Library webmasters, usability teams, and administrators will want this authoritative reference on usability.

New York, NY, (December 11, 2007)—Ask college students where they begin their research, and nine out of ten will tell you they use the Internet: Google, Yahoo!, or Wikipedia. Perhaps two in a hundred will tell you they use the library. Despite the abundance—and accuracy—of information available on library Web sites, students often discover quickly that they involve confusing terms and syntax. One poor experience, and the library will lose yet another user to more familiar, intuitive information portals.

In Making Library Web Sites Usable, a LITA guide to be published by Neal Schuman on February 11, 2008, authors Tom Lehman and Terry Nikkel show library webmasters, usability teams, and library administrators how to turn confusing, unappealing Web sites into the kind of friendly, efficient information gateways that students will choose.

“If potential library users continue to use non-library information sources and ignore library Web sites, libraries risk being marginalized,” say the authors. “Libraries have a significant interest in making their Web sites easier to use and more attuned to the way users have become accustomed to searching for and using information.”

With clear, non-technical language, Making Library Web Sites Usable breaks down what usability assessments are, why they are important for libraries, why libraries should do them regularly, and what the most common challenges are. They also explain all of the necessary how-tos, whats, and whys for the most common assessment techniques and how to interpret results, document findings, and effectively communicate results and recommendations.

Usability-in-action success stories from Purdue, the University of Virginia, and Wright State University libraries; the Clinton Macomb Public Library in Michigan; the MITRE corporate library; and the library at NASA Goddard offer rare insights and practical advice for facing challenges like limited time, working within a budget, and rallying support for Web site changes.

Making Library Web Sites Usable
Tom Lehman and Terry Nikkel
ISBN 978-1-55570-620-3
6 x 9. 208 pp. $65. 2008
Learn more