Transcript What in the World?

What in the World?
Geographical Representation of
Library Collections in WorldCat:
A Prototype
Lynn Silipigni Connaway
[email protected]
Clifton Snyder
[email protected]
Larry Olszewski
ASIST Conference
November 1, 2005
OCLC WorldMapTM: Objectives
 Research prototype
• Test geographical representation of WorldCat
• Titles and holdings by country of publication
• Support data mining research area
• Visually display mined data to ease review and
analysis
• Internal use
• Sales and marketing
• External use
• Library collection assessment and comparison
• Complement the AAU/ARL Global Resources Network
project
• Currently a project of the Council on Library and
Information Resources (CLIR)
OCLC WorldMapTM: Objectives
 Geographically represent library data from UNESCO, ARL,
and NCES
• Number of libraries
• Amount of library expenditures
• Number of volumes and titles
• Number of librarians
• Number of users
Geographic Information Systems: Background
 Geographic information systems (GIS) applied to library
and information science (Gluck, 1994)
 Identified how GIS software facilitates library market
analysis (Koontz, 1996)
 Studied users to determine relevance or potential value of
geospatial objects from metadata (Fraser & Gluck, 1999)
 Developed Public Library Geographic Database (Koontz &
Jue, 2004, 2004a)
• Geographically represents United States public library
census data
User Interface Design: Background
 Identified how to communicate information through the
simultaneous presentation of words, numbers and pictures
(Tufte, 2001)
 Five factors for benchmarking the usability of an interface
(Shneiderman & Plaisant, 2004)
• Time to learn
• Speed of performance
• Rate of errors
• Retention over time
• Subjective satisfaction
Usability Testing: Definition
 Degree to which a user can successfully learn and use a
product to achieve a goal
 Research methodology
• Evaluation
• Experimental design
 Observation and analysis of user behavior to achieve a goal
(Dumas & Reddish, 1993, p.22)
 “User-centered design” process involving user from initial
design to product upgrade (Norlin & Winters, 2002)
 Approach is to be a servant to the users of a system NOT to
be subservient to technology (Gluck, 1998)
 Identify usability problems and make recommendations for
fixing and improving the design (Rubin, 1994)
Usability Testing: Web Design Criteria
 Ten Usability Heuristics (Nielsen)
• Visibility of system status
• Match between system and the real world
• User control and freedom
• Consistency and standards
• Error prevention
• Recognition rather than recall
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
• Aesthetic and minimalist design
• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
• Help and documentation
Usability Testing: Methodology
 Artificial environment (laboratory)
• Maintain more control
• May provide more specific data on a particular feature
 Natural environment
• Better holistic representation of real people doing real
work
Usability Testing: OCLC WorldMapTM
 Artificial environment (laboratory)
• OCLC usability lab
 Developed documentation
• Screening questionnaire
• Task list
• Posttest questionnaire
• Executive summary
Usability Testing: OCLC WorldMapTM
 First set of tests, September 2004
• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• 3 usability test participants
• Developer, marketing, production manager
• High learning curve
• Difficult to navigate and use
 Conducted informal usability tests
 Redesigned the interface
Usability Testing: OCLC WorldMapTM
 Second set of tests, September 2005
• Flash
• 3 usability test participants
• Library services consultant (2), sales
• Much lower learning curve
• Improved task time
 Revised the interface
Technology: OCLC WorldMapTM
 First implemented SVG
• Open standard maintained by W3C
• Simple XML file
• Young technology
• Browser support limited
• Requires plug-in
 Converted to Flash
• Browser compatibility
• Plug-in compatibility (if a plug-in was installed!)
 For a detailed comparison of SVG and Flash, see:
http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/comparison_flash_svg/
France [source]:
Available for demonstration at:
http://alcme.oclc.org/worldmap/index.html
Replace URL with Research Works URL,
if available by time of presentation