by I’m new at this whole web services librarian gig. I’m still excited and have tons to learn and read. One of the top things on my to do list was to get a better idea of how people are using the library website. Of course, I’ve fiddled with it but I don’t search like everyone else. Now that we’re into the throes of the winter term, I took the opportunity to watch some of my colleagues as they taught library resources to students. It’s been an enlightening experience in many ways. True to form, no two librarians taught the same way and they all approached using the library website and library resources in slightly different ways. I’ve come away from the experience with a new understanding of the website and a list of things I could change to help make things a little easier.
What’s next? Putting some of these changes in place where I can. I also plan to observe on the reference desk when I return from Super Conference (say hi if you see me), as I expect there will be further issues that are highlighted there.
While observing my colleagues as they teach and use the library website is useful, they are not the average user. Observing in classes, I was able to observe the students as well and see if they tripped over navigating our resources. Watching my colleagues is useful but I must admit, I’m really excited to start observing students and faculty without library aid. We will get a much better idea of how our users approach our website.
So, why am I doing this? In regards to observing my colleagues, it helps provide a context as to how they use are resources. The same will happen when I expand observations to students and faculty. Why do I want context – to design a better site. We’re in the process of evaluating possible CMS and the more I know, the better informed decision I can make. I recently attended a webinar on website usability. One of the things I took away (and strongly agree with) was simply this: move decisions from opinion to data. That’s what observation is helping with – I’m collecting data on how people actually use the site and from there, I can help make the library website a more useful resource.
