Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making
- 3 Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
- 4 Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users’ perspective
- 5 Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
- 6 The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system
- 7 Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues
- 8 A ‘joined-up’ electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour
- 9 Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach
- 10 The impact of library and information services on health professionals’ ability to locate information for patient care
- 11 We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
- 12 Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK
- 13 Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up?
- 14 Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time
- 15 The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y León
- 16 The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view
- 17 Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan
- 18 Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
- 19 Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users’ perspective
- 20 The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information
- 21 A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library
- 22 Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems
- 23 Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library
- Index
18 - Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Keynote address: Involving the customer in library planning and decision making
- 3 Denmark's Electronic Research Library: evaluation of services through user surveys and usability tests
- 4 Beyond the guidelines: assessment of the usability and accessibility of distributed services from the users’ perspective
- 5 Online services versus online chaos: evaluating online services in a Greek academic library
- 6 The Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium (HEAL-Link) and its effect on library services in Greece: the case of Aristotle University library system
- 7 Information seeking in large-scale resource discovery environments: users and union catalogues
- 8 A ‘joined-up’ electronic journal service: user attitudes and behaviour
- 9 Climbing the ladders and sidestepping the snakes: achieving accessibility through a co-ordinated and strategic approach
- 10 The impact of library and information services on health professionals’ ability to locate information for patient care
- 11 We know we are making a difference but can we prove it? Impact measurement in a higher education library
- 12 Proving our worth? Measuring the impact of the public library service in the UK
- 13 Outcomes and impacts, dollars and sense: are libraries measuring up?
- 14 Longitude II: assessing the value and impact of library services over time
- 15 The use of electronic journals in academic libraries in Castilla y León
- 16 The integration of library activities in the academic world: a practitioner's view
- 17 Monitoring PULMAN's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan
- 18 Enabling the library in university systems: trial and evaluation in the use of library services away from the library
- 19 Towards an integrated theory of digital library success from the users’ perspective
- 20 The role of digital libraries in helping students attend to source information
- 21 A DiVA for every audience: lessons learned from the evaluation of an online digital video library
- 22 Usability evaluation of Ebrary and OverDrive e-book online systems
- 23 Tearing down the walls: demand for e-books in an academic library
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Universities today operate numerous computer systems to serve the different activities within them. Among other things, administrative systems help to manage enrolment, student records, exams, staff employment and finance. Teaching and learning are often supported through course management systems or virtual learning environments, enabling interaction between staff and students. Research departments use a range of tools to facilitate collaboration and research itself. Libraries have also built up an array of systems over the years to manage the information and knowledge they hold, and to provide access to such collections for users.
Most of these systems have been established independently, with overlap only being established where essential, such as feeding student module choices from student records to course management. Library systems have been particularly independent, with limited interaction or integration with other systems within the institution. Yet, information provided by the library is integral to the learning, teaching and research activities of the institution and, arguably, success in these areas. Providing simpler access to library resources within alternative university systems will enable these to be used more effectively and directly. But is this valuable? Is it what users want?
This paper focuses on two approaches to testing access to the library within non-library university systems and contexts. The Contextual Resource Evaluation Environment (CREE) project sought to gather user requirements to inform technical development. The Twin Peaks project, in contrast, followed a rapid prototyping approach, allowing users to see what functionality might be provided before refining this on the basis of feedback. Jointly, what follows are the comparative stories of how each approach worked out via consideration, in turn, of our respective projects’ origins, background, stakeholders, development processes, evaluative processes and outcomes.
Genesis
The CREE project
As the range and number of search tools available has developed it has become apparent that, despite being beneficial in its own right, each is adding to the number of user interfaces a user needs to know about and understand when searching for information. In parallel, many institutions are creating web environments that seek to provide all the information and application requirements for their staff and students through a local common interface, or are implementing systems through which learning, teaching, research and administrative activity is being channelled; how can external search services feed into these and provide more streamlined access for users?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Libraries Without Walls 6Evaluating the Distributed Delivery of Library Services, pp. 168 - 177Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2006