05/14/2007
by:Beth Lang, UMass
Minutes April 9, 2007
by: Beth Lang
Five College Libraries
Research, Instruction and Outreach Committee (RIO)
Minutes of the April 9, 2007 Meeting
Present: Bonnie Vigeland (chair), Bryan Goodwin, Margaret Groesbeck, Beth Lang (recorder), Barbara Polowy.
Absent: Sherre Harrington
Bonnie has already put the minutes from the previous meeting (March 26) on the RIO page on the Five Colleges website.
Old Business: The slow response time of the ALEPH catalog (both OPAC and GUIs) remains an issue. In fact, response time appears to be getting slower and slower, and at times the OPAC will be so slow as to timeout and show a “page not found”. FCLC and selected Aleph Management Committee (AMC) members have been in contact with Ex Libris staff about this serious issue and are diligently working together to try and find a solution.
Usability Testing of ALEPH OPAC:
Survey: The Survey Monkey ran from March 26 – April 8. Links to the survey were in the OPAC, and from each institution’s library website. The survey closed on April 8. There were 536 respondents.
Link to survey results: http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=340723718729
A preliminary scan of the results confirms our suspicions that slow response time and the difficulty in finding call numbers are two huge issues with the respondents. RIO members will write up summaries of the findings, as follows:
Questions #1 & #3 – Bryan
Questions #2 – Bonnie
Question #4 – Beth
Questions #5 & #6 – Margaret
Question #9 – Barbara
(questions #7 & #8 are demographic info only)
(Please send summaries to Bonnie by May 1.)
Usability Tests and Focus Groups discussion:
We need to complete the usability tests first, to inform what we will want covered in the Focus Groups. But the major issue of the slow response time of ALEPH will hinder running any usability tests until that is remedied. All RIO members agreed that the usability testing must be delayed for the time being, so that means delaying the Focus Groups as well. We hope to run usability tests over the summer, and will look at having the Focus Groups in late summer or early fall. Bonnie will ask FCLC if RIO can retain the monies they had set aside for the focus group facilitator, even if we wait until the next fiscal year (FY08) to run the groups.
Other ALEPH projects: RIO’s focus for ALEPH enhancements is to keep in mind what the users want, and how we can make the OPAC better for them. Our summary report of the survey should make a strong case for fixing features that users don’t like, such as the difficulty with finding call numbers and requesting items from other colleges. We will also work on vocabulary on the “My Accounts” pages, the SDI alerts, and will check with cataloging group about the status of the “New Books” functionality.
Next meeting: May 7, at 10:00am (note different time).
