[Web4lib] Labeling on Websites (electronic resources)

[John Kupersmith]

There are not many published terminology-related usability studies
from public libraries. This is not to disparage public libraries; I
worked in one for several years and have the highest respect for them.
It's just a different culture in terms of publishing.

Here are two sources that might be of interest:

Johnson County Library, Kansas
< http://www.jocolibrary.org/ >
uses "Research" leading to a hybrid subject/format menu.
They've posted some really exemplary documentation online:
< http://www.jocolibrary.org/usability >
see also:
Erica Reynolds, "The Secret to Patron-Centered Web Design: Cheap,
Easy, and Powerful Usability Techniques", Computers in Libraries (June
2008), 6-8, 44-47.

MINITEX/Minnesota State Library Standards Review Task Force
Library Web Site Terminology: Interim Minnesota Guidelines
< www.minitex.umn.edu/committees/standards/documents/terminology/ >
This 2005-06 survey was done through "more than 50 academic, public,
state government, regional library system, and school media center web
sites", and got responses from over 5000 public library users. They
found that "In most cases, the two major response groups (academic and
public library users) agreed on their preferred answer." However, this
survey didn't include a general electronic resources or subject guides
question.

As a top-level label for a public library, I think "Research your
topic" as used at the Cheshire Library
< http://www.cheshirelibrary.org >
may be worth testing, to see whether it does indeed get users moving
in the right direction. The verb phrase, the personal pronoun, and the
target word "topic" all seem like good elements here.

Some posts in this thread mentioned my "Library Terms That Users
Understand" website
< http://www.jkup.net/terms.html >

I'm glad folks are finding it useful, agree that it's a data resource
but not a "cookbook", and also acknowledge it hasn't been
significantly updated since 2006 (the latest studies excerpted in the
main table are actually from 2005). In this area, I think older data
are still useful. However, the site does present itself as a
"clearinghouse", which implies that some "clearing" is going on! So,
when time permits, I will either update it or repackage it as a
one-time compilation.

--jk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Kupersmith
Reference Librarian, Doe/Moffitt Libraries
University of California, Berkeley
jkup at jkup.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:00 AM, <web4lib-request at webjunction.org> wrote:
>
> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 14:02:22 -0700
> From: Cecily Walker <cecily.walker at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Web4lib] Labeling on Websites (electronic resources)
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Message-ID:
> <c13e77a00906041402s11434c24xb42887fc8e0b651c at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi All,
>
> We've been having a bit of discussion on a a couple of the web teams
> I'm on regarding labeling and terminology on library websites.
> Previously, I spent all my work time in private enterprises, so coming
> back to the library space has certainly been a learning experience.
>
> What we're dealing with now is how to label electronic resources and
> research guides. We want the label to be as succinct as possible, and
> ideally, it would give off enough of an information scent so that the
> public would be able to tell what sorts of things they might find
> after clicking that link.
>
> At present, our website navigation includes "Research Guides &
> Suggestions By Topic", as well as "Newspapers, Articles, Encyclopedias
> & More". There are obvious problems with any label that includes the
> word "more" because it's a very vague term. Because we're a public
> library, the word 'research' doesn't test all that well with our
> population because they don't always consider what they're doing to be
> research. We switched from "Electronic Resources" to the new terms
> because we found our patrons just didn't really understand what
> electronic resources were.
>
> So I'm curious - how do you label these items on your website? I know
> that this is one of those things for which there is no perfect answer,
> but curiosity has gotten the better of me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Cecily Walker, MLIS
> Web Services Librarian
> Vancouver Public Library
> cecily.walker at gmail.com (personal)
> cecily.walker at vpl.ca (work)
>
>