Stories that Illustrate User Needs or Problems
The study yielded the following priorities for the Libraries’ online tools:
- Make discovery easier and more effective
- Incorporate trusted networks in finding tools
- Continue to put links to the Libraries’ services and resources where the users are
As a qualitative approach, a cultural probe tends to generate creative thinking and insight related to a user group’s behavior, rather than statistically significant data results. Nevertheless, results can be coded and analyzed to suggest trends and to move beyond impressions and anecdotes, bringing a larger pattern of behavior into sharper focus.
"Now the student's created software that scans list of contents, fetches the site, parses descriptions of articles from the descriptions given, and prints titles and it asks him, do you want full text or the abstract? The program queries him about 80-90 articles per week and combines the result into digest form.” – Interview notes, Physics graduate student
- My notes: This seems to indicate a need for a way to automate search tasks for a specific topic, useful to ph.d. students
Key implication: The Libraries could meet the vast majority of user needs by focusing on services that support four core areas: research, publication/presentation, coursework, and current awareness.
Even so, many students mentioned that they automatically went to certain resources because they had used them before or because someone they trusted recommended them.
- User need for trusted networks, trusted resources, trusted people, etc., is a user need that we have not met
in the interviews, several graduate students voiced discomfort and a lack of confidence about knowing where to start for finding information about unfamiliar topics. Sometimes, even if they discovered an appropriate resource to search, the poor usability of the interface impeded their ability to locate useful information even though what they sought did exist in the tool.
- User need for paths ? or trusted methods for unfamiliar topics; anything we can do to improve interfaces
- "Key implication: It appears that the more complex and ill-defined the information task, the more the graduate students in the study relied on familiar resources and contacts to guide them to answers, yet the final result was a lower rate of success. The data suggests that graduate students could benefit from having tools and information that would allow them to expand their network of trusted resources rapidly when confronted with difficult information seeking tasks." (my itals)
Key implication: Undergraduate topical searches often required overview, or high-level, treatments of topics, which are difficult to locate with current library systems.
- User need for overview, high-level treatment of topics, and easier way to locate
“In trying to locate a paper by a colleague, the student knew it should be on her work group’s web site. It turns out that it was published in a journal and so wasn’t there. She searched his name on the work group site but there were too many papers by him. She needed another way; and so went to Google Scholar. She was working from home; and so couldn’t get into the journal website. The next day, she walked into her advisor’s office (he’s the coauthor). He gave her a copy.” – Interview notes, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate student
- Idea of frustrated searching, lack of knowledge – trusted solutions
The student said “’The coding system is a nightmare.’ (Call numbers) ‘I know that I can write down the exact call #, date, author on a card, and bring it with me, then look for the area on the map, then go to that space in the library and look on the shelf. Often times it won’t be there. I often have to ask for additional help. Staff go to somewhere completely different to get the book from the shelf.” The student will know it’s in PQZ, and not find it. She can look for 2 different books on medical ethics, one will be in the back of the Science Library, another will be in the basement at the opposite end. “It’s really difficult to browse on the shelves.” – Interview notes, Neuroscience undergraduate
- Idea of frustration of not finding something physical, need for clarity
Key implication: Resources which are quick and easy to access from the students’ locations are more likely to be used.
Fast access to any material was definitely a value for many participants in the study. Relevant anecdotes abounded in the interviews: students preferred links on a web site to “FAST stats” and were impatient that a faculty member hadn’t scanned and posted all his/her publications back to the 1970’s on their web site.
Key implication: Quick and effective services for print material could make it as valued as digital content.
"It is useful to find a little bit of info that he needs quickly without having to go get a book. For more complex things or if he hasn’t seen the information before, he prefers getting the book. ... He prefers books to articles because a book is more complete and in depth. With articles, portions aren’t included, and he has to track down references.” -- Interview notes, Aeronautics and Astronautics graduate student
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notes to self: organize this page, putting stories in one area, then separately make list of unsolved user needs, key implications