SPEC Kit 322: Library User Experience · 85
Online card sorting to help test terminology and groupings of subject areas on the website. Individual interviews
with faculty regarding their research process (not directly asking about the website). Helpful in understanding which
resources and services should be more prominent.
Online questionnaires have been tried over the years including the customer satisfaction survey.
Other than outreach and liaison services, we have not pursued situations where we are asking faculty/students to
participate in these types of discussions.
Pizza with the Dean Late Night at the Library for incoming freshmen Stress-free Zone during finals week. Reception for
International Students.
Simple web survey on the homepage of the library’s website. Informal surveys on Facebook. Paper surveys at service
points with raffle prize at completion. Student competitions to rethink or redesign something.
Strategic Planning Focus Groups Furniture trials Ongoing library instruction session assessments that assist university in
evaluating and assessing the core curriculum.
The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre: advisory group (campus and community) advises on services offered by the IKBLC.
IKBLC website and newsletters also ask for feedback. Asian Library and Xwi7xwa Library reach out to their distinct
communities in unique ways.
The Library Dean and the Director for Library Instruction and Campus Partnerships meet with about 3,000 freshman
parents during the summer and share information about the library and what it can do for their daughters/sons and
solicit their perspectives and expectations. The Director for Instruction and Campus Partnerships meets with all 100
faculty involved with First Year Programs to share information about library resources and services and to get their
input. She also meets with the 56 Freshmen Interest Group (peer) Advisors several times during their training sessions
to discuss library resources, facilities, and services. The Director for Library Instruction and Campus Partnerships attends
and serves as a judge for the International Projects Fair. In this capacity she interacts with 20 internationally oriented
students about how they used the libraries’ resources and what would have made things better for them. The library is
presenting a poster session during an upcoming on-campus Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Two ethnographic studies of library use and student information seeking behaviors. Plasma screens with promotional
audio and video. Library Student Advisory council survey. Track Google alerts and how we are portrayed on blogs,
Twitter, etc. Comment books for all library exhibits. Feedback from large (500) student employees. Feedback on
Facebook page.
Two other committees of interest are the Research Commons Advisory Committee and the Data Services Advisory
Committee. Both have a mix of library staff, students, and faculty.
We aggregate data from our social media accounts, send it to the AUL for Public Services, and then distribute it to
the appropriate group for action. For a project to redesign a room as a graduate student space, we interviewed grad
students individually while walking around the room rather than doing a design charrette or focus group. To attract
users to participate in a usability study, we put an ad in our rotating banner on the library home page. That was very
effective.
We are currently conducting a study on PhD humanities students with Cornell. This is our first grant-funded, full-scale
collaborative assessment project.
We are creating a new personal librarian program for outreach to first year students planned to launch in fall 2011.
We’re exploring technology to enable persistent feedback on library web pages via Disqus or similar tools.
Online card sorting to help test terminology and groupings of subject areas on the website. Individual interviews
with faculty regarding their research process (not directly asking about the website). Helpful in understanding which
resources and services should be more prominent.
Online questionnaires have been tried over the years including the customer satisfaction survey.
Other than outreach and liaison services, we have not pursued situations where we are asking faculty/students to
participate in these types of discussions.
Pizza with the Dean Late Night at the Library for incoming freshmen Stress-free Zone during finals week. Reception for
International Students.
Simple web survey on the homepage of the library’s website. Informal surveys on Facebook. Paper surveys at service
points with raffle prize at completion. Student competitions to rethink or redesign something.
Strategic Planning Focus Groups Furniture trials Ongoing library instruction session assessments that assist university in
evaluating and assessing the core curriculum.
The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre: advisory group (campus and community) advises on services offered by the IKBLC.
IKBLC website and newsletters also ask for feedback. Asian Library and Xwi7xwa Library reach out to their distinct
communities in unique ways.
The Library Dean and the Director for Library Instruction and Campus Partnerships meet with about 3,000 freshman
parents during the summer and share information about the library and what it can do for their daughters/sons and
solicit their perspectives and expectations. The Director for Instruction and Campus Partnerships meets with all 100
faculty involved with First Year Programs to share information about library resources and services and to get their
input. She also meets with the 56 Freshmen Interest Group (peer) Advisors several times during their training sessions
to discuss library resources, facilities, and services. The Director for Library Instruction and Campus Partnerships attends
and serves as a judge for the International Projects Fair. In this capacity she interacts with 20 internationally oriented
students about how they used the libraries’ resources and what would have made things better for them. The library is
presenting a poster session during an upcoming on-campus Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Two ethnographic studies of library use and student information seeking behaviors. Plasma screens with promotional
audio and video. Library Student Advisory council survey. Track Google alerts and how we are portrayed on blogs,
Twitter, etc. Comment books for all library exhibits. Feedback from large (500) student employees. Feedback on
Facebook page.
Two other committees of interest are the Research Commons Advisory Committee and the Data Services Advisory
Committee. Both have a mix of library staff, students, and faculty.
We aggregate data from our social media accounts, send it to the AUL for Public Services, and then distribute it to
the appropriate group for action. For a project to redesign a room as a graduate student space, we interviewed grad
students individually while walking around the room rather than doing a design charrette or focus group. To attract
users to participate in a usability study, we put an ad in our rotating banner on the library home page. That was very
effective.
We are currently conducting a study on PhD humanities students with Cornell. This is our first grant-funded, full-scale
collaborative assessment project.
We are creating a new personal librarian program for outreach to first year students planned to launch in fall 2011.
We’re exploring technology to enable persistent feedback on library web pages via Disqus or similar tools.
