Introducing a New Product

The Public Library Catalogue as a Social Space: Usability Studies of User Interaction with Social Discovery Systems

Louise Spiteri, Dalhousie UniversityLaurel Tarulli, Halifax Public Libraries

A partnership

Academic theory vs. public library practice

Examining social catalogues on our own:Tagging, Collaboration, Sharing

Functions and uses outside the box

Potential to impact core library services

Meeting users needs and expectations

Merger of two library worlds the practical and theoretical

Benefits of working together

Sharing resources

Sharing expertise

Different perspectives and approaches

Different needs and applications for the research

Research

Today's Library Catalogues:Important and fundamental medium between users and their information needs

Competing against powerful alternatives for information discovery

Extensions of the physical library, considered in a social context as well as fulfilling information needs

Potential to impact core library services, with our emphasis on user-centered collections and RA driven services

Growing in popularity and increased implementation in libraries

Why?

Need to evaluate the usefulness of social cataloguesHow are they being used?

Frequency of use and features being used?

No comprehensive studies in Canada to evaluate usability among staff and library usersEvaluation that has occurred is vendor-based and has not been published

Choosing the participants

Two Canadian Public LibrariesLeading discovery tools in CanadaAquaBrowser

BibloCommons

Different demographics

Different launch dates does use change over time?

Familiarity with the two social catalogue solutions

Participants

Halifax Public LibrariesLaunched AquaBrowser in April 2010Is it what the users want?

What works, what doesn't? How is it being used?

How can we make it even better?

Where are we going and how do we get there?

Was it a good investment?

Expressed interest in researchLargest public library east of Toronto

Represents rural, suburban and urban usersVariety of age groups, income levels, education levels and diverse communities

Participants

Edmonton Public LibraryLaunched BiblioCommons in September 2009

Major library system in the mid-West representing a large geographic area with diverse communities, income and educational levels

Interest in the research and what it will tell them about their social catalogue

Scope of our research agenda

To examine:The extent to which public library users, librarians, and library staff can efficiently access, use, and interact with social discovery systems;

The public library users perception of, and satisfaction with, the benefits of social discovery systems; and

The public library librarians and staffs perception of, and satisfaction with, the benefits of social discovery systems.

Specific goal of current project

The specific goal of this project is to examine and compare how library users access, use, and interact with two social discovery systems used in two Canadian public library systems.

Research questions

How do public library users interact with social discovery systems? Which enhanced catalogue features do they use, e.g., faceted navigation, user-contributed content such as tagging, reviews, and ratings, sorting features, etc., and with which frequency?

How does usage between the two social discovery systems compare? Are there commonalities or differences between how public library users use different social discovery systems?

Research questions

Does the use of social discovery systems change over time? Is the use of the features in social discovery systems consistent over time?

Methodology

Transaction logs of the social discovery systems used by Halifax and Edmonton will be compiled over a four-month period.A transaction log is an electronic record of interactions that have occurred between a system and users of that system. Transaction log analysis (TLA) is a way of collecting data unobtrusively without directly interfacing with the catalogue users and that allows researchers to observe and analyze user behaviours.

Limitations of transaction log analysis

TLA is only the first step in a comprehensive usability study, since it can indicate only how users interact with a system, not the reasons for their choices. TLA can provide useful information about how the features of a system are used and can inform decisions about how these features can be improved.Since TLA does not explain the reasons for users interaction with the systems, nor the extent to which they are satisfied with the systems, future research will focus on usability studies, consisting of structured observations, questionnaires and focus groups with users and library staff

Types of data gathered

Type of search used (e.g., keyword, subject)Use of relevance ranking features Use of sorting features Use of tagging features

Use of posted reviewsUse of ratings features Use of faceted navigation

User behaviour

An ethogram will be designed to categorize and define the behavioural patterns of the users. An ethogram is an index of the behavioural patterns of a particular group, in this case, public library users. Examples of categories of behaviour include:Search process (Type of search used, e.g., keyword, subject)

View results (How user chooses to have the system display the results)

Navigation (Use of faceted navigation)

User-contributed content (Tagging, ratings, reviews)

Tracking user-contributed metadata

A set of 50 catalogue records will be examined (weekly) in both systems to track changes to tags, reviews, and ratings assigned by the clients.10 Adult fiction

10 Adult non-fiction

10 Children's fiction

10 Children's non-fiction

10 Graphic novels

Mapping user tags to LCSH

Although the nature of the tags used is not directly related to the scope of this project, we are interested in comparing the tags assigned by clients to the corresponding LC headings assigned to the record.

Mapping user tags to LCSH

Exact match

Partial matchCross-reference (tag is cross-referenced in LCSH, e.g: Serbia SEE ALSO Serbia and Montenegro)

Spelling variation (e.g., labor/labour)

Syntactical variation (e.g., sofa/couch)

Inversion (e.g., ancient philosophy/philosophy, ancient)

No match

Future studies

Future research will focus on usability studies, consisting of structured observations, questionnaires and focus groups with users and library staff, to measure:Usefulness: How well does the system enable users/staff to achieve their goals?

Effectiveness: How well does the system behave in the way that users/staff expect it to?

Efficiency: How long does it take library users/staff to accomplish their desired tasks?

Learnability: How easily can users/staff learn how to use the system?

Satisfaction: How well does the system meet library users/staff needs and expectations?

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research study is provided by the OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Science Research Grant Program.

Thank You!

Louise SpiteriMLIS Academic Program DirectorSchool of Informaton ManagementLouise.Spiteri@dal.ca

Laurel TarulliCollection Access LibrarianHalifax Public Librariestarulll@halifax.cahttp://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca

The Cataloguing Librarian Bloghttp://laureltarulli.wordpress.com