PSAG Conference Call December 6, 2007

Added by Martha Whitehead, last edited by Martha Whitehead on Dec 11, 2007  (view change)

Agenda, Discussion and Resulting Actions

1. Scholars Portal Day

  • Scholr 2.0 (Mita and Stacy): will assume people haven't read the paper, so recap the ideas; talk about developments since it was written.
  • User panel: UofT folks might provide an update.
  • User study: Martha will say a few words based on what's decided in the next agenda item!

 2. User Study

OCUL Directors have approved a user study to guide decisions about search and discovery interface development.  SPOD has asked that PSAG help write an RFP to hire a consultant to work on the design and execution of the study.

We had a broad discussion of things to think about in crafting the user study:

  • does this relate to an interface for MarkLogic or catalogues as well?
  • is a single point of entry something users want?
  • search box on the front page of a library website, see UBC - is this a good idea?
  • user expectation of finding articles in the catalogue is totally sensible, but how do we achieve better search results, more relevant to the user?
  • see the book Everything is Miscellaneous
  • how do we do a user study on something that doesn't exist?
  • pay attention to the fact that there are different types of users, with different purposes in different disciplines
  • should this user study be tied to iterative development of an interface, eg using the beginning ideas about the Mark Logic interface as a starting point?
  • learn some practical facts such as percentage of searches that are known item
  • which 'interface' are we talking about, given that we have the goal of being in the flow, in the user's environment? A search box that can go anywhere, and launches into the discovery interface? Consider interface as building block ("brick")
  • basic question is what do our users want: how do they interact with information, how do they search the internet, how do they want to search "the catalogue"
  • we should start with what we know, eg: subject guides are too broad, students want course or better yet assignment level guidance; faculty endorsement is very important to students.

Actions:

  • Mita will post the beginning of a list of resources for us to review prior to working with the consultant, relating to past studies, to help formulate our "what we know" list
  • Martha will work with Kathy Scardellato to develop the RFP, using the broad objectives stated in Proposal to OCUL Directors: A User Study to Inform Scholars Portal Interface Decisions
  • Martha will share RFP responses with the group for input into consultant selection
  • A face-to-face meeting will be arranged with the consultant, Kathy and members of PSAG to review what we know and formulate specific study questions and methodologies.  Mita and Valerie indicated they likely can't travel; Dana, Stacy, Jim, Kate and Martha will attend.

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