The Best of Both Worlds or the End of the World as We Know It?

1. The Best of Both Worlds or the End of the World as We Know It? A Usability Approach to the Cross-Product Cross-Ideology Discovery Interface Finna IGeLU 2014 Anna Pienimäki & Aleksi Turpeinen

3. Contents • What is Finna? • Finna Architecture – a Library Perspective • Usability Challenges in Finna • Demo • Questions

4. What is Finna?

5. The Finnish National Digital Library (NDL) • Project funded by the Ministry of Education • The aim of the NDL project is to ensure • high standard management, • accessibilityvia the discoveryinterfaceFinna, and • secure preservation of electronic materials of Finnish culture • Collaborating organisations, that is, Finnish libraries, museums and archives, work jointly to preserve the national heritage in a digital format and make it accessible for all. • NDL is part of the development of national electronic services and infrastructures.

6. Finna – a short history • To Primo or not to Primo? • Evaluation period 2010-2012 • Not ready for a large consortium environment • Finnish libraries, museums, and archives • Multiple data formats • MARC21, Dublin Core • LIDO • EAD • … • Various types of patron functionalities • Highly skilled in-house programming team with skills in library systems, agile development and knowledge in context areas

7. Finna – the treasures of Finnish culture • Finna discovery interface • Based on the open source discovery service VuFind • Developed in-house at the National Library of Finland • National view (www.finna.fi) • Access to national cultural data harvested into the local index • Roughly 100 organisations have been harvested into test index • 51 organisations in production • Organisation views (masto.finna.fi, museot.finna.fi etc) • Localindex • Integration of Ex Libris PCI, SFX, and MetaLib • Authorisedaccess to licensedmaterialssuch as journalarticles, ejournals and ebooks • Configurable to meet the organisational needs • 8 in production, more coming up soon!

8. Finna Architecture - a Library Perspective

10. Local Content

11. Local Content • Materials provided by Finnish memory organisations harvested using OAI-PMH interface • Library catalogues • Finnish repositories • Lists of ejournals and ebooks • Databases and ejournals licensed by FinELib (the Finnish National Electronic Library) harvested from MetaLib and SFX • Local content is available for search and delivery for every user • Efficient search tools • Developed and administered by the National Library of Finland

12. Primo Central Index

13. Primo Central Index • Contains the main body of licensed materials acquired by the Finnish libraries via FinELib • Journal articles • eJournals • eBooks • Other references and citations • Hundreds of collections available • References and citations provided by various publishers • Update cycle varies depending on the publisher • Some collections are restricted to authorised users only • Ex Libris SFX link resolver is used to locate and access full texts

14. Nelli meta search

15. Nelli meta search • Integrated meta search service providing access to • Journal articles • eBook collections • Other references and citations • Powered by Ex LibrisMetaLib • Access to MetaLib using X-services • Needed for collections not included in PCI • Customisable search sets some of which may be restricted to authorised users only

16. Combined View

17. Combined View • Top ten results from both of the indices (Local content, PCI) • Access to both indices for more results • Services such as add to favourites • However, facets not available due to incompatible filtering options • Optional feature – each organisation can choose whether or not to include the view into their organisationalFinna

18. Search first, filter later • Commonly used approach in Google, Amazon etc. • One simple search box • The full results list can be narrowed down using facets • Pros • Faster access to results using one simple search field • Quick snippet of the most relevant results given immediately • Filtering options are narrowed down based on actual results • Cons • One simple search box is often not enough for heavy users and very specific needs • A need of more advanced search options

19. Usability Challenges in Finna

20. Two (three) indices, two (three) results lists • To blend or not to blend, that is the question! • Incompatible advanced search options – the same search tools and criteria are not available in the indices. • Incompatible filtering options – filtering based on certain parameters will filter out all contents of the other index. • Incompatible relevance ranking scales and algorithms – blending in blocks might lead into false relevance order. • Possible solution: • Common search box to access both of the indices • Two tabs, two main results lists (+ one extra tab for meta search) • Combined view for the most relevant results of the both indices • TODO: More comprehensive usability testing of blended results list needed

21. Hello gorgeous, what is your name? • Contents of the indices overlap somewhat • eBooks and repositories • Finding suitable names for the indices / tabs has proven to be extremely difficult. • How to find the most relevant content? • Solution: • The name should describe the contents as accurately as possible without being too complex. • A brand inside a brand, as a tab name, confuses the user. • In Finna, the organisations have the possibility to name the tabs as they prefer. • Various types of libraries as customers, various needs and contents

22. Restricted content • Primo Central Index (and MetaLib) contains both restricted and open content • Delivery (and sometimes search) of restricted content requires authorisation. • The results lists differ based on whether or not the user has been authorised (either by logging in or being inside organisation’s IP range). • Not all login methods available in Finnaauthorise the user. • Solution: • We guide the users to authorise themselves when showing the results. • To ensure the access to all restricted content by one login, we make use of proxy settings when creating outbound links.

23. How to bring meta search into mix? • Not all licensed content is in PCI, so we sometimes need meta searches, as well • Meta searches are slow compared to indexed content • No relevant filtering options available • Solution: • We use Ajax to inform the users about ongoing search process • The default set can be customised by the customer organisationto contain the most relevant content not available in other indices. • We provide a list of databases harvested from the organisation’ MetaLib instance to access and search the native interfaces

24. Usability Design • Usability development is a continuing processthat requires iteration • User interface design often requires re-design based on user feedback to make the software more efficient and intuitive for all user groups. • Both objective and subjective feedback is needed • Usability tests (including e.g. observation, recording, thinking aloud) • Heuristic evaluation • Testing prototypes

25. Usability tests in Finna • What has been done? • 1 usability test by a professional company • 1 broad accessibility test by students of user centered design • 3 smaller studies researching the behaviour of actual users designed and executed by students of user centered design

26. Usability tests in Finna • What next? • Contextual research with researchers (heavy users) • Structured interview • Structured usability test • Focuses on library and academic content search • Outputs: • User scenarios • Descriptions of databases and user behaviour relevant to each discipline • Smaller usability studies in co-operation with students / universities or companies specialised in user experience

27. Towards successful library services • Usability design is an important part of service design • Searching library databases is one step in the process towards successful user experience in library services. • Finding a book online might still require an actual visit to the library. This visit is at least equally important when users form their subjective opinion on library services! • To ensure a good user and service experience, each step on the service string should fulfill the user needs!

28. DEMO: samk.finna.fi

29. Questions?

30. Thankyou! Anna Pienimäki & Aleksi Turpeinen The National Library of Finland anna.pienimaki@helsinki.fi aleksi.turpeinen@helsinki.fi