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Maryellen Allen, "A Case Study of the Usability Testing of the University
of South Florida's Virtual Library Design," Online Information
Review 26 (2002), 40-53.
Susan Augustine and Courtney Greene, "Discovering How Students
Search a Library Web Site: a Usability Case Study", College &
Research Libraries 63 (2002), 354-365.
Joseph Barker, "'Now Which Buttons Do I Press to Make These Articles Appear on the Screen?", Serials Review 25 (November 1999), 49-54.
Brenda Battleson, Austin Booth, and Jane Weintrop, "Usability Testing of an Academic Library Web Site: A Case Study," Journal of Academic Librarianship 27 (May 2001), 188-198.
Candice Benjes and Janis F. Brown, "Test, Revise, Retest: Usability
Testing and Library Web Sites," Internet Reference Services Quarterly
5 (2001), 37-54.
Jennifer Bowen et al., "Serial Failure," The Charleston Advisor 5 (2004)
"... serial failure is ... the failure of academic libraries to facilitate students’ access to articles, and it is without a doubt the most important access-related problem in academic librarianship."
Abdus Sattar Chaudhry and Meng Choo, "Understanding of Library
Jargon in the Information Seeking Process," Journal of Information
Science 27 (2001), 343-349.
This study, conducted in Singapore, used a survey method similar to that of Naismith and Stein (below), focused on technical terms used in e-mail reference interactions. Participants chose correct definitions 76.9% of the time.
Janet Chisman, Karen Diller, and Sharon Walbridge, "Usability
Testing: A Case Study," College & Research Libraries 60 (November
1999), 552-69.
Laura Cobus, Valeda Frances Dent, and Anita Ondrusek, "How Twenty-Eight Users Helped Redesign an Academic Library Web Site", Reference & User Services Quarterly 44 (Spring 2005), 232-46.
Barbara J. Cockrell and Elaine Anderson Jayne, "How Do I Find an Article? Insights from a Web Usability Study," Journal of Academic Librarianship 28 (May 2002), 122-132.
Unusually detailed coverage of terminology issues.
Denise Troll Covey, Usage and Usability Assessment: Library Practices and Concerns (Digital Library Federation and Council on Library and Information Resources, 2002)
Gwyneth H. Crowley et al., "User Perceptions of the Library's Web Pages: A Focus Group Study at Texas A&M University," Journal of Academic Librarianship 28 (July 2002), 205-210.
Ruth Dickstein and Vicki Mills, "Usability Testing at the University of Arizona Library: How to Let the Users in on the Design," Information Technology and Libraries 19 (September 2000).
Vicky Duncan and Darlene Fichter, "What words and where? Applying usability testing techniques to name a new live reference service," JMLA: Journal of the Medical Library Assocation 92 (2004), 218–225.
Karen Eliasen et al., "Navigating Online Menus: A Quantitative
Experiment", College & Research Libraries (1997), 509-517.
"The results of the study [showed] that grouping resources and assigning concrete, descriptive labels help undergraduates, especially those with basic library instruction, to make more efficient navigation decisions. Concretely, this means that ... more descriptive text is necessary."
Pat Ensor, "Knowledge level of users and nonusers of keyword/Boolean searching on an online public access catalog", RQ 32 (Fall 1992), 60-75.
Jesse James Garrett, "The Psychology of Navigation," DigitalWeb Magazine, December 17, 2002.
"Every link makes a promise, but the creators of the link have little control over what that is. The promise exists entirely in the mind of the user. ... The most important factor in evaluating the link is its language. First and foremost, users will look for specific words that they would use to describe what they’re looking for. They aren’t mulling over interpretation and connotation. They’re looking for particular words, and finding those particular words will overwhelmingly cause them to click links. If they don’t see their own words, they’ll keep an eye out for words they would expect other people to use."
Abby A. Goodrum, "I can't tell you what I want, but I'll know it when I see it: terminological disconnects in digital image reference", Reference & User Services Quarterly 45 (Fall 2005).
"When users request an image, they tend to describe the image itself rather than the meaning or emotive content of the image; their indexing vocabulary largely reflects what they expect to see in the image. This is in contrast with image indexing vocabulary derived by a system where indexing terms are derived from text surrounding the image. ... System vocabulary may describe higher-level concepts such as industrial pollution rather than smoke or smoke stacks."
James Hom, Usability Methods Toolbox
Norman B. Hutcherson, "Library Jargon: Student Recognition
of Terms and Concepts Commonly Used by Librarians in the Classroom,"
College & Research Libraries 65 (2004), 349-354.
This study used a questionnaire to test students' understanding of "terms derived from library literature, reference desk experience, and classroom observation."
Leo Robert Klein, "The Web Is Not Your Library," Library
Journal NetConnect (Winter 2001), 36-37.
Draft version: "The
Utilitarian Web"
- - - - - , "The
Expert User Is Dead," Library Journal NetConnect (Fall 2003).
Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Indianapolis: Que, 2000.
John Kupersmith, "Library Terms That Users Understand", presentation at Internet Librarian 2005.
Library Web Manager's Reference Center - includes sections on "Library-Specific Design" and "Usability"
Thura Mack et al., "Designing for Experts: How Scholars Approach
an Academic Library Web Site," Information Technology and Libraries
(2004), 16-22.
Louise McGillis and Elaine G. Toms, "Usability of the Academic Library Web Site: Implications for Design," College & Research Libraries (July 2001), 355-367.
Susan McMullen, "Usability Testing in a Library Web Site Redesign Project," Reference Services Review 29 (2001), 7-22
Constance A. Mellon, "Library anxiety: a grounded theory and its development", College & Research Libraries 47 (1986), 160-165.
This classic study quotes a student: "When I first entered the library, I was terrified. ... It was like being in a foreign country and unable to speak the language."
W. Bede Mitchell et al., "Testing
the Design of a Library Information Gateway", ACRL Tenth National
Conference (Denver, 2001); also published in Southeastern Librarian
49 (2001), 4-10.
Keith A. Morgan and Tripp Reade, "Competing Vocabularies and 'Research
Stuff'", co-published simultaneously in Journal of Internet Cataloging
5 (2002), 81-95; and in Judith R. Ahronheim, ed., High-Level Subject
Access Tools and Techniques in Internet Cataloging, Binghamton,
NY: Haworth Information Press, 2002, pp. 81-95.
Lesley Moyo and Ashley Robinson, "Library Jargon as a Factor
in Information Design for Web Usability: Survey Report (Summary),"
16th Annual Computers in Libraries 2001 (Medford, NJ: Information
Today, Inc., 2001), pp.157-165.
Rachael Naismith and Joan Stein, "Library Jargon: Student Comprehension of Technical Language Used by Librarians," College & Research Libraries 50 (Sept. 1989), 545.
This study, done several years before the advent of the web, found that "patrons only understand 50 percent of what librarians say or write." It includes a useful analysis of "how people arrive at a definition when they do not know the term," e.g. by breaking a word into segments, "unpacking" multiword phrases and analyzing them, or thinking of contexts for the term.
"Naming Conventions",
article in LISWiki.
National Cancer Institute, Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines
Jakob Nielsen, "Outliers and Luck in User Performance," Alertbox, March 6, 2006.
"Users can waste significant time scouring a site for a term that the site doesn't use and doesn't cross-reference to its own preferred term."
- - - - - , "Use Old Words When Writing for Findability," Alertbox, August 28, 2006.
"'Speak the user's language' has been a primary usability guideline for more than 20 years. The fact that the Web is a linguistic environment further increases the importance of using the right vocabulary. ... Call a spade a spade, not a digging implement. Certainly not an excavation solution."
Kimberly Parker and Daniel Dollar, "E-Terminology: Why Do I Need to Know What You Mean?," portal: Libraries and the Academy 5 (2005), 421-426.
Deals mainly with librarians' need to communicate clearly among themselves about electronic subscriptions, aggregators, bundles, etc., noting that "Our profession needs to strike a balance between what we know versus what readers need to know -- the goal being to provide just what is absolutely necessary for readers to navigate successfully."
Pearce-Moses, Richard. A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology, Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005.
Plain Language Action & Information Network - U.S. government site with guidelines and examples for writing plain English prose.
Brenda Reeb and Susan Gibbons, "Students, Librarians, and Subject Guides: Improving a Poor Rate of Return," portal: Libraries and the Academy 4 (2004), 123-130.
Joan Roca and Roland Nord, "Usability Study of the MnLINK Gateway,"
OCLC Systems & Services 17 (2001), 26-33.
Louis Rosenfeld, "Is Less Really More? [designing tables of contents for websites]," webreview.com (October 2, 1998).
Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Sebastopol CA: O'Reilly, 1998, pp. 72-98.
Karen Schneider, "Death to Library Jargon", OPAL online program, October 11, 2007.
Streaming audio and PowerPoint slides are available on OPAL's archive page.
Irene Sever, "Electronic Information Retrieval as Culture Shock: An Anthropological Exploration," RQ 33 (Spring 1994): 336-41.
"Today's library, and even more that of tomorrow, has many characteristics of an exotic, alien environment: its
language is unfamiliar and specialized and evokes incorrect associations. ... An electronic library cannot be 'learned' through instant coaching on which keys to press or even through the diligent perusal of a manual. What is necessary is to grow into an electronic library environment gradually through socialization as well as through education."
Mark A. Spivey, "The Vocabulary of Library Home Pages: An Influence on Diverse and Remote End-Users," Information Technology and Libraries 19 (September 2000), 152-156.
Mark Stover and Steven D. Zink, "World Wide Web Home Page Design: Patterns and Anomalies of Higher Education Library Home Pages," Reference Services Review 24 (Fall 1996), 7-20.
Steve Toub, Evaluating Information Architecture: A Practical Guide to Assessing Web Site Organization, [Ann Arbor]: Argus Associates, 2000, pp. 18-23.
Tiffini Anne Travis and Elaina Norlin, "Testing the Competition:
Usability of Commercial Information Sites Compared with Academic Library
Web Sites," College & Research Libraries 63 (2002), 433-448.
University of California, San Diego Libraries. About This Site: Usability Testing.
Usability Research Lab, D.H. Hill Library, North Carolina State University,
Usability
testing of library websites: Selected resources
Debbie Vaughn and Burton Callicott, "Broccoli Librarianship
and Google-Bred Patrons, or What's Wrong with Usability Testing?",
College & Undergraduate Libraries 10 (2003), 1-18.
Jerilyn R. Veldof, Michael J. Prasse, and Victoria A. Mills, "Chauffeured
by the User: Usability in the Electronic Library," Journal of Library
Administration 26 (1999), 115-140.
Günter Waibel, "Letting Users Show the Way", RLG Focus, Issue 64, October 2003.
Reports on usability testing for RLG systems including RedLightGreen.
"After trying hard to meet the undergraduates on their own turf, we were astonished by how many disconnects we still uncovered in terminology. An option to limit searches to maps was perceived as a possible link to online roadmaps; a reference to scores found the students thinking about sports rather than music; [we had to explain] language such as "most widely held" or "edition" ... . And since the user is always right, we'll try to find clearer words."
[WEB4LIB]
"Database in your face" thread - 4/02
Lesley Williams, "Making 'E' Visible", Library Journal, June 15, 2006.
Carol A. Wright, "The Academic Library as a Gateway to the Internet: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Search Engine Access from Academic Library Home Pages," College & Research Libraries 65 (2004), 276-286.
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