THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services The Best of Both Worlds or the End of the World as We Know It? A Usability Approach to the Cross-Product Cross- Ideology Discovery Interface Finna IGeLU 2014 Anna Pienimäki & Aleksi Turpeinen

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services

Contents 1.What is Finna? 2.Finna Architecture – a Library Perspective 3.Usability Challenges in Finna 4.Demo 5.Questions

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services What is Finna?

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services The Finnish National Digital Library (NDL)  Project funded by the Ministry of Education  The aim of the NDL project is to ensure  high standard management,  accessibility via the discovery interface Finna, and  secure preservation of electronic materials of Finnish culture  Collaborating organisations, that is, Finnish libraries, museums and archives, work jointly to preserve the national heritage in a digital format and make it accessible for all.  NDL is part of the development of national electronic services and infrastructures.

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Finna – a short history  To Primo or not to Primo?  Evaluation period  Not ready for a large consortium environment  Finnish libraries, museums, and archives  Multiple data formats  MARC21, Dublin Core  LIDO  EAD  …  Various types of patron functionalities  Highly skilled in-house programming team with skills in library systems, agile development and knowledge in context areas

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Finna – the treasures of Finnish culture  Finna discovery interface  Based on the open source discovery service VuFind  Developed in-house at the National Library of Finland  National view (  Access to national cultural data harvested into the local index  Roughly 100 organisations have been harvested into test index  51 organisations in production  Organisation views (masto.finna.fi, museot.finna.fi etc)masto.finna.fimuseot.finna.fi  Local index  Integration of Ex Libris PCI, SFX, and MetaLib  Authorised access to licensed materials such as journal articles, ejournals and ebooks  Configurable to meet the organisational needs  8 in production, more coming up soon!

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Finna Architecture - a Library Perspective

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services

Local Content

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Local Content  Materials provided by Finnish memory organisations harvested using OAI-PMH interface  Library catalogues  Finnish repositories  Lists of ejournals and ebooks  Databases and ejournals licensed by FinELib (the Finnish National Electronic Library) harvested from MetaLib and SFX  Local content is available for search and delivery for every user  Efficient search tools  Developed and administered by the National Library of Finland

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Primo Central Index

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Primo Central Index  Contains the main body of licensed materials acquired by the Finnish libraries via FinELib  Journal articles  eJournals  eBooks  Other references and citations  Hundreds of collections available  References and citations provided by various publishers  Update cycle varies depending on the publisher  Some collections are restricted to authorised users only  Ex Libris SFX link resolver is used to locate and access full texts

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Nelli meta search

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Nelli meta search  Integrated meta search service providing access to  Journal articles  eBook collections  Other references and citations  Powered by Ex Libris MetaLib  Access to MetaLib using X-services  Needed for collections not included in PCI  Customisable search sets some of which may be restricted to authorised users only

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Combined View

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Combined View  Top ten results from both of the indices (Local content, PCI)  Access to both indices for more results  Services such as add to favourites  However, facets not available due to incompatible filtering options  Optional feature – each organisation can choose whether or not to include the view into their organisational Finna

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Search first, filter later  Commonly used approach in Google, Amazon etc.  One simple search box  The full results list can be narrowed down using facets  Pros  Faster access to results using one simple search field  Quick snippet of the most relevant results given immediately  Filtering options are narrowed down based on actual results  Cons  One simple search box is often not enough for heavy users and very specific needs  A need of more advanced search options

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Usability Challenges in Finna

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Two (three) indices, two (three) results lists  To blend or not to blend, that is the question!  Incompatible advanced search options – the same search tools and criteria are not available in the indices.  Incompatible filtering options – filtering based on certain parameters will filter out all contents of the other index.  Incompatible relevance ranking scales and algorithms – blending in blocks might lead into false relevance order.  Possible solution:  Common search box to access both of the indices  Two tabs, two main results lists (+ one extra tab for meta search)  Combined view for the most relevant results of the both indices  TODO: More comprehensive usability testing of blended results list needed

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Hello gorgeous, what is your name?  Contents of the indices overlap somewhat  eBooks and repositories  Finding suitable names for the indices / tabs has proven to be extremely difficult.  How to find the most relevant content?  Solution:  The name should describe the contents as accurately as possible without being too complex.  A brand inside a brand, as a tab name, confuses the user.  In Finna, the organisations have the possibility to name the tabs as they prefer.  Various types of libraries as customers, various needs and contents

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Restricted content  Primo Central Index (and MetaLib) contains both restricted and open content  Delivery (and sometimes search) of restricted content requires authorisation.  The results lists differ based on whether or not the user has been authorised (either by logging in or being inside organisation’s IP range).  Not all login methods available in Finna authorise the user.  Solution:  We guide the users to authorise themselves when showing the results.  To ensure the access to all restricted content by one login, we make use of proxy settings when creating outbound links.

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services How to bring meta search into mix?  Not all licensed content is in PCI, so we sometimes need meta searches, as well  Meta searches are slow compared to indexed content  No relevant filtering options available  Solution:  We use Ajax to inform the users about ongoing search process  The default set can be customised by the customer organisation to contain the most relevant content not available in other indices.  We provide a list of databases harvested from the organisation’ MetaLib instance to access and search the native interfaces

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Usability Design  Usability development is a continuing process that requires iteration  User interface design often requires re-design based on user feedback to make the software more efficient and intuitive for all user groups.  Both objective and subjective feedback is needed  Usability tests (including e.g. observation, recording, thinking aloud)  Heuristic evaluation  Testing prototypes

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Usability tests in Finna  What has been done?  1 usability test by a professional company  1 broad accessibility test by students of user centered design  3 smaller studies researching the behaviour of actual users designed and executed by students of user centered design

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Usability tests in Finna  What next?  Contextual research with researchers (heavy users)  Structured interview  Structured usability test  Focuses on library and academic content search  Outputs:  User scenarios  Descriptions of databases and user behaviour relevant to each discipline  Smaller usability studies in co-operation with students / universities or companies specialised in user experience

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Towards successful library services  Usability design is an important part of service design  Searching library databases is one step in the process towards successful user experience in library services.  Finding a book online might still require an actual visit to the library. This visit is at least equally important when users form their subjective opinion on library services!  To ensure a good user and service experience, each step on the service string should fulfill the user needs!

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services DEMO: samk.finna.fisamk.finna.fi

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Questions?

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND – Library Network Services Thank you! Anna Pienimäki & Aleksi Turpeinen The National Library of Finland