OPAC Usability

Ava Gutwein

Karen Grondin

Tim Konieczny

Sarah Kaufman

Problem:

The usability of an OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) and how perceived usability was affected by age, computer skills, and educational level.

Importance:

An OPAC is a representation of the library.

Human Computer Interaction

Huge variety of users

Design of the user interface.

Who Cares?:

Librarians and information professionals.

Library staff

Vendors, designers, and creators of OPACs.

Most of all… patrons.

Our Approach:

We looked at several OPACs and chose one – the Tempe Public Library.http://catalog.tempe.gov

Informal online survey using freeonlinesurveys.comhttp://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=57474

Participants were recruited from each group member’s e-mail list of family and friends

Our Approach: con’t…

Assumed that none of participants had ever used TPL’s OPAC

Asked participants to do a search in TPL’s catalog and then answer questions regarding this experience.

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=57474

Why Tempe Public Library:

We have an insider.

We wanted to look at an OPAC that used Innovative’s Millennium product.

We felt that TPL’s OPAC would be easy for most people to use.

We felt it was among the easiest to navigate.

The children’s catalog “KidsOnline” appeared to be easy to use. (at least to us) http://catalog.tempe.gov:90/kids

Outcomes of Survey

30 responses total (as of April 9th, 2004)

Majority of respondents were:

36-45 yr. old

4 year college graduates

Moderately skilled at computers

Age and Usability

Education

Computer Skills and Usability:

Analysis:

There were several unexpected results:

Computer skills did not correlate with searching success.

Users from age ranges 22-35, 36-45, and 46-55 were comparatively similar in their searching success.

There was a correlation between educational level and search success.

New Insights / Future Ideas

Digital Divide: those who have daily access to computers and internet have more experience with technology and thus may have an advantage when searching OPACs.

Only those who had online access to the survey were able to take it. What if we had paper copies available?

In repeating this experiment we would aim to survey equal amounts of individuals with in the age groups. This would affect data. We could request survey takers to tell us what their search terms were.

Participants’ Comments: - I liked the Advanced Search feature, where I could pinpoint my search for a specific item (Author and Title) in a specific format (Media Type). Unlike many on-line catalogs I have used, the Tempe Library catalog generated results with complete bibliographic data and copy status. However, I did not like the inability to search by ISBN.

- I liked the Advanced Search feature, where I could pinpoint my search for a specific item (Author and Title) in a specific format (Media Type). Unlike many on-line catalogs I have used, the Tempe Library catalog generated results with complete bibliographic data and copy status. However, I did not like the inability to search by ISBN.

- That was the easiest search I have ever done!

- my experiance was that it was not hard to find what I wanted at all it was a easy search and find browser

- Overall I found the Catalog easy to use. However, I was hoping to find more German literature, like Goethe or Schiller. But I do understand that it is not a often used language in Arizona.

- Layout for search resulkts has lots of open space that could mean a clearer font could be used. Also the medium blue background does not provide clear contrast to the dark blue text. Make background blue more sky blue and it will be better.

- This was a good experience and very helpful. Thank you.

- i have nothing to say

- The presentation of the catalog was very good and was easy to follow.