[Web4lib] What to call the links

[Thomas Cox]

Elizabeth,

I'm so pleased to hear about your review of 75 schools terminology.  I would
very much like to read this.  Here at Tisch library at Tufts University we
have been doing similar research and usability studies including an
ethnographic study of how our students do research.  I'm happy to share the
results of this with anyone who is interested.

I have just re-enabled my membership on this list.  Hence I did not receive
the post containing the 'resource from Alan' that you refer to below.  If
someone could kindly forward this to me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks ever so much,


-- 
Thom W. Cox
Lead Web Developer
Tisch Library
Tufts University


"Every technology has a philosophy which is given
 expression in how the technology makes people use
 their minds, in how it codifies the world, and in which
 of our senses it amplifies..."

>  - Neal Postman




On 5/1/08 9:30 AM, "Elizabeth Edwards" <brixton at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the context of our website redesign, I did a review of 75 schools'
> terminology for things like the catalog, ILL, databases, etc.  I'd be happy
> to share this information with you if you'd like.  There doesn't seem to be
> any agreement in terminology amongst universities - instead, we saw a
> combination of task based ("find books"), general ("catalog"), and branded
> ("ALADIN catalog") terminology in use.
> 
> In response, we did a language usability test with students and staff, and
> found that in some instances, our branding ("consortium loan service" rather
> than "borrow from other schools") was preferred - while in others, students
> responded to the task-based terminology.  These results may be flawed,
> however, because in at least some instances students appeared to be looking
> for the terminology that was closest to the language currently in use on our
> website.
> 
> I would highly recommend reviewing the resource that Alan sent, looking at
> the language you currently use, and then checking with students to see if
> the language that YOU think makes sense to them ACTUALLY makes sense to
> them.  :)
> 
> Hope this is helpful -
> Elizabeth
> 
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 9:21 PM, Suelzer, Elizabeth <suelzer at msoe.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> The library I work at is undergoing a site redesign. In the hopes of
>> making the site more user friendly, we want to get away from using
>> library terminology (when appropriate) and use terms that are more
>> intuitive to our students. An example of this would be labeling the link
>> to the catalog as "search for books" instead of "catalog," or saying
>> "borrow from other libraries" rather that "interlibrary loan."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> In your opinions, would this be helpful for college students, or do you
>> feel that the term "catalog" is intuitive enough.  Will I be dumbing
>> down our site, or will I make it easier to use? Also, do you have
>> examples of how you have changed the language on your site to make it
>> less librarianese and more consumer friendly?
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Elizabeth Suelzer
>> suelzer at msoe.edu <mailto:suelzer at msoe.edu>
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>