Putting Assessment into Practice - Library Websites

1. Putting Assessment into Practice - Library Websites Steve Burks,LIS Web Developer Saint Michael’s College Library http://www.smcvt.edu/library/ ------------------------------------- PowerPoint Slides availablehttp://www2.smcvt.edu/library/VLC_ppt.htm

2. Coverage • LIS website recent history 2001 - 2004 • What is a student centered website • Assessing effectiveness of website • Outcomes of assessment process • Summary • Sources

3. LIS Website Recent History • Well designed – college’s web developer worked under the library at the time • 2000 – college website changed to a homogenous dynamically driven website - Market Driven

4. LIS Website Recent History----dynamically driven websites C2 (Competitive Computing) • Positives -- Unified platform -- Integrated capabilities – navigation, look, etc. • Negatives -- Not effective for the research process -- Not easy to navigate about-- Too much on required templates – unrelated to task

5. LIS Website Recent History • First year (2001) – launch from college website to the “old” library site --Cognitive dissonance • Second year (2002)– designed a template for library sub-pages that fit into the college’s web design --Access to resources through the library’s organizational structure --Not task-driven

6. What is a Student Centered Website? • Library Web Steering Committee convened in Winter 2002 to…. • --Assess effectiveness and quality of the existing web page --Establish guidelines regarding standard design --The perspective should be, in general, student-centered followed by faculty as users.

7. What is a Student Centered Website? • Based on the college’s mission and vision statement • The College’s vision will be attained by the following institutional strategy: “Centrality of Student Learning: The Saint Michael’s experience is grounded in the philosophy of a residential community engaging the whole student, intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This guiding principle will drive all College plans, initiatives and activities”

8. Assessing Effectiveness of Website • Scan --Review aspirant library websites --Look for best practices --Review web style guidelines --Review usability methods - acts in concert with needs assessment

9. Usability Studies - definition • The extent to which [a website] can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use” - International Standards Organization 1998

10. Usability Studies • Major Features • Introduced early in the design process-- User centered -- Task driven • Measuring product usage through testing • Iterative design – ongoing testing / review

11. Methods Measuring Usability • Usability testing* • Card sort • Category membership expectation • Focus Groups* • Questionnaire/Survey* • Statistical analysis (system logs)* • Cognitive walkthrough* • Heuristic evaluation * - methods we used

12. Best Usability Methods for SMC • Combined focus group / usability / survey • --Efficient --Easy to implement --Effective --Empirical --Ongoing/ Iterative • Cognitive walkthrough --Uses expertise of a diverse staff and student workers --Ongoing/ Iterative • Statistics / Systems logs --CAVEAT… this is relational data and not absolutes

13. Assessment/Outcomes

14. Assessment/Outcomes

15. Assessment and Web Development -Summary • Importance of usability testing in initial design process and as an iterative activity • Communication device… that clarifies goals and guides development of the website for stakeholders - staff, librarians, and director

16. Sources