discovery Systems at One Academic Library

“…Study results support the contention that library-centered discovery tools, if not libraries themselves, are in stiff competition with Internet utilities such as Google and Amazon.com (Miller and Chad 2005;Majors 2012) for the hearts and minds of users. A number of study participants noted that they would use a Google product for certain searches rather than either of the tools, and a faculty member stated that she would go to Amazon.com to obtain a book, rather than pursue it through the options provided by the discovery tool.…”

“…Although discovery tools may seem intuitive, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Rice Majors (2012) discovered that students need instruction to use and search them effectively. He sought to test the "assumption of ease of use" inherent with discovery systems by conducting a comparative study on five different tools: Encore Synergy, Summon, WorldCat Local, Primo Central, and EDS (186).…”

Electronic Resource Availability Studies: An Effective Way to Discover Access Errors

“…Later, as librarians became aware of usability research methods, they applied these techniques to test patron access to electronic resources. To note but a few examples from this ample literature: Cockrell and Jayne (2002) asked students to find eresources using library systems; Cummings and Johnson (2003) observed students using OpenURL linking; Wrubel (2007) offered a concise overview of e-resource usability testing; O'Neill (2009) considered how best to instruct patrons in OpenURL linking based on usability results; next generation catalogues (Majors, 2012) and discovery services (Asher, Duke, & Wilson, 2013;Fagan, Mandernach, Nelson, Paulo, & Saunders, 2012;Williams & Foster, 2011) have been studied thoroughly; Kress, Del Bosque and Ipri (2011) conducted a study to find out why students placed unnecessary ILL requests; and Imler and Eichelberger (2014) investigated how confusing vocabulary acts as a barrier to full-text. Considered as a whole, this usability research demonstrates librarians' awareness that the problems leading to full-text nonavailability are complex, arising from both library systems and human error.…”

Evaluation of a Resource Discovery Service: FindIt@Bham

“…Majors (2012) reports on the testing by undergraduates in completing actual tasks on five major resource discovery services. The study presented a summary of possible improvements identified for each RDS.…”