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

    Summary of Research: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project 

    31 May 2023

    Chela Scott Weber, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brooke Doyle, Lesley A. Langa, Merrilee Proffitt, Bruce Washburn, Itza A. Carbajal

    Synthesizes OCLC’s findings for the Building a National Finding Aid Network project. The research investigated end user and contributor needs for finding aid aggregations and evaluated EAD encoded finding aid data quality and consistency from existing regional archival aggregators.

     

    EAD Analysis: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project 

    30 May 2023

    Bruce Washburn, Merrilee Proffitt, Chela Scott Weber

    Analyzes a corpus of EAD encoded collection descriptions provided by regional finding aid aggregators in the US to assess existing EAD data as raw material for building a national finding aid aggregation. 

     

    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. 

     

    Pop-up Survey: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project 

    30 May 2023

    Lesley A. Langa, Chela Scott Weber, Lynn Silipigni Connaway

    Summarizes OCLC’s findings from a national survey of more than 3300 end users searching for archival materials online for the Building a National Finding Aid Project.

     

    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.

    Using collective curation to pay data forward in the life cycle

    11 June 2021

    Ixchel M. Faniel

    Drawing from a study of archaeological excavation teams, four collective curation opportunities are proposed to identify and resolve differences in data and documentation practices that arise in team-based research. To create more integrated, well-documented data, the opportunities attend to integrating people rather than technology. The actions people take as data move through the life cycle become the focal point of change.

    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. 

    Identifying Opportunities for Collective Curation during Archaeological Excavations

    6 August 2020

    Ixchel Faniel, Anne Austin, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, Eric Kansa, Jennifer Jacobs, Phoebe France

    Archaeological excavations are comprised of interdisciplinary teams that create, manage, and share data as they unearth and analyse material culture. These team-based settings are ripe for collective curation during these data lifecycle stages. However, findings from four excavation sites show that the data interdisciplinary teams create are not well integrated. Knowing this, we recommended opportunities for collective curation to improve use and reuse of the data within and outside of the team. 

    Library Discovery Directions

    29 June 2020

    Lorcan Dempsey

    In this foreword to the edited collection Resource Discovery for the Twenty-First Century Library (2020), Lorcan Dempsey traces shifting trends in the library discovery environment contributing to the diversified scope of resource discovery.