[WEB4LIB] link annotations

[SusanM.Brown at mail.state.ky.us]

There is an interesting article in College and Research Libraries.
"Usability of the Academic Library Web Site: Implications for Design,"
Louise McGillis and Elaine G. Toms, July 2001, p 355-366.

On page 364 the authors talk briefly about something called "click cost."
One of the works cited for the article is the Spool book that Beth Phillip
mentioned in her response, though it is not cited at the point that they
discuss that item.

The authors are reporting on observed user behavior.  The pertinent excerpt
is:  "The "click cost" phenomenon has been discussed, but not formally
investigated.  One discussant noted that 'users are very reluctant to click
a link unless they are fairly certain that they will discover what they are
looking for.' Because of page load times, people seem reluctant to select an
option if it is not almost guaranteed to meet their needs."

See the article, because there are citations for their information that I am
not including here.

Susan

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Susan Brown		
Kentucky Virtual Library
www.kyvl.org		SusanM.Brown at mail.state.ky.us
phone: 502-573-1555	fax: 502-573-1031
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-----Original Message-----
From: Martin, Julie [mailto:Julie.Martin at PSS.Boeing.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 12:59 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] link annotations


We've got some debate going on about the value of providing annotations for
the resources we link to on our library web site. We link to a large number
of databases, newsletters, electronic journals, and web sites relevant to
our company. 

We're in the process of a redesign and there are strong feelings on both
sides of this issue. Some people feel the annotations are unecessary, and
that after you've used a resource once they just clutter things up. Other's
feel that librarians add value by providing some descriptive information
about the resource and what it's unique features are. In addition some of
our site-licensed publications have access information users need to login,
session limits, etc, that users need to be aware of. Some of this could be
provided via a link to an information page. 

Personally, I prefer to know what a link is before I follow it, especially
if there are a large number to choose from. But I'm probably too close to
the issue here, and would like to get some objective feedback.  
If anyone has information on usability studies that address this issue I'd
be interested in seeing those as well.
-
Julie Martin
Boeing Library Services
(425) 234-4434
julie.martin at boeing.com