Document contains a user persona for a community patron at Western Washington University, and is intended to identify common use patterns, and general technological and library needs

Burmeister, Nora K.

Dillon, Jon

Marrall, Rebecca M.

Western Libraries Usability & Design Working Group

English

Western Washington University

Western Washington UniversityWestern CEDARUsability & Design Working Group Documents Western Libraries Departmental, Committee, andWorking Group Documents2016Western Libraries Community Patron UserPersona (Cheryl Corey)Rebecca M. MarrallWestern Washington University Libraries, rebecca.marrall@wwu.eduNora K. BurmeisterWestern Washington University, nora.burmeister@wwu.eduJon DillonWestern Washington University, jon.dillon@wwu.eduWestern Libraries Usability & Design Working GroupFollow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/library_udwgdocsPart of the Library and Information Science CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Libraries Departmental, Committee, and Working Group Documents at WesternCEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Usability & Design Working Group Documents by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. Formore information, please contact westerncedar@wwu.edu.Recommended CitationMarrall, Rebecca M.; Burmeister, Nora K.; Dillon, Jon; and Western Libraries Usability & Design Working Group, "Western LibrariesCommunity Patron User Persona (Cheryl Corey)" (2016). Usability & Design Working Group Documents. 6.https://cedar.wwu.edu/library_udwgdocs/6Cheryl Corey, Community Patron  Cheryl Corley, age 15, is a sophomore at one of the county public high schools. She was born and raised in Whatcom County. Her mother is a 2nd grade teacher. She has an older brother in college and a younger sister in middle school. She makes good grades in school – mostly A’s & B’s. She sings in the school choir and plays on the girls volley ball team. She has a part-time job on Saturdays at a pizza parlor. Cheryl enjoys reading for fun, but also does so well in her English classes that she got into AP English. She’s thinking about going to college after she graduates from high school. Because of financial considerations, she may go to community college for her two-year Associates degree first, then transfer to a university - maybe WWU. She’s not sure what she wants to study, but is thinking about being a teacher like her mother. Her alternate plan is to work after high school for about a year to save money for college. She’ll probably continue to live at home to save on expenses.  She’s very comfortable around computers – seems like her family has always had one. She shares a desktop PC with her younger sister at home, and does her homework on it. She typically uses Firefox. She doesn’t really have an understanding of how computers function, but she is good at searching for information on the Internet. The majority of her recreational Internet time is spent on her iPhone, on which she uses the following apps: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr, and YouTube.   Her high school library is small and the librarian works only part time, so she rarely uses it. She did have one orientation session to her school library in 9th grade but doesn’t remember much. She knows her library has a list of books online. She has gone into the library a few times to look for books to read and has used the library computer, with help from the librarian, to look up some books. She’s only had to write a couple of term papers that involved research. Once in a while she might go to the public library to find some books for her assignments. Usually she finds the information she needs for papers on the Internet, most often using Wikipedia.   In 5th grade, her class was involved in a History Day project, and she remembers visiting Western Libraries one day. She and her classmates went on a guided tour led by a librarian and then had a workshop about how to find newspapers on microfilm. She remembers thinking that the library was a very big, confusing space and that finding information using the computers seemed very complicated. She has not had occasion or need to go to Western Libraries since then.  GOALS   Find resources (books and articles) for an assignment easily and quickly.  Find general library information (hours, policies, tours)  SCENARIOS  1. Task: Find resources for assignment  Cheryl has an assignment for her AP English class on Shakespeare and her teacher plans to bring the class to Western Libraries to do some research this week. They need two scholarly articles, one book and web site. Her assignment is a group project on Romeo and Juliet. The group members plan to meet on Sunday afternoon at her house to work together on the assignment, and she hopes to get some research information for the project during the Western Libraries visit. Her teacher told them they could search the Western Libraries catalog online from home before the visit. She has the URL, but it seems easier just to wait until the visit.  2. Task: Find general library information  After the school visit, she might need more information and may need to go back on her own after school or on weekends. She’ll need to find out the library hours, whether she can check out books, how to make copies and other information.   3. Task: Find information about library tours  Cheryl also volunteers as a leader’s aide for her little sister’s Girl Scout Troop. One of the activities she plans to suggest for this year is a visit to Western Libraries, so she wants to find out about library tours.  

Western Libraries Community Patron User Persona (Cheryl Corey)

https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&amp;context=library_udwgdocs

Western Libraries Community Patron User Persona (Cheryl Corey)

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