Reference at Newman Library

Tag: Library website

Library Website Down for Server Maintenance on September 12

From 8 am – 9 am on Thursday, September 12, the library website will be down as BCTC does essential upgrades to the server where the site resides.

The following key systems will still be accessible during the outage, as they are not hosted on the same server at Baruch where our WordPress website lives:

New Search Box Is Live on the Home Page

This morning, we replaced the yellow search box that’s been on the site for six years with a redesigned one. As detailed at the last Tech Sharecase meeting, the design of this new search box was driven by research into user preferences and habits. As we worked on the design, we drew on insights yielded from usability testing (three rounds), query log analyses, and website analytics. Based on observations from usability tests and usage data of the search box on interior pages and LibGuides, we have made the library home page the only place where the yellow search bar is located. This design decision also will help us as we plan a mobile friendly version of the entire library website, where there will no longer be space in the top right of interior pages for a search box.

This spring, Lucy Liu (our UX designer) and I will conduct a follow-up round of usability testing to see how things are going. Over the next year, we’ll also be looking at query logs and website analytics to assess the impact the new design is having.

If you have any feedback, please feel free to share it with Mike Waldman, Lucy Liu, or me. I should mention this project would not have been completed without the help of the two previous UX designers (Holly Dowell and Qian Chen) and current and former staff of BCTC (especially WenGuang Li, Wayne Cheng, and Patrick Ackerman).

New Links on the Library Website

There are a few new links on the library website that might come in handy. On the drop down menu that appears when you hover over “Faculty” there are now links for

  • “Library Workshop Request Form” (goes to the Qualtrics form)
  • “CUNY Academic Works” (goes to the main page for it)
  • “more…” (goes to the main Faculty page)

In a user experience project I have in mind for next spring, I’d like to take a look at what users make of the horizontal navigation and the menus that open when you hover over those key pages (Students, Faculty, Alumni, Guests, Help, etc.)

New Databases Page

On Thursday, July 7, we’ll be launching a moderately redesigned databases page. The most notable change is that the Databases by Name page and the Databases by Subject page will all be on one guide, which simplifies navigation for the user and makes it easier for us to manage the links. With this simplified navigation, it no longer makes sense to provide two different links in the yellow search box (Databases by Name and Databases by Subject). Instead, the search box will feature a single link labeled “Databases.”

The list of subjects on the “databases by subject” section of the new page also features a new design element. Instead of offering an alphabetical list of subjects, they are now chunked into groupings:

  • Business & Economics
  • Humanities & Social Sciences
  • Ethnic & Gender Studies
  • Science & Technology
  • General & Reference

This new design was tested with users by our UX designer, Holly Dowell, and me in May. We found that users had few problems finding a relevant set of databases for a given subject or finding a specific database from the A-Z listings. We did add some additional elements to the design based on comments from our tests, though, such as better header labels on each tab in the A-Z listings and putting each letter’s list in it’s own clearly delineated box.

The decision to simplify the database links in the yellow search box came out of Google Analytics data that showed that the “Databases by Subject” link was clicked far less than the “Databases by Name” link, so much so that removing it was worth doing if only to make the remaining “Databases” link label even more visible on the search bar.

Please share with us any feedback you have or that you hear from our users about this new databases page.

Library Website Not Working Within Blackboard (see update)

Update (25 August 2014) This problem is now resolved.

 

If you log into Blackboard, one of the main navigation options you see is for the “Baruch Library.”

Blackboard--Baruch Library display

Today, when tried that option in various browsers, I had all sorts of trouble:

Google Chrome

• library home page doesn’t load at all

Firefox
• library home page loads but none of the links work

Internet Explorer
• Text of the library home page loads at the top, then all the graphics/images are pushed to the bottom

If you visit the library website directly (i.e., not through the Blackboard interface), there are no problems at all, though.

I’ve submitted a ticket to BCTC about this.

Subject Guides Now Labeled as Research Guides

Over the past year, I conducted a survey of our students to find out what name they thought made most sense for our LibGuides. Students preferred “research guides” over “subject guides,” and “topic guides.” With this data in hand, I asked Arthur to approve changing the links on the library website that were labeled “Subject Guides” to “Research Guides.” Those changes are now live on the site.

On the LibGuides system, you’ll also see that where it used to say “Subject Guides” in the breadcrumb navigation on the top left, it now says “Research Guides.”

LibGuides--renaming to Research Guides

Revised Faculty Page on Library Site

A new version of the faculty page on the library website launched today. With the help of Wayne Cheng from BCTC, Arthur, and Alexa Hagen, a library school intern who has been working with me, we drafted and tested the new page with substantial feedback from the people who’ll use it the most: our faculty. During the user-driven design process, we:

  • analyzed comments from faculty in a campus-wide survey that asked about library services and resources
  • gathered suggestions from the members of the Committee on the Library via a survey and a meeting
  • tested the redesign with 6 faculty members (all three schools were represented) and incorporated additional tweaks to the redesign based on test results

It might be worth alerting faculty or departments you work with about this redesign. The testing revealed that faculty found it easier to complete tasks with this new page and, thanks to the increased browsability of the page, they learned about services and resources previously unknown to them.

If you have suggestions for pages or common library tasks that might merit this kind of usability treatment, let me know so we can work together.

 

More Links to Databases

Based on what we learned during usability testing of the new site and on feedback we’ve received since the site launched on December 26, there have been some more links added to the site to help students and faculty find links to the main databases page.

  • On the Students drop-down menu (and on the side navigation of pages in the Students section)
  • On the Faculty drop-down menu (and on the side navigation of pages in the Faculty section)

Also, the wording for one of the links to databases on the yellow search bar has changed.

formerly:

Databases All or By Subject

now:

Databases By Name or By Subject

Newman Library--search bar--31 January 2013

The placeholder language in the search bar has also changed for the Articles search and Journals search functions to make it more clear what is being searched.

Notable Links on the New Library Website

As we continue this year the process of iterative design (usability test–>tweak–>usability test–>tweak, etc.), it’s hoped that the site will keep pace with our users’ expectations of where things should be and how those things should behave. With that caveat out of the way, here are some notable links on the new website that can offer shortcuts for those of us used to certain paths to key resources and services.

 

Catalog link

  • On the “Help” page, go to the “Books” portion of the “How Do I Find…”

Click to embiggen

 

 

My Account (patron account info the catalog)

  • Go to the “Renew a Book” page in the “Students category.

Click to embiggen

 

Search All CUNY Libraries from the Search Bar

  • Select “Books” in the search bar, then select “Advanced Search,” then choose “All CUNY Libraries” from the drop down menu

 

Click to embiggen