Contents Café Assessment - February 2007
Goals:
To determine the usefulness and functionality of the Contents Café content
To determine the usefulness of the “Reviews & More” links
Assess the terminology “Reviews & More”
To gather feedback on other Book Jacket/Content offerings, such as Amazon & Worldcat
Assessment Process:
Five student volunteers will be asked to give feedback about book jackets and the “Reviews & More” links, with specific emphasis on the Contents Café trial links. Four volunteers were tested on 2/13 and 2/14.
Select Faculty will be contacted, to offer their personal assessment of Contents Cafe. Feedback has been gathered from two faculty members
Additionally, email feedback has been gathered from library staff during the course of the Contents Café trial. Nine staff members contributed comments.
Recommendations:
- Book Jacket Images should be included with the catalog record
- The quality of the review sources in Contents Café is not useful for academic research
- The Reviews & More button options should be further developed, and perhaps captioned, to assist library users
Volunteer Assessment Outcome:
· All of the volunteers really liked having book jacket images displayed
· The volunteers located summary and contents information in the bib record, before trying the Reviews & More button. Found the Contents Café summaries redundant
· Two volunteers did not immediately find the Reviews & More button
· Two volunteers found Contents Café to involve a lot of clicking, although one volunteer liked that format
· All volunteers thought the Contents Café back button was broken
· Three students would prefer access to more academic reviews
· Two volunteers liked having additional options within Reviews & More, one student thought Amazon alone was not enough. Three of the volunteers like and use Amazon regularly
· Other comments included: one volunteer thought the CRL link was not helpful, nor was Google Books. Worldcat was OK, but the format is not as clean as Contents Café or Amazon
· None of the volunteers felt that browse list level images were necessary, all preferred seeing a bigger image when you click on the jacket, rather then a link out to Amazon.
· Three of the volunteers did not know what the More Info button indicated, and would probably not use that button. One student suggested adding Search 360 to the More Info options
Faculty comments:
· The book jackets are not so important
· The Contents Café reviews are not worth paying for
· Table of Contents can be helpful, and are often found on Amazon or the Publisher’s site
Staff Feedback
· Like the book jacket images, although a few errors were noted
· Appreciated that images were also available for videos, though not for music
· Back button does not function
· Lots of clicking
· Enjoyed having access to reviews and table of contents
· Found multiple summaries redundant
· Thought the description link was unnecessary
The Assessment Outline:
Students are asked to search the test catalog for any book or topic they choose, hopefully returning results which include recent titles with book jackets.
1. Do you like having jackets displayed in the record?
2. Would you be interested in locating reviews about the book? Can you find an option to search for these in this record?
Students are asked to search for the title Audacity of Hope, and assess which links provides the better book review options, Amazon, Contents Café, or something else they use.
1. Can you find a summary for this book?
2. Can you find Table of Contents for this book?
Students are asked to search the keyword Anthology, and choose the Oxford Anthology of African American Poetry (#4), and assess which Reviews & More Link provides the best information and TOC, Contents Café, Worldcat, Amazon , and why this information is or isn’t helpful.
Students are asked to link to the bookmarked site for Langara College Library, http://www.langara.bc.ca/library/ , and do a quick search for Tom Jones:
1. Is this kind of link via the book jacket preferable?
2. Does Amazon provide enough information on its own?
3. Do you like having the jacket not just in the record, but also in the list of results?
Students are asked to search for the title Harry Potter and the chamber… or the title Urban Planning, for any final comments about the book jacket images, the Reviews & More/More Info button, and the Contents Café information.
1. Should the Reviews & More be called something else, is it clear?
2. What kinds of information/links would be helpful to find in the Reviews and more button?
Appendix
Student Comments
Student A
Definitely Like jackets!
Found the Reviews & More button easily, liked the red color, not sure about placement
emphatic – book cover image is important to have. Easily located “Reviews & more” button when prompted to locate reviews, “because of the big red button”, but noted that she initially scanned the bib record area for the link/info.
Would not know that Reviews & more would include this. Lots of clicking in CC. Found more in Amazon
when asked to find TOC information, found in bib record immediately [she’s used to finding that info there]. Next followed “reviews & more” button, but noted she normally wouldn’t have followed that label to find TOC w/o our prompt. The term “more” in the label is too vague. Once into menu, drawn to Amazon link due to familiarity with the resource.
Noted that Contents Café “breaks it up”, having to click through to multiple subpages. [Amy navigates using keyboard rather than nav. Menus] Then reviewed content under Amazon link. Likes having all the info on a single page. Uses Amazon a lot. Has “a lot more”
Thought Worldcat was more for finding the book in other libraries, tend to rely on Amazon already, did not like the clicking in CC
WorldCat – “Isn’t this for who owns it, not book information?” Wouldn’t use for reviews.
Contents Café got her attention since it was first on list. Also attracted to Amazon, due to familiarity.
Surprized that the link was to Amazon, expected a larger image
prefer a compact list
Langara catalog with browse-list-level images – would prefer no images in order to fit more titles on the page, so can skim quickly. Didn’t expect jacket image to link directly to Amazon from that point (no text label or alt-tex)
More Info = not sure what that means. More places to search? Statements about each link and what it does are helpful and important
Results browse – More Info. Button
“what does that mean?” “the catalog is what we have, but this links outside?
General recommendation – caption each link to explain what it can provide.
Student B
3. Do you like having jackets displayed in the record?
Yes – Makes for a friendlier catalog and gives a sense what to look for in the stacks. [followed link from image in bib record to enlarged image]
4. Would you be interested in locating reviews about the book? Can you find an option to search for these in this record?
Found Reviews & More button, and followed Contents Café link. Noted that CC “back” nav menu button doesn’t work. Viewed both summary & reviews. “Not bad, but very short. Good for overviews.
3. Can you find a summary for this book?
Likes having long summary in catalog record
Contents Café summary: “Hmmm… Not as detailed
4. Can you find Table of Contents for this book?
Found in catalog record. Likes having this in record “Would this mean it’s searchable?”
CC-reviews: Bad reviews. Says nothing.
Amazon: Public audience rather than academic
Amazon is geared to a public audience, CC is also to some extent, with publishers reviews
Think Amamzon is OK to link to, even though it is a commercial site
TOC in bib record: “This is good”
CC contents: “This is a long anthology!” Liked having the page numbering and full contents.
CRL – “What is this???” [skip]
Google Books – no results. “Don’t think students would use this as much” [we didn’t pursue to show the type of information generally provided]
Amazon – scrolled to reviews. Not as impressed with content available in this record (2 reviews only). He noticed the LibX “D” link in Amazon record and wondered what it did.
WorldCat – “Doesn’t make sense to have duplicate services” [meaning multiple links to similar content, e.g., same TOC in WorldCat versus C.C.] “But inconsistent content is frustrating.
General note: should note that reviews are not academic sources. Would love a simpler way to get to academic databases – want it more centralized.---
Had trouble with the CC back button. Like the CC TOC, with the chapter pages and length noted. Did not care for the non academic reviews in CC. Liked the Amazon reviews. Found that Worldcat duplicates what is in the catalog and other sources, and is not necessary. Google Book search less helpful, and Center for research Linraies also not so helpful. Would keep Amazon, not sure of Worldcat, maybe CC.
3. Don’t like link into Amazon alone. Want choices for different audiences (students vs. faculty). [this contradicts somewhat his comment about duplication of information from diff services?]
Not expecting a link to Amamzon, prefer more choices
4. Does Amazon provide enough information on its own?
Not enough
3. Do you like having the jacket not just in the record, but also in the list of results?
Not necessary – seems cluttered since we also have the format icons.
Doesn’t matter
3. More Info button could be useful, but not sure ?
4. What kinds of information/links would be helpful to find in the Reviews and more button?
Search 360 would be useful for More Info.
There should be an easier way to find the articles you need online.
Student C
5. Likes images, but interpreted as what our local copy looks like. “Is this what it would look like in the stacks? Image is useful for locating in the stacks”
6. Could be helpful
Would you be interested in locating reviews about the book?
“Ummmm…. Yeah….” - Not terribly enthusiastic about needing book reviews
Did not see the Reviews button – but reviews could be helpful
Can you find an option to search for these in this record?
“Can I scroll?” [didn’t spot right away – had to direct to “reviews & more” button]
5. Can you find a summary for this book?
Found in catalog record
6. In the record
7. Can you find Table of Contents for this book?
Found in catalog record. Prompted to click on Rev&More button. [uses keyboard/mouse to navigate]
Contents Cafe – book details: surprised at length of record, and questioned value of info. “I don’t know what some of this is”
CC-summaries: “Why are there 2 summaries here?”
CC-Reviews: “I have to look at each individually?”
CC-Contents: “That’s cool! Really helpful when the title is misleading”
8. In the record – liked the TOC display better in CC. Not sure why CC provides two brief summaries? Back button did not work?
Worldcat format is not as clean as CC (looking at the TOC link from Lib of Con). Thought Amazon was good for buying books, but not for research
Prefer getting a bigger jacket image, did not expect Amazon
5. Does Amazon provide enough information on its own?
would probably use CC more for research, preferred the CC layout
3. Do you like having the jacket not just in the record, but also in the list of results? Not necessary
Reviews & More makes sense, might not use More Info=not sure what that means
Student D
7. Do you like having jackets displayed in the record?
Searched for Harry Potter, liked seeing the jackets
8. Would you be interested in locating reviews about the book? Can you find an option to search for these in this record?
Took a little while to choose the Reviews & more button, Thought the summary in CC was the same as in the catalog record. Would prefer more academic reviews, thought the back button in CC was broken.
9. Can you find Table of Contents for this book? Found in the catalog record, would also use Amazon for this kind of information
Not sure why there are 2 similar, brief summaries for this book in CC? The summary is generally more useful than the TOC, but TOC might be helpful if looking for a specic short story or special topic in a book. Normally he would look for a summary online, then scan the TOC of the book from the library stacks. Had never used Worldcat before, asked if it was free.
ALW notes: Working with full record display of Oxford anthology of African American poetry http://libcat.dartmouth.edu:2082/record=b3636693 ]
[“Reviews & More” link already followed & open]
Contents Café: Navigation within Contents Café links is mixed between CC nav buttons, browser buttons, and keyboard. Some confusion on getting out of CC menu to other “Reviews & More” links.