From our colleague, Marydee Ojala, live at Computers in Libraries, DC
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
In Jeff Wisniewski’s talk this morning on federated searching, he compared a library to a casino — patrons walking into the library have the deck stacked against them. Without prior knowledge, they can’t figure out how to search multiple systems. What works on EBSCO doesn’t work on ProQuest. We librarians are the house in this casino, and the house always wins. Or, as Jeff cleverly put it, “We built it, they came, they got confused, and left.” Federated search is one way to facilitate resource discovery, presumably without the patron losing at the slot machines. Jeff not only clearly explained federated search, he suggested a theme — “Libraries are better than you-know-whoogle — and some questions to ask prospectivefederated search vendors. His favorites: What can’t you federate? What is the largest implementation you’ve done?
This theme of libraries confusing their users was repeated this afternoon in Lesley Moyo’s discussion of Web site usability. Library Web sites still have a ways to go when it comes to usability. Only 40% of library jargon used at library Web sites is understood by users. So why do we keep throwing it in? She suggests we look closely at the organizational structure of our Web sites, but rely on site intuitiveness and consistency, which she thinks has a greater impact.