Website Usability

Data

Q1: Using the library web site, can you tell if the library has any books written by Marc Bekoff?

Successful_____                     Unsuccessful__X____

Observer's comment: The student remarked that she was "not sure" and said that she always uses research guides and eJournals A-Z. She said, "circulation, maybe."
Number of links: 0

Follow-up to Q1 if unsuccessful: If the student is unsuccessful, the librarian should ask what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?

Student's   response: "Card catalogs." She also mentioned that she uses indexes to find articles.

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Are students able to navigate to the catalog to look for a book? No. The student needed a more obvious and clearly labeled link to the catalog.

Q2: Using the library web site, can you find an electronic copy of Journal of Asset Management ?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student clicked on the eJournals A-Z link and performed a title search for Journal of Asset Management, finding the two subscriptions for this journal.
Number of links: 1

1 st Follow-up to Q2 if unsuccessful: If the participant goes to the catalog and stops, the librarian should ask, "is there somewhere else on the library web site to look for this?"

Student's   response:

2 nd Follow-up to Q2 if unsuccessful:   If the student still does not find the eJournals list, the librarian should ask, "what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?"

Student's   response:

Observer's comment about underlying question of:   Do students use the eJournals A-Z list for electronic journals? Yes.

Q3: Using the library web site, can you find a print copy of the Journal of the American Helicopter Society ?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student started by following the eJournals link and then title search. Upon realizing, she had entered the wrong journal title for this question, she went back to the home page and followed the link to collections and then reserve using the subnavigation bar. From reserve she clicked on circulation and then current periodicals under the Mugar Library section. The student went back and then followed the research tools link in the navigation bar at the top of the screen. From this page, the student followed the link to the BU Libraries catalog and then performed a title search for Journal of American Helicopter Society, finding the catalog record for this title.
Number of links: 9

Follow-up to Q3 if unsuccessful: If the student is unsuccessful, the librarian should ask what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?

Student's   response: "I don't know-I always look up eJournals-don't look for books-online catalog or something like that."

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Are students able to navigate to the catalog for a print journal? This student was able to eventually navigate to the catalog, but not efficiently. Again, this student seemed much more comfortable search for eJournals, making me wonder if they use print journals. Based on the student's comment it does sound like a more obvious and well-placed link to the catalog would have helped.

Q4: Using the library web site, how would you get a book or article we do not own?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: Student said, "other library catalogs?" and followed this link. She then followed the regional catalogs link at the top of the page and linked to Harvard's catalog, saying, "can I look up a book here?"
Number of links: 3

Follow-up to Q4 if unsuccessful: If students did not make it to the ILL page, the librarian should ask, "what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?/ are there other ways to find it"

Student's   response: The student said, "online journal type of thing? What is interlibrary loan?" The student followed the link to interlibrary loan and pointed out that an item can be ordered from this page.
Number of links: 1

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Do students navigate to the ILL page and if so, how (through the how to box or the ILL link)? Yes. The student did not seem to be familiar with the phrase," interlibrary loan," but was able to quickly figure it out.

Q5: Using the library web site, how would you find a journal article about depression?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student started by following the eJournals A-Z link, she then hit the back button and followed the link to eResources by subject, scrolling to the Health and Medicine section. The student followed the link to clinical medicine, scrolling through the page and clicking on the link for Health Information Research Unit . The student hit the back button twice and was taken to the research guides page. She followed the link to Social Sciences from the top of the page and then Psychology and looked through the first part of this page, stopping on the link for PsychInfo and clicking on it. She then did a keyword search for depression. Number of links: 10

1 st Follow-up to Q5 if unsuccessful: If the students navigate to a database through research guides or similar, the librarian should praise the student and show her the indexes and databases link and ask, "is there a better way to word that?"

Student's   response: "Databases does not do a lot for me. I don't know what that means." The student mentioned that she wants to type in one sort of search.

2 nd Follow-up to Q5 if unsuccessful:

Student's   response:

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Do students use the indexes and databases link to find articles? No. As the student said, "databases" is not meaningful to her.

Q6: How would you change the library's web site to make it more useful for you?

Student's response: The phrase, "card catalog," would help, the student said. The student recommended a"big icon" that said "search library for book you need." Otherwise, the page is pretty good.

Q7: What do you find useful on the library's web site?

Student's response: She uses the eJournals all of the time and the research guides.

Q8: Is there anything you would like to tell us about the library's web site?

Student's response: "How do I search for microfilm from the web site?" The student mentioned that her eye only went to the left part of the screen. She did not see the catalog search box. The student suggested maybe moving the library catalog search box to the top of the page.