2014 Charleston Library Conference

Users come to the library for many different reasons. They may want to find a quick overview of a specific topic, to check out the newest articles in a particular area, to search for material for a course assignment or a research project, or simply to obtain access to a specific book or article. One of the challenges for a library and their discovery system is to accommodate users at any academic level who are seeking information in any subject area or across multiple subject areas as cross-disciplinary studies increase. At the same time, libraries need to make sure that their local collections are well presented and accessible. In 2014, Harvard University Library and Ex Libris embarked on a user study to evaluate core usage scenarios for scholarly material and users’ expectations from a library and its discovery system. The first part of the project consisted of the collection of information such as detailed usage scenarios and feedback from a variety of stakeholders, followed by a multi-institution workshop to expand the scenarios with experiences from other types of institutions. The results will serve to create personas and common usage themes and scenarios that can then be used to optimize aspects of the discovery system, such as relevance ranking and custom search tools.After presenting the methods and results of the study, we will provide attendees with a platform for discussion.