design talk: understanding the roles of usability practitioners, web designers, and web developers...

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Book Reviews edited by Joan Cheverie Design Talk: Understanding the Roles of Usability Practitioners, Web Designers, and Web Developers in User-Centered Web Design By Brenda Reeb Reviewed by Annie Armstrong ................ 386 Going Beyond Google: The Invisible Web in Learning and Teaching By Jane Devine and Francine Egger-Sider Reviewed by Craig Gibson .................... 387 Academic Library Research: Perspectives and Current Trends By Marie L. Radford and Pamela Snelson Reviewed by Lee Andrew Hilyer ............... 387 More Hands-On Information Literacy Activities By Fiona Hunt and Jane Birks Reviewed by Irene Ke ....................... 388 Better by Design: An Introduction to Planning and Designing a New Library Building By Ayub Khan Reviewed by Robert D. Laws .................. 389 Checklist of Library Building Design Considerations By William H. Sannwald Reviewed by Robert D. Laws .................. 389 Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management By Peggy Johnson Reviewed by Sandra B. Marroquin ............. 390 Professional Liability Issues for Librarians and Information Professionals By Paul D. Healey Reviewed by Steve McKinzie .................. 391 Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections, Marketing, and Information Literacy By Amy Harris and Scott E. Rice Reviewed by Loretta Wallace ................. 391 Design Talk: Understanding the Roles of Usability Practitioners, Web Designers, and Web Developers in User-Centered Web Design, by Brenda Reeb. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2008. 95p. $32.00. ISBN 978-0-8389-8502-1. Brenda Reeb presents the process of creating a user- centered library Web site (or any Web site) in terms of three roles which must be fulfilled: designers, usability practitioners and content experts. The organization of the book chapters coincides with these roles, with an additional closing chapter entitled, bBuild a Program for User-Centered Design,Q which discusses administrative and organizational issues that must be addressed and resolved in order to achieve and maintain a user- centered Web site. Reeb is clearly an expert and a practitioner, and the fact that she has presented this content in the form of workshops to multiple audiences is not a surprise. She understands library organizational structures and the impediments and challenges to designing, building, testing and maintaining high quality user-centered Web sites. While many libraries delegate Web design work to ad hoc committees and task forces charged with a one- time project to design, redesign or test a Web site, according to Reeb and other usability experts such as Jakob Nielsen, this model cannot result in a truly user-centered Web site. While this text is very slim (at 95 pages), readers will not breathe a sign of relief upon finishing it. Rather, they will understand that teamwork, expertise and institutional buy-in must be ingrained in every step of the Web design process, and that it could take as many as 20 years to reach the pinnacle of user-centered design (see Neilsen's eight stages of corporate usability maturity, p. 80). Fortu- nately, Reeb suggests staffing models and other prac- tical steps to promote success in this venture. Reeb explains in the preface that this is not a how-to manual. While the book provides a comprehensive framework structured around various responsibilities that must be performed at numerous points in the Web design process and cites the tenets of renowned usabi- lity and Web design experts such as Jakob Nielsen, Roy Tennant, and Jeffrey Rubin, this is not a stand-alone manual. Librarians who assume one or more of the roles outlined by Reeb will likely need to consult lengthier guides such as Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2006), or Jeffery Rubin's Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Design, and Conduct Effective Tests (1994) to fill in more of the details involved in fulfilling each of the roles outlined by Reeb. For this book to have maximum impact, it must be shared with library students, Web designers, web 386 The Journal of Academic Librarianship Volume 35, Number 4, pages 386392

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Book Reviewsedited by Joan Cheverie

Design Talk: Understanding the Roles ofUsability Practitioners, Web Designers, andWeb Developers in User-Centered Web Design

By Brenda ReebReviewed by Annie Armstrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Going Beyond Google: The Invisible Web inLearning and Teaching

By Jane Devine and Francine Egger-SiderReviewed by Craig Gibson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Academic Library Research: Perspectives andCurrent Trends

By Marie L. Radford and Pamela SnelsonReviewed by Lee Andrew Hilyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

More Hands-On Information Literacy ActivitiesBy Fiona Hunt and Jane Birks

Reviewed by Irene Ke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Better by Design: An Introduction to Planningand Designing a New Library Building

By Ayub KhanReviewed by Robert D. Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Checklist of Library Building DesignConsiderations

By William H. SannwaldReviewed by Robert D. Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Fundamentals of Collection Development andManagement

By Peggy JohnsonReviewed by Sandra B. Marroquin . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Professional Liability Issues for Librarians andInformation Professionals

By Paul D. HealeyReviewed by Steve McKinzie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections,Marketing, and Information Literacy

By Amy Harris and Scott E. RiceReviewed by Loretta Wallace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Design Talk: Understanding the Roles of UsabilityPractitioners, Web Designers, and Web Developers inUser-Centered Web Design, by Brenda Reeb. Chicago:Association of College and Research Libraries, 2008. 95p.$32.00. ISBN 978-0-8389-8502-1.

Brenda Reeb presents the process of creating a user-centered library Web site (or any Web site) in terms ofthree roles which must be fulfilled: designers, usabilitypractitioners and content experts. The organization ofthe book chapters coincides with these roles, with anadditional closing chapter entitled, bBuild a Program forUser-Centered Design,Q which discusses administrativeand organizational issues that must be addressed andresolved in order to achieve and maintain a user-centered Web site.

Reeb is clearly an expert and a practitioner, and thefact that she has presented this content in the form ofworkshops to multiple audiences is not a surprise. Sheunderstands library organizational structures and theimpediments and challenges to designing, building,testing andmaintaining high quality user-centeredWebsites. While many libraries delegateWeb designwork toad hoc committees and task forces charged with a one-time project to design, redesign or test a Web site,according to Reeb and other usability experts such asJakob Nielsen, this model cannot result in a trulyuser-centered Web site. While this text is very slim(at 95 pages), readers will not breathe a sign of reliefupon finishing it. Rather, they will understand thatteamwork, expertise and institutional buy-in must beingrained in every step of the Web design process, andthat it could take as many as 20 years to reach thepinnacle of user-centered design (see Neilsen's eightstages of corporate usability maturity, p. 80). Fortu-nately, Reeb suggests staffing models and other prac-tical steps to promote success in this venture.

Reeb explains in the preface that this is not a how-tomanual. While the book provides a comprehensiveframework structured around various responsibilitiesthat must be performed at numerous points in the Webdesign process and cites the tenets of renowned usabi-lity and Web design experts such as Jakob Nielsen, RoyTennant, and Jeffrey Rubin, this is not a stand-alonemanual. Librarians who assume one or more of the rolesoutlined by Reeb will likely need to consult lengthierguides such as Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think: ACommon Sense Approach to Web Usability (2006), orJeffery Rubin's Handbook of Usability Testing: How toDesign, and Conduct Effective Tests (1994) to fill in moreof the details involved in fulfilling each of the rolesoutlined by Reeb.

For this book to have maximum impact, it mustbe shared with library students, Web designers, web

386 The Journal of Academic Librarianship Volume 35, Number 4, pages 386–392

developers, usability practitioners, and, especially, lib-rary administrators. All players involved in the processmust understand that Web site design cannot beassigned to a small group of individuals, but must betruly supported at an institutional level, as it requiresallocation of time, expert staff, equipment, and finan-cial resources on an ongoing basis. This book is highlyrecommended for academic libraries, and any libraryor organization seeking to build and maintain a Website responsive to user needs.—Annie Armstrong,Assistant Reference Librarian and Assistant Profes-sor, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois atChicago, 801 S. Morgan St., MC 234, Chicago,IL 60607, USA <[email protected]>.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2009.04.010

Going Beyond Google: The Invisible Web in Learningand Teaching, by Jane Devine and Francine Egger-Sider. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2009. 156p.$65.00. ISBN 978-1-55570-633-3.

This compact book offers a wealth of informationabout the bdeep webQ or, as the authors prefer, thebinvisible webQ, which they define as b the term used todescribe all of the information available on the WorldWide Web that cannot be found by using general-purpose search enginesQ (p. 3). From this frameworkdescribed in the first chapter, the authors launch adiscussion of features and characteristics of the invisibleweb that challenge beginning and even intermediateand advanced researchers. The deceptiveness of gen-eral-purpose search engines is aptly described.

The authors then summarize in chapter two some ofthe findings from recent OCLC and Pew studies aboutuser behaviors in relating to the Web—they provide aconcise overview through a chart comparing thesefindings. They also enumerate in an expanded list thebuser challengesQ identified from these studies—offer-ing us some perspective on the common themesemerging over the past decade in shifting challengesfor students and others in using the Web. From thispoint, the authors introduce some of the pedagogicalchallenges in helping students understand the invisibleweb, and organize those challenges around underlyingconcepts and strategies—mapped onto the ACRL Infor-mation Literacy Standards for Higher Education. Devineand Egger-Sider discuss opportunities for teaching theinvisible web at the reference desk, in one-shot instruc-tion sessions, in credit courses, and in course manage-ment systems.

The remaining chapters treat in some depth typicalsearching problems in the invisible web and how toovercome them, how to formulate search strategiesappropriate for the invisible web environment, andhow to compensate for the ever-changing boundariesof the invisible web. Chapter five is one of the mostuseful—it offers an extended fictional case study of anin-depth exploration of the topic of microfinance; the

authors show how searches are conducted through arange of licensed databases, binvisible webQ resources,and other resources, using blogs, directories, andsearch engines to continually refine the researchquestion and the research information located therein.The combination of approaches discussed, with appro-priate screen captures, is compelling from a pedago-gical perspective—all illustrate the authors' point thatstudents cannot rely exclusively on generic searchstrategies or general-purpose search engines. Chaptersix offers a very useful overview of specializeddirectories and directories of directories (InfoMine,Intute, the Open Directory Project); databases such asTHOMAS and OAIster; search engines for the invisibleweb such as CompletePlanet, Turbo10, Scirus, Scien-ceResearch.com; and niche search engines such asGuideStar (for charitable organizations), Technorati(blog postings), and Hakia (prototype search enginefor the semantic web). The book concludes with achapter elucidating briefly such initiatives as GoogleScholar, Google Book Search, the Open ContentAlliance, Open Archives Initiative, federated searching,and next generation library catalogs.

There are three appendices included in the book:a bibliography of suggested readings; a collection ofgraphics and drawings that illustrate the complex land-scape of the visible and invisible web (particularly use-ful for presentations); and the Information LiteracyCompetency Standards for Higher Education. There isalso a mixed topic- and name-index.

Going Beyond Google is especially valuable for refer-ence and instruction librarians—as well as secondaryschool teachers and college faculty—who want concise,compelling, and nontechnical explanations of the scopeof the invisible web, the challenges in searching it, andthe concomitant challenges in helping students under-stand the limitations of very generic web searching. Thebook provides a good starting point for librarians andfaculty who want to increase students' capacity fortapping into a greater range of research information thatis often hidden. Recommended for library science collec-tions, general technology collections, and for educationcourses focused on information literacy in secondaryschool settings.—Craig Gibson, Associate UniversityLibrarian for Research, Instructional, and OutreachServices, George Mason University Libraries, Fairfax,VA 22030, USA <[email protected]>.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2009.04.011

Academic Library Research: Perspectives and CurrentTrends, edited by Marie L. Radford and Pamela Snelson.Chicago: American Library Association (ACRL), 2008.315p. $56.00. ISBN 978-0-8389-0983-6.

One of the latest volumes in ACRL's Publications inLibrarianship series, Academic Library Research: Pers-pectives and Current Trends, is like attending an aca-demic library conference, only in book form. As editors,

July 2009 387