Users Flit Around–what to do?
Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox report discusses the trend of users to flit around from site to site while accomplishing a task, not staying on one site (say, your site) for the entire session. The example he uses is for consumer research, but I think the findings apply to many things, including libraries. For example:
- I see users searching our catalog while at the same time having Amazon up to check out prices (buy or check out, hard decision sometimes).
- I see students doing research with our subscription databases while at the same time having Google up to search for the same information.
- I see users looking at our Events and Classes pages while checking their own online calendars for their availability.
Nielsen makes a good point that browsers and search engines haven’t really caught up with this "multi-site-simultaneous-use" model yet, and that there are tools and enhancements that would make this process easier for many people (tabs in Firefox come to mind as a current example). What’s next down the pike for browsers and SEs in terms of supporting this behavior? I don’t know, but I think it’s something to pay attention to as we think about our websites, realizing that there is no way to completely control the user’s experience on our site (which is, imho, as it should be).
February 6th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
With reference to ” see users searching our catalog while at the same time having Amazon up to check out prices (buy or check out, hard decision sometimes).” The users may not be choosing between spend money or don’t spend money.
I know I often go to Amazon for the descriptions and reviews. Our library catalogs often don’t have the richness of information (especially qualitative information!) that sites such as Amazon have.
I think you have spotted an enhancement that your users want — and opportunities for you to step in and find ways to fulfill this desire.
February 6th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
I think that’s true too, but I am specifically remembering instances of people looking to buy materials because of time pressures. In other words, if it’s not directly in our system (so they’d have to do what we call a SuperSearch, which takes 1-3 weeks, to get the item), they’d rather just buy the darn thing. We have Syndetics reviews & more in our library catalog, so there are “official” reviews available which people use a lot. There is value to Amazon reviews too, which I personally use when looking at books (bad librarian, I know). That’s just not the case of what was happening in these instances I observed.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:22 am
I often recommend that searchers have two windows or tabs open, one for the main search and one for supplemental searches, like the catalog or an ILL form. (It’s a little better now that we have a link resolver, but that doesn’t help for book chapters.)
I use Amazon a lot, and for “official” librarian stuff, too! It’s often better than Books In Print for obscure titles, since Amazon lists many smaller presses’ books. I get surprised looks from a lot of people, but it’s usually my first choice for confirming the title/author of something that hasn’t come up in our catalog.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Sarah,
Thanks for the clarification! For students, timing can be an especially important aspect of library service. Is there a way you could capture how many users this affects? It seems like this could be some really good information for acquisitions.
I worked in a bookstore part time to make ends meet.
I was astonished at how many parents/teens would come in looking for a book for homework! I undertand buying the study guides or those clif notes. I understand buying books if you are *really* into a topic (goodness knows I do) but…
I mean…a book report…and they are spending $8+ — go to the Freaking library people!
February 7th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Whilst not meeting all possible needs for the multiple window/tab in all possible cases, the other approach is of course to leverage web services in order to surface more ‘useful’ information and bring it to wherever the user is.
Whisper (http://research.talis.com/2005/whisper/), which we’ve talked about a bit, shows some possibilities here, pulling in information about other LIBRARIES that have the item (and exposing their ILL capability), and about availability – and pricing – from Amazon.
The library isn’t always the place to get a particular item. Neither is Amazon. Bringing information from both – and other places – together in an intelligible fashion allows librarians and end users to make informed decisions themselves, or to assist one another in reaching the ‘right’ answer in each case.
Whisper is a demonstration, illustrating a number of our ideas around ways in which various web services might usefully be orchestrated. We’re not suggesting that the current bundle of services would, necessarily, be released to any single user community for real.
February 7th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Agreed, Paul. And thanks for sharing the link to Whisper!