How to Design and Implement Web Usability Testing
  Nicholas Wyant, PhD student in Information Science, University of Iowa

Librarians often do not understand how patrons actually navigate around their library's web site.  Therefore, Wyant stated that usability testing (UT) is a helpful tool to design web pages that are more usable by non-librarians.  He also suggested that instead of giving the task to a committee, having a primary researcher is more effective. Wyant emphasized not trying to test everything, but to keep the UT simple and focused. And, he noted that performance declines after eight questions/tasks.

Tips Wyant shared include:

• Recruit from outside the library (do not use student employees)
• Maximum of 10 participants for each question set
• Keep participants relaxed (this is not a "test" - you need their help and feedback)
• Offer a beverage
• Librarian needs to dress casually (keep participants relaxed)
• Give participant one question/task at a time (not a list)
• Keep recording equipment hidden as much as possible (but be sure they understand that they will be recorded)
• Screen capture (such as Snag-It) and audio works best
• Give incentive (perhaps a $10 gift card to the bookstore)

Before analyzing data, compile "expert paths" - the most efficient way to get to a page or find specific information on the web site.  This will form a baseline for comparing the steps taken by the participants. Other information can be collected from the participants, by asking for example:

• How often they use the library web site
• What online applications/resources/web sites do they use
• What they think could be done to improve the library's web site

The time and money spent on usability testing will go a long way in making sure library web sites are user friendly.

  Photo and Report by Judy Mitchell

Stacks after Dark: What Really Happens When the Boss is gone for the Day?
  Kathy Parsons, Head, Stacks and Media Department, Iowa State University

To answer the question raised by her session's title, Kathy Parsons presented an overview of student employee training as well as an analysis of task sheets and incident reports the ISU library uses to monitor these workers' activities.  The ISU Library is the largest student employer on campus, the only building open at night, and serves 6,000 patrons a day, so things do happen. 

Kathy's conclusion is that student employees respond very well to the array of everyday work situations-and some of these circumstances are quite serious, others are quite humorous.

  Photo and Report by Phil Jones

Preparing Non-Science Majors for a Future of Evaluating Science
  Mary Iber, Consulting Librarian for the Health Sciences, Cornell College

This hands-on presentation showed techniques from the Cornell College class Mary Iber developed in conjunction with a physics professor. The idea of the class is to teach scientific inquiry through popular film and fiction - for example, using the jury scenes in 12 Angry Men to teach about evaluating conflicting evidence. The hands-on portion of the session, based on an assignment from the class, asked participants to evaluate scientific information from the Internet and classify it using the following scheme:

• Valid: most scientists agree with the thesis and evidence
• Speculative: most scientists agree with the theory but there is not enough testing to be conclusive
• Controversial: not enough evidence or multiple theories
• Uninformed: non-expert opinion, but not malicious
• Misrepresented: ignores some evidence or misrepresents facts
• Invalid: most scientists disagree with thesis

The categories allow non-scientists to make useful quick judgments about scientific information and emphasize that there is not always one absolute answer to scientific questions.

  Photo and Report by Dan Gall

Back to the Future: How Rethinking the Desk Can Revive Reference Service in the New Millennium
  Kim Babcock Mashek, Information Literacy Librarian, Wartburg College and Kari Weaver, Information Literacy Librarian, Wartburg College

What does your Reference Desk say about your library? This was the question that Kim Babcock Mashek and Kari Weaver posed to the group attending this session.

Librarians at Wartburg were noticing a decline in the use of the Reference Desk and wanted to see what changes could enhance the use of it. After a analyzing several models of how a reference desk should look and function, the decision of simply rearrange the seating place of the Reference Librarian was made. Clearing the Reference Desk of irrelevant information, and not just repositioning, made the reference desk much more approachable. Librarians, that before were "hidden" behind a monitor, now, are "the face of the library". What this experience shows is that minor changes in the configuration of a working space can have a positive outcome.  Changing the seating arrangement and adding some chairs made the Reference Desk much more approachable, the librarian more visible, and as consequence, the quality of the reference interactions also increased.

What was learned by the Librarians involved in this change?

• Minor changes can have big effects
• Approachability is fundamental for a successful transaction at the Reference Desk
• Signs should be user-friendly and serve a purpose
• Different desks lead to different interactions

Photo and Report by Germano Streese