Access and usability issues of scholarly electronic publications

This chapter looks at the various access and usability issues related to scholarly information resources. It first looks at the various channels through which a user can get access to scholarly electronic publications. It then discusses the issues and studies surrounding usability. Some important parameters for measuring the usability of information access systems have been identified. Finally the chapter looks at the major problems facing the users in getting access to scholarly information through today's hybrid libraries, and mentions some possible measures to resolve these problems

What is usability in the context of the digital library and how can it be measured?

This paper reviews how usability has been defined in the context of the digital library, what methods have been applied and their applicability, and proposes an evaluation model and a suite of instruments for evaluating usability for academic digital libraries. The model examines effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and learnability. It is found that there exists an interlocking relationship among effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. It also examines how learnability interacts with these three attributes

Usability Testing for E-Resource Discovery: How Students Find & Choose E-Resources Using Library Websites

In early 2010, library staff at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio designed and conducted a usability study of key parts of the library website, focusing on the web pages generated by the library’s electronic resources management system (ERM) that list and describe the library’s databases. The goal was to discover how users find and choose e-resources and identify ways the library could improve access to e-resources through its web site. This article outlines the usability study conducted at BGSU, presents its conclusions about how students at BGSU find and choose databases, contextualizes these findings with other current research about user behavior, and makes recommendations for increasing student use of library e-resources

Students' natural use of language for academic library concepts

Library jargon is a barrier to users in their interactions with library staff and systems. Comprehension testing has shown that many students do not understand common library jargon. Usability testing and preference testing have successfully sought user feedback in order to develop more user-friendly interfaces. In this study into language preferences, a questionnaire was based on 20 concepts taken from New Zealand university library websites. Participants were asked to label these concepts with terms of their own choosing. New Zealand university summer school coordinators were asked to forward a URL for the web-based questionnaire to students in their classes. Fifty valid responses were received. Concepts that were central to students' library experiences were labelled with as few as 4 different terms, while less central concepts were labelled with more than 30. Library jargon was an important influence on students' choice of terminology. For many concepts, however, students used terms that had not been found on library websites. Further research is recommended into a broader range of concepts, and into whether user-derived terminology outperforms library jargon in whole-library context usability testing

Kütüphane web sayfalarının öğrenciler tarafından kullanılabilirliğinin değerlendirilmesi : Sakarya Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi uygulama çalışması

06.03.2018 tarihli ve 30352 sayılı Resmi Gazetede yayımlanan “Yükseköğretim Kanunu İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun” ile 18.06.2018 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” gereğince tam metin erişime açılmıştır.Web ortamının iletişim, eğitim, alışveriş, bilgi arama ve daha birçok işlemin yapılabildiği bir ortam olarak hızla büyümesi sebebiyle pek çok yeni çalışma alanı ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu alanlardan biri olan "web sayfalarının kullanılabilirliği" birçok sektörde ele alınabilmekle birlikte, İnsan Bilgisayar Etkileşimi (İBE) altında disiplinler arası çalışılan bir alan olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışmada üniversite kütüphanesi web sayfası üzerinde kullanılabilirlik değerlendirme konusu ele alınmıştır. Web sayfaların kullanılabilirliğini değerlendirmek amacıyla kullanılan testler "Kullanılabilirlik testleri" olarak bilinmekte ve kendi içinde çeşitlilik göstermektedir. Geliştirilen bu çeşitli testler yapılan çalışmada kullanılacak yönteme göre seçilmektedir. Ayrıca yöntem belirlenmesinde web sayfasının amacının, hizmet vereceği hedef kitlenin etkinliği de önem arz etmektedir. Bu çalışmada Sakarya Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi web sayfasının kullanılabilirliğin değerlendirilmesi amacıyla Anket, Kullanılabilirlik Testi, Sesli Düşünme Protokolü ve Gözlem olmak üzere dört yöntem kullanılmıştır. Bu çalışmada kullanılan anket literatürde yer alan anketler doğrultusunda geliştirilmiş olup, 15 kişiye uygulanan pilot çalışması sonucu şekillenmiştir. Literatürde yer alan çalışmalardan farklı olarak, bu çalışmada kullanıcıların "Bilgi Erişim Beceri Düzeyleri" de ölçülmüştür. Böylece web sayfası kullanılabilirliği ile kullanıcıların "Bilgi Erişim Beceri Düzeyleri (BEBD)" karşılaştırılarak bir takım analizler sonucunda bu iki değişken arasındaki ilişkilerin ortaya konulması hedeflenmiştir. Buna göre elde edilen nicel verilere göre kullanıcıların BEBD ile performansları ve memnuniyetleri arasında anlamlı bir ilişki vardır. BEBD'si yüksek olan kullanıcıların performanslarının yüksek olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Aynı zamanda performansları yüksek olan kullanıcıların memnuniyet oranlarının da yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. Çalışmada Sesli Düşünme Protokolü ve Gözlem yoluyla elde edilen nitel veriler değerlendirilmiş ve tespit edilen sorunların giderilmesi için kullanılabilirliği daha yüksek, daha kolay ve anlaşılır kütüphane web sayfaları oluşturulmasına yönelik bazı önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Ayrıca bu çalışmada ele alınan BEBD, Bilgi Okuryazarlığı 'nın bir alt kavramı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Ancak kullanıcılardan elde edilen nitel veriler neticesinde kullanıcıların Bilgi Okuryazarlığı konusunda eksiklikler görülmüştür. Bu eksiklikleri belirleyebilmek ve giderebilmek için ileriki çalışmalarda Bilgi Okuryazarlığı ile ilgili daha detaylı çalışmalara yapılması üzene yönelik önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Web Sayfalarının Kullanılabilirliği, Kullanılabilirlik Testleri, Kullanılabilirlil Değerlendirme Yöntemleri, Kullanıcı Merkezli Tasarım, Kütüphane Web SayfalarıDue to the rapid growth of the Internet as a virtual environment for communication, education, shopping, and information search, many new working areas have emerged. While "usability of web pages", one of these areas, can be addressed in many sectors, it has emerged as an interdisciplinary field of study addressing topics of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This thesis focuses on web page usability and evaluation issues of University libraries in general. There are different tools that are used to test and evaluate web page usability. Moreover, the purpose of the web page and the target audience play an important role in determining the evaluation method. Four methods, namely Questionnaire, Usability Testing, Think Aloud Protocols and Observation, are used in order to evaluate the usability of the web page of Sakarya University Library. The questionnaire was initially developed in accordance with other questionnaires available in the literature and was finalized accounting for the results of a pilot study carried out with 15 persons. Unlike in existing studies in the literature, "Information Retrieval Skill Levels (IRSL)" of the users were also measured in the course of this thesis. By comparing the usability of web pages with the users' IRSLs, the aim was to reveal the relationship between these two variables as a result of a number of analyses. According to the quantitative data obtained according to that method, there is a significant relationship between IRSL and performance and satisfaction of the users. It has been found that those users having a higher level of IRSL also display a higher performance. Likewise it has been observed that the users whose performance is quite high have also high satisfaction rates. Qualitative data obtained using the methods of Think Aloud Protocols and Observation, were evaluated and some suggestions for creating library web pages of improved usability were made to eliminate the problems identified. IRSL was also considered as a sub-concept of Information Literacy. However, the user's lack of information literacy was observed as a result of the qualitative data obtained from the users. Some suggestions for the further studies to be done related to Information Literacy suggestions are made to determine and address these shortcomings Keywords: Usability of Web Pages, Usability testing, Methods of Usability Evaluation, Usi Centered Design, Library Web Page

Students' natural use of language for academic library concepts

Library jargon is a barrier to users in their interactions with library staff and systems. Comprehension testing has shown that many students do not understand common library jargon. Usability testing and preference testing have successfully sought user feedback in order to develop more user-friendly interfaces. In this study into language preferences, a questionnaire was based on 20 concepts taken from New Zealand university library websites. Participants were asked to label these concepts with terms of their own choosing. New Zealand university summer school coordinators were asked to forward a URL for the web-based questionnaire to students in their classes. Fifty valid responses were received. Concepts that were central to students' library experiences were labelled with as few as 4 different terms, while less central concepts were labelled with more than 30. Library jargon was an important influence on students' choice of terminology. For many concepts, however, students used terms that had not been found on library websites. Further research is recommended into a broader range of concepts, and into whether user-derived terminology outperforms library jargon in whole-library context usability testing