River Campus Libraries

Metasearch and the Cutting Edge:University of Rochester

Stephanie FrontzMARS Hot Topics Discussion Group

ALA Chicago, June 2005

UR Library homepage

Find Articles, Journals, Newspapers

AJN page

First version of Find Articles

Usability Findings

Students cannot find articles

Students overwhelmed with database names, contents, and search protocols

Students insist on search simplicity

Library needs to eliminate the complexity of information retrieval

Technologies exist to make it simpler

Current Find Articles (I)

Finding results (FA I)

Search Results (FA II)

Getting to full text (FA I)

Following links (FA I)

Getting there (FA I)

Still getting there (FA I)

Our Process

Conduct user testing on problem pages

Redesign resource pages Evaluate various iterations of design Conduct further user testing

New Basic Search (FA II)

Basic Search Results (FA II)

Sorting order (FA II)

Getting to full text (GUF)

Full Text

Getting print in the library

Interlibrary loan (FA II)

Find Articles on Course Page

Usability group Design group

Roles & Responsibilities

Content group• Define key tasks• Raise issues• Manage project

• Create design iterations and prototypes• Respond to issues and test results• Manage issue-response process

• Select appropriate tests to perform• Perform tests• Report results• Manage key-task process

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