Library Services as if Users Mattered Roy Tennant, California Digital Library

What You’re In For Abject Failures and User Hostility What Library Users Want Ways We Can Give It To Them Signs of Life Where Things Stand

Abject Failures and User Hostility

User Hostile Interfaces

Inexplicable Screen Displays & Indefensible Cataloging Practices

Mishandling Added Entries Pop quiz: How many of these items were authored by Roy Tennant, and actually have the title “Crossing the Internet Threshold?”

The Dangerous Alphabetic List

What Library Users Want

The User Perspective I want my information needs fulfilled in the easiest, fastest, and nearest way possible Any given bit of information is easier, faster, and nearer if it is available by computer — no matter what the source I won’t wait to fulfill trivial information needs, but I will wait to fulfill important ones (and only I know the difference) I want tools that are easy to use and effective, and I know it’s possible since Google does it

To find what they want To find as much or as little as they need To experience as little pain as possible To not have their time wasted To have the option to control their experience and make informed decisions To be effectively advised What Library Users Want* * And what we should be able to give to them

User Principles Only librarians like to search, everyone else likes to find All things being equal, one place to search is better than more “Good enough” is the sum of gain minus pain; users aren’t lazy, they’re human The size of a result set isn’t as important as how it is presented (“the Google lesson”)

Ways We Can Give It To Them

Metasearch Services

Subject Guides to Resources

Leveraging the Cooperative

Stealth Information Literacy Advice, cautions, tips, tricks, etc. at the point of need Provided in an unobtrusive but apparent manner Integrated as well as possible with the purpose at hand Ubiquitous Consistent

Signs of Life

Luring Google Users Back to the Library

Creating User Friendly Systems Stealth information literacy

Institutional Repositories

Innovative Partnerships

OAI Metadata Harvesting

Going Beyond the Card Catalog

Mining the Catalog to Create New Services

Where Things Stand

The “Golden Age” of Digital Libraries Now seeing a critical mass of: Infrastructure Technologies Standards and protocols That will enable: Wide and deep collaborations Use of common “building blocks” to provide sophisticated services All to provide library services as if users mattered… because they do!