Overcoming the Google Handicap

Abstract

This chapter illustrates how the author upgraded the library website at an urban junior college, evaluating the efficacy of the single search box and how to support information literacy. As a framework, the author used the United States Department of Energy's Root Cause Analysis Guidance Document, which illustrates root cause analysis, a process to uncover, analyze, and resolve issues or problems of user behavior relating to technology. A usability test of the library's website using student subjects supplied data for data collection. Events and causal factor analysis identified the causes of problems observed in the usability test and corrective actions required to mitigate them. Results determined what design strategies promote information literacy on a library website and if the single search box is the best fit for an urban junior college.