OPAC Usability

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OPAC Usability

• Ava Gutwein
• Karen Grondin
• Tim Konieczny
• Sarah Kaufman

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Problem

• The usability of an OPAC (Online Public Access
  Catalog) and how perceived usability was affected
  by age, computer skills, and educational level.

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Importance

• An OPAC is a representation of the library.
• Human Computer Interaction
• Huge variety of users
• Design of the user interface.

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Who Cares?

• Librarians and information professionals.
• Library staff
• Vendors, designers, and creators of OPACs.
• Most of all patrons.

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Our Approach

• We looked at several OPACs and chose one the
  Tempe Public Library.
• http//catalog.tempe.gov
• Informal online survey using freeonlinesurveys.com
  
• http//FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id
  57474
• Participants were recruited from each group
  members e-mail list of family and friends

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Our Approach cont

• Assumed that none of participants had ever used
  TPLs OPAC
• Asked participants to do a search in TPLs
  catalog and then answer questions regarding this
  experience.
• http//FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id
  57474

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Why Tempe Public Library

• We have an insider.
• We wanted to look at an OPAC that used
  Innovatives Millennium product.
• We felt that TPLs OPAC would be easy for most
  people to use.
• We felt it was among the easiest to navigate.
• The childrens catalog KidsOnline appeared to
  be easy to use. (at least to us)
  http//catalog.tempe.gov90/kids

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Outcomes of Survey

• 30 responses total (as of April 9th, 2004)
• Majority of respondents were
• 36-45 yr. old
• 4 year college graduates
• Moderately skilled at computers

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Age and Usability
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Education
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Computer Skills and Usability
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Analysis

• There were several unexpected results
• Computer skills did not correlate with searching
  success.
• Users from age ranges 22-35, 36-45, and 46-55
  were comparatively similar in their searching
  success.
• There was a correlation between educational level
  and search success.

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New Insights / Future Ideas

• Digital Divide those who have daily access to
  computers and internet have more experience with
  technology and thus may have an advantage when
  searching OPACs.
• Only those who had online access to the survey
  were able to take it. What if we had paper
  copies available?
• In repeating this experiment we would aim to
  survey equal amounts of individuals with in the
  age groups. This would affect data. We could
  request survey takers to tell us what their
  search terms were.

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