User Research
Libraries are impacted by the ways in which individuals engage with technology; how they seek, access, contribute, and use information; and how and why they demonstrate these behaviors and do what they do. We're collaborating with librarians to shape their services around a set of expectations that have been influenced by consumer technologies and modern research and learning environments. By providing the library community with behavioral evidence about individuals’ perceptions, habits, and requirements, we can ensure that the design of future library services is all about the user. Our efforts are amplified by strategic partnerships and focus in these two areas:
Publications
Focus Group Interviews: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Merrilee Proffitt, Lesley A. Langa, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brittany Brannon, Brooke Doyle
Investigates the needs of archivists and others who might contribute to a national archival aggregator through focus group interviews with archivists and archives administrators from across the United States.
User Interviews: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Itza A. Carbajal, Lesley A. Langa, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brooke Doyle, Brittany Brannon, Merrilee Proffitt
Details methods and summarizes findings from semi-structured individual interviews with end users of archival aggregation.
Speaking on the Record: Combining Interviews with Search Log Analysis in User Research
6 April 2022
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brittany Brannon, Christopher Cyr, Peggy Gallagher
This paper reports on a novel sequential mixed methods approach combining search logs and semi-structured individual interviews to study user search behavior within a library discovery system.
I still go ask someone I enjoy talking to: The use of digital and human sources by educational stage and context
6 January 2021
Chris Cyr, Brittany Brannon, Lynn Silipigni Connaway
How does educational stage affect the way people find information? In previous research using the Digital Visitors & Residents (V&R) framework for semi-structured interviews, context was a factor in how individuals behaved. This study of 145 online, open-ended surveys examines the impact that one's V&R educational stage has on the likelihood of attending to digital and human sources across four contexts.
Science and News: A Study of Students’ Judgments of Online Scientific News Information
13 January 2020
Tara Tobin Cataldo, Kailey Langer, Amy G. Buhler, Samuel R. Putnam, Rachael Elrod, Ixchel M. Faniel, PhD, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, PhD, Christopher Cyr, PhD, Brittany Brannon, Joyce Kasman Valenza, PhD, Erin M. Hood, Randy A. Graff, PhD
This paper explores how students judge scientific news resources, as they might find through a Google search. The data were collected as part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded project.
Authority, Context and Containers: Student Perceptions and Judgments When Using Google for School Work
7 May 2019
Tara Tobin Cataldo, Kailey Langer, Amy G. Buhler, Samuel R. Putnam, Rachael Elrod, Ixchel M. Faniel, PhD, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, PhD, Christopher Cyr, PhD, Brittany Brannon, Joyce Kasman Valenza, PhD, Erin M. Hood, Randy A. Graff, PhD
What really happens when student researchers meet a Google results page? How do students determine the authority behind each result? News, blogs, journals, Wikipedia, websites, e-books--with the vast array of online content available, how do students differentiate between them? Better still, do they differentiate between them or are these format agnostic students stymied by container collapse? The Researching Students’ Information Choices (RSIC) project is answering these questions.
Container Collapse and the Information Remix: Students’ Evaluations of Scientific Research Recast in Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
10 April 2019
Amy G. Buhler, Ixchel M. Faniel, Brittany Brannon, Christopher Cyr, Tara Tobin Cataldo, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Joyce Kasman Valenza, Rachael Elrod, Randy A. Graff, Samuel R. Putnam, Erin M. Hood, Kailey Langer
A scientific communication life cycle publishes results in a variety of containers, formats, and genres to reach diverse audiences. This paper examines 116 students’ selection of scholarly and popular scientific content to compare how consumers use resources across the communication life cycle.