Your Library Website Stinks and it's Your Fault
Description
Your library website is frustrating your users and sending them into the warm embrace of Google. Why? Because it’s not made for them, it’s made for librarians. As librarians, instead of adapting our websites to meet evolving user needs, we’ve dug in our heels and spent our energy making arguments about how much better our resources are than Google’s. It’s not that libraries don’t care about users, it’s that what our users wanted us to care about changed, and we decided to focus on what we thought they needed rather than what they said they wanted. We stuck our fingers in our ears and chanted “Our search is better! Our search is better!” And now our websites stink, and it’s our fault.
But all is not doom and gloom! I’ll talk about how libraries can turn things around and build useful, usable websites that can adapt to user needs. I’ll cover some of the technical tips and tricks, of course, but mostly I’ll talk about learning to listen to our users, how to know what your website is for, and how to get and use feedback.
To access additional session materials, click on the "Link to Full Text" button located to the right.
Start Date
15-3-2012 3:15 PM
End Date
15-3-2012 4:15 PM
Your Library Website Stinks and it's Your Fault
Your library website is frustrating your users and sending them into the warm embrace of Google. Why? Because it’s not made for them, it’s made for librarians. As librarians, instead of adapting our websites to meet evolving user needs, we’ve dug in our heels and spent our energy making arguments about how much better our resources are than Google’s. It’s not that libraries don’t care about users, it’s that what our users wanted us to care about changed, and we decided to focus on what we thought they needed rather than what they said they wanted. We stuck our fingers in our ears and chanted “Our search is better! Our search is better!” And now our websites stink, and it’s our fault.
But all is not doom and gloom! I’ll talk about how libraries can turn things around and build useful, usable websites that can adapt to user needs. I’ll cover some of the technical tips and tricks, of course, but mostly I’ll talk about learning to listen to our users, how to know what your website is for, and how to get and use feedback.
To access additional session materials, click on the "Link to Full Text" button located to the right.