SOPAC 2.1 - SOcial OPAC

SOPAC
John Blyberg, Assistant Director, Innovation & User eXperience
Darien Public Library

SOPAC transformed the way Darien did business with their users
"SOcial" OPAC (online public access catalog) - open source, built on Drupal, and integrate with catalog
To the end-user, the transition from the website to the catalog is jarring - so SOPAC integrates the experience
a cohesive online digital strategy for your library
3 libraries running: Darien (CT), Ann Arbor (MI), Palos Verdes (CA)
2 more libraries coming online: Newport Beach (CA), SAILS Library Network (MA)
how does it work?
SOPAC keeps users in Drupal, a layer that is a social services suite (2 libraries: INSURGE - social data, LOCUM - business rules) & connector piece to allow it to connect to any ILS
SOPAC development is UX-driven (built for end-users, not librarians) - end users don't want to feel stupid
SOPAC had to look good, had to have visual appeal for users
Tagging in SOPAC
- this has changed the way Darien does business
- when user tags something, it gets reindexed - part of keyword search is the tag
- key change from SOPAC1 to SOPAC2
- staff uses tagging feature extensively
- used to have a rack of "staff favorites", now tag in catalog - "staff favorites"
- can sort results list by any number of elements - can browse through "staff favorites"
- added tag for movies that are "better than book"
- "Meet us on Main Street" - program they put on ev. Wed. - "Main St." is part of library - reading group / group reader's advisory - growing in popularity - they hadn't been keeping a list, so then they added a tag for "meet us on main st." & can now browse through that
- "middlesex autobiography" - crowd-sourced a booklist of autobiographies for a teacher, rather than library staff taking time to develop the book list
- other uses, beyond end-user experience
Reviews and Ratings in SOPAC
- some people develop a "voice" & people follow all of their reviews
Hot Fiction
- can track circ data & include into index - can run on the fly - just sort by most popular this week, this month
- favorite fiction search - based on ratings - what your peers like/don't like

SOPAC & "Me"
- building a profile - an identity attached to the library
- hold list - auto-hold - RSS feeds

SOPAC & Drupal
- excited about changes coming in Drupal7, Views3, CCK3
- SAILS website going to go live in a while - prototype - point being, as an open-source project, a portable piece of software, carousel widget showing book covers developed by the developers putting together the SAILS' site
- showed example of CCK3 (CCK allows you to develop "custom content types" - e.g., "videocast")
- John created a content type called "booklist" - could be specific about order, etc. on booklist & it draws in image of book cover (using CCK3) - put in bib #, can choose to add book cover - saves a lot of time
- Drupal allows you to bring all sorts of Drupal tools - jQuery in it, for example
SOPAC & The Physical Library
- how do you take digital experience & bring it into the physical experience?
- screen dedicated to what's going on in library - items just returned show up on screen in library on its "Main St." - can request for staff members to go get them right away from that screen - updates every 10 seconds
- directly from SOPAC data - no reports have to be run
SOPAC 2.1 & Beyond (looking into/developing):
- Twitter integration - reviews, updates, events, overdue notices, requests feedback
- dedicated SOPAC Twitter account - want SOPAC to be able to announce to and listen from Twitter
- playing around with it - figuring out the use case
- Organic Groups - (OG modules in Drupal) - SOPAC can bring people together outside of sphere of influence of librarians - so users can create interest groups on the fly, coupled with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) - what users like/don't like (profiles of users) - yes, there are privacy issues, but figuring out how to do that - so that they can be more proactive in even getting people together
- we don't want to be the end destination for users, we want to help build community
- we have inventory management systems, why don't we have customer relationship management systems?
- schema-less bibliographic data storage (Apache CouchDB - schema-less database) - give libraries the ability to dump anything into db
- iPhone & Droid apps - including distributed self-check (using iPhone camera to scan barcodes, for example)

Well-Organized Sites & Portals

My raw notes from the last session I attended today (though I haven't posted my Google Wave notes - sorry, out of order):

Well-Organized Sites and Portals

Chris Jasek, User-Centered Design Portfolio Manager, Elsevier

has a Master's in Human Factors

background of research

- as publisher, wanted to know how products were being accessed thru libraries

-- literature research

-- user research

-- reviews of library websites

-- free consultations

well-organized? what does that mean?

tip of iceberg (visual perceptions)

- layout

- visual dsign

- perception

below the surface:

- user's mental model

- user's tasks

- intuition

"People don't come to a website to admire it, they come to get work done"

well-organized? from who's perspective?

- librarian persona

- surgical nursing student persona

Tasks & Pain Points for each

5 steps to a well-organized site

1. (most important) Research users. Understand their needs & tasks.

for Elsevier:

(a) conduct research to find journals,a rticles, books

(b) find course materials (lecture notes, etc.)

(c) find user account info (e.g., checked-out books)

(d) find info about library (locations, hours)

(e) get help in using the library or library website

"the biggest mistake is not giving enough space to the task 85% of the people come to the site for"

- users want multiple ways to look for info (e.g., name, subject, type of material, course)

- users want detail (descriptions, fulltext?, access restrictions, "best bets")

- users want help in recovering from wrong path & additional ideas to find more

offer cross/related linking

- users want terminology they understand

- opac (should be find books)

- A&I databases (should be find journal articles

- MOST IMPORTANT - test with your own users

- users want speed

- have no time to wait - website performance

- search needs to work flawlessly & simply, like Google

Survey other sites

- what do otehr sites offer?

- other library sites

- sites in other industries

- examples of latest tech

-DON'T BLINDLY IMITATE (THEY MAY NOT HAVE DONE USER TESTING / THEIR USERS AREN'T YOURS)

FOLLOW BEST PRACTICE DESIGN

- use page real estate wisely (key tasks get most/prime space - top upper left)

- minimize the number of clicks

- use consistent navigation (lessen confusion, build familiarity)

- treat links according to conventions (consistently throughout site)

- use consistent elements (fonts, layouts)

- use few colors / minimal graphics (avoid circuslike, unprofessional appearance)

- provide help link on every page (text, video, chat, helps save support time / cost)

- make your site accessible to all users (W3C accessibility recommendations)

TEST YOUR DESIGN WITH USERS

- MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO

- Feedback from your own users is key (offer stakeholders opportunity to observe user testing)

- do user testing all the way through design process

- conducting usability studies is affordable and easy (observation is best, informal studies work well)

- usage tracking also important (google analytics) (though be careful of interpretations)

- focus groups/interviews aren't the best predictors, because what they say & really feel are two different things

ADDRESS ISSUES & REPEAT

- Identify problems, not solutions

people often jump directly to 1 solution to avoid true problem

instead generate a whole field of solutions to test alternatives & find best

- multiple, manageable iterations are important

prioritize

improvements with each iteration

you are never done (because tech changes, users change, expectations change)

"Now, go make your users smile"

pamphlet on how to design library websites to maximize usability - will be posted on conf website

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Emily Shem-Tov, Goldmine Program Manager, Adobe

Information Resources Group, part of Market Research group, part of Global Market Research

overarching theme that brings team together

- extending our reach

- raisng the bar

- sharpening our focus

- building connections

Annual campaigns of this library group she's a part of

- supporting pillars

- specific measurable goals

A living document - will it help us meet those themes/goals

End of year evaluation of whether or not met goals/objectives

Portal

- internal, 39K+docs (in PDF, of course - it's Adobe)

- news feeds

- full-text search, flex-based search results (had to overlay Ultraseek with Flex to get higher-level functionality)

- browseable topics

- tailored entry pages for different business units, functional depts., hot topics

- email alerts, RSS feeds, saved searches, social bookmarks

- links to other licensed resources

3 steps to portal

1. planning (user research, surveys, roadmap, design)

2. development (search engine, CMS, taxonomy, tools & features)

3. promotion (marketing, training, tracking)

Goldmine Taxonomy & CMS

- totally customized for our audience & content

- over 1100 topics

- imported into custom CMS

- reviewed quarterly by team

browse & search are both working together

still have a physical library

added a lot of ebooks recently (overdrive, springer)

Sirsi library catalog

digital collections integrated into catalog

A LOT OF MARKETING & OUTREACH, especially on internal blog

ereich@adobe.com

Website Redesign: 2 Case Studies

My raw notes from the CIL2010 session on:

Website Redesign: 2 Case Studies

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Blogs at LibrarianinBlack.net

San Jose Public Library

known problems

- joint website for 2 libraries - 2 missions - the public library & the academic

- public library users felt ripped off, ignored

- 7 year old design, content, and CMS

- webmaster as gatekeeper = disconnected staff

- ADA requirements cumbersome in existing environment

problems discovered DURING process

- unrealistic expectations from administrators

- 1 year long RFP & contract process

- incompetent graphic designers

- 6 months of lost time due to lost momentum

- merged web team working on 3 sites - univ., public, and shared sites

- incompetent graphic designers

PLANNING

- stakeholders must identify org's goals

- techies, designers, & information architects identify how to meet the goals

- identify your givens (what do you already know about your users - from known / experience, surveys, analytics)

- use planning software (baseCamp, dotproject = open source)

- double the estimated timeline

STAFF & CUSTOMER INVOLVEMENT

- initial satisfaction surveys for both

- card sorting testing for customers early on (users showed that the website shouldn't be merged through card sorting)

- staff focus groups

- mock-up task testing for customers (walk-thru tests)

- transparency to staff and customers

USABILITY

- identify who you are serving

- focus on the few things you do well (user test MOST COMMONLY NEEDED tasks - most commonly needed by public, not staff)

- tell stories of what your users want (what do people come to us for?)

- look for friction points (where do people get mad at you? look for complaints... best people to do testing with...)

- who is the site for again? (e.g., is kids' site for children or their parents)

ACCESSIBILITY

- start simple

- Basic tools: JAWS, WAVE, browser emulators, OS emulators

- Firefox tools: Firesizer, Firefox Accessibility Extension, HTML Validator, Web Developer Extension, WCAG Contrast Checker

COMMUNICATION

- blogs for staff & customers with email & RSS updates

- ask for customer & staff input (AND USE IT!)

- recruit usability testing participants from among "the angry folk"

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

- set deadlines for everything

- hold people accountable

- one person should be in charge of tracking

- give periodic updates to staff/managers

- spend the most time on IA and DESIGN (often get stuck on things like choosing CMS instead) (by design, she seems to be referring to the visual - graphic design along with navigation design)

- keep things moving no matter what (LOST MOMENTUM DAMAGES PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PROJECT FATIGUE!!!)

- celebrate small victories

LAUNCH TECHNIQUES

- phased-in launch (notices, pre-testing)

- beta & feedback

- ITERATIVE DESIGN PROCESS via CMS

- = 1.0 + feedback

- = 1.1 _+ feedback (and so on)

- provide brief online & printable orientation

-- if it takes >1 page, start over, your website is too complicated

5 THINGS TO AVOID

- don't try to be fancy when your brain says "no"

- allow consultants to push you around

- have more than 1 project mgr

- stifle creativity

- don't re-invent the wheel

5 THINGS YOU MUST DO

- show your ego to the door

- take risks

- document everything

- research everything

- talk to users continuously

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Georgetown library website redesign

Kristina Bobe, Steve Fernie, Shian-Chih Change, William Wheeler

Concepts that informed redesign:

• user-centered design - speaking the user's language
• how can we incorporate new technologies into the website?
• connecting the dots - resources & users connected
• help users help themselves (e.g., what hours are you open?)

a few key components (not whole process)

5 topics covered today:

1. master task list (know your users... what are their tasks? What are they searching? included catalog search stats, chat reference transcripts, analytics for site, reference desk questions)
   - printed list, used scissors & tape - literally cut up list & taped to wall
   - what could people not do on current site? what was working on the current site? what could be improved on?
   - had staff look at it & see if anything was missing from master task list
2. usability
   - competitive analysis of other ARL websites
   - usability testing (I kind of blanked a bit here, since it sounded very familiar from my recent course & was checking in on emails. sorry!)
3. content management
   - switched to Drupal (used to use Dreamweaver. originally looked at Contribute. Instead, decided on full CMS.) Very flexible open-source content management system. No one on staff had previous experience with Drupal, so found it difficult. (Using 30 contrib modules at Gtown.) Has been well-worth investment in time to learn.
4. subject guides
   - LibData - open source authoring platform for subject guides, course guides, and general resource guides - developed by the digital library, U of Minnesota in 2003, development (dev'd in apache, mysql & PHP)
   - currently being ported to Drupal by Minnesota
   - needed to get subject guide imported from old Cold Fusion / (? database) setup
5. communication (backstage redesign - using the wiki to keep staff informed - replacing 3 other 'intranets')
   - was a stable place, & creative addition, but organization remained a challenge - not common terminology - enabled small group work, but limited cross-group collaboration
   - adopting challenges - reminding everyone to go to the wiki
   - tool fatigue
6. lessons learned
   - decide, then go on, don't worry if something better comes up
   - foundational importance of task analysis (not guesswork when looking at users; refining beyond anecdotes; more, better data)
   - wiki enabled better collaboration, not a panacea - still failures to communicate - still need to talk to people
   - LibData important step forward, but lack of flexibility (consistency too much for all subjects)
   - Drupal key decision (8 months out, still figuring it all out) - but a complex change

Improving Visual Web Experience

This session's title was "Improving Visual Web Experience", but it really concentrated on several tools that produce visuals - photos, 3-d models, and maps.

These are my raw notes from this AM's session:

Improving Visual Web Experience

I. Using Deepzoom & Photosynth to Improve Patron Experiences

Mike Beccaria & Heather Harrison from Paul Smith's College

Deepzoom - allows you to take large photos & zoom in & out seamlessly - MS tech

in silverlight now (approx. 60% adoption, alt to Flash)

Hard Rock Memorabilia

yosemite Deepzoom Panorama Project

AJAX Demo

only works when you have silverlight in browser

can use the AJAX version, so people don't need to have silverlight installed

How to compose project in DeepZoom Composer

- download software

- create new project, add images

- then "Compose"

- drag & drop images on workspace, make columns, decide how many columns you want

- once created save & Export - Custom - select options for export, preview in browser

- embed in you own website -

- upload project folder to your web server,

dzc_output.xml file

Use in Libraries

1. create a library map

2. digital galleries of student & staff work

- great way to host mini digital collections - can even put on Wordpress

3. scanned pages of a book & display all at once

- use Silverlight & SOLR to search

Photosynth

- merges photos into 3D space

- Microsoft Labs - beta

- freely downloadable software (like DeepZoom)

- incorporated into Silverlight

- go to photosynth.net to find out how to do it

(ex. Obama inauguration site)

- added panoramic feature & can make hotspots on photo data

ideas:

- new books

- magazines

- shelving (use 2D mode) - browse the shelves

- art gallery on display physically - take pics of gallery space

- photosynth makes point plots with x,y,z coords - can hack to get point clouds, which then could be used it for 3D model of library - library tour?

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Improving Visual Web Experience

Len Davidson, Catholic University of America

Maps - Google & Bing

Bing just came out with mashup with foursquare

bing.com/maps

get the latest version

- choose map apps

- click on twitter maps

Geochirp.com

Google Fusion Tables

data - visualize on map (google fusion in beta)

aerial photos & historical maps

- NYCityMap

but you can build something like this for free

Can do it in google -

but easier in Bing MapCruncher

US Geological Survey - Earth Explorer (for highest res = charge, but medium res = free)

Choose points to line up, then click render & upload to a web server - layered map - can switch & merge, etc.

besides software, all you need is space on a web server

(that would be really cool for archaeology & my lost road)

location-based social networking

- foursquare.com (see who's using your library)

- Hyatt Regency's FourSquare page

Bing has a live map of foursquare data