The University of Texas Information Architecture Group

The University of Texas Information Architecture Group

§ Nicole

1. The first was a high-school student. He said that it had been a long time since he had been at the library because he usually went to the library at his school. The last time he was there he was looking for information on the Battle of Little Bighorn. He looked for it in the catalog and was able to find it easily.

He uses the internet to look for lyrics to songs, particularly http://www.lyrics.com. He likes this site because it has a search feature that allows you to search by artist or title (which it doesn't by the way... but hey, that's what he said). He didn't know that the library had a website, but he said that it would be useful for it to have information about whether or not a book was checked out so he could know before he went to the library.

He didn't know about any of the programs that the library offered either, but knew that a cousin of his had attended reading classes there.

2. The second person that I spoke with was an older staff member. He was able to tell me about some of the problems that he had witnessed patrons having at the computers. He said that the Internet Policy is confusing to a lot of patrons because they don't understand that they need to scroll though the whole thing in order to accept. He pointed out a section on the homepage which talks about the databases that the library has http://www.sat.lib.tx.us/html/catalogin.htm) is complicated because it uses the word databases which isn't familiar to many of their users. He said that many of the patrons have low reading levels (as many of them are not

native English speakers) and that graphics seem to be easier to use.

He also showed Rhonda and I the interface that the patrons actually see when they are at the library. They don't see the Windows desktop, but rather something that is closer to this screen http://www.saplweb.sat.lib.tx.us/. They use this to navigate through the entire system... even to get to the MS Office programs. I think it might be interesting to get some more information about this interface if we don't already have it because if that's what patron's use at the library, that's what they might be most comfortable using on the WWW.

3. The third person whom I spoke with was another employee. She estimated that 70% of the patrons do not understand how to use the Internet to the extent that they do not know what the URL bar is for (i.e., they don't know how to get to Yahoo if they need to). She told us that the library's internet connection is very slow and that often, the employees cannot even check their e-mail on a 15 min. break because the connection is dragging behind.

This creates a tremendous problem for the patrons because they are only given 2, 30-minute sessions and they often cannot do what they want because the connection is so slow.

§ Focus Group Meeting in SAPL

Meeting place: Great Northwest Branch of San Antonio Public Library

Meeting Date: February 24, 2001

Facilitator: Chris Ewing

Note taker: Seung-Ah Lee

How many participants? 5 people.

Introductions:

Ben: A Webmaster for the County Clerk and Bilingual

Dan: Manager for HEB and weekend college student

Curtis: Full-time college student

Lupe: Library Paraprofessional and Mother of 2

Tony: Seeking Full-time Technical employment

Questions and Answers

1. What do you use the library for?

Ben: for pleasure reading materials

Dan: research for school, and recreational reading

Curtis: research for school

Lupe: research for kids

2.Think about the last time you visited a library? What were you looking for? How did you go about finding it?

Ben: looking for fiction, I locate my books by author, already know the location within the Library

Dan: research for school, using Dewey Decimal System and know the location of recreational reading materials within the library.

Curtis: research for school, first use author name to find call number in the computer.

Lupe: kids books, in the past used index cards for finding information now just walk over to the location and hunt until I find something. BROWSING

3. What problems did you have?

Ben: have some problems with the view given by the search engine. He likes to use "index card" even if the information is in the computer because he was raised that way. He also confused about getting books from other branches and feel that the books at his branch should be listed first. Specific to each library location.

Dan: agrees with Ben. He also has some problems using the search engine.

Curtis: problems of locating a information on the computer even without a search engine.

Lupe: she wonder if all the holdings for all the branches were on computer or not.

4. Suggestions for the above problems.

Ben: "Picture of an index card" on the websites

Dan: making better a search engine for users. "Cyber book mobile"- even he never heard about it, he has an idea like it. "If we can reserve the book on the online and then, pick it up here that will be helpful."

Curtis: make helps more available.

5. What are your favorites Websites on the Internet?

Ben: commercial Websites, cessna.com - Airplane Company Website.

Dan: onebox.com

Curtis: jaguar.uk.com, and he said that IRS Website has very friendly graphics for users.

Lupe: Disney or cartoon sites

Tony: "questingbeast (?)"- It is about books, "story of a vampire." And he said IRS Website has good information about filing your taxes, very friendly.

6. Why do you like them?

Ben: it includes good PR.

Dan: functions of this site are good for getting and sending message.

Curtis: most easy to navigate so kids can use this site. – Rollover the bottom and get a menu stay on that same button and a help box pops up.

Lupe: children have some problems about reading and understanding. More graphical sites are easy for them.

7. What are your worst Websites on the Internet?

Ben: texasonline.com and his own site.

Dan: "msn"

Curtis: "msn," "Alamo community college's Websites"

Tony: darksites.com

8. And why you don't like it?

Ben: texasonline.com is so new but not useful.

Dan: Impossible to navigate, too much information, and "hotmail.com" is very slow.

Curtis: same opinion as Dan. Alamo community college's Websites have a lot of page expire so he tried to log in several times to get the page. He said that it was frustrating.

9.Have you ever visit SAPL Websites? And what do think about that?

Ben: Yes, it seems like a government Website but I like the southwest style and colors.

Lupe: Kid Websites, Need more graphics for kids page.

Tony: never look at SAPL websites.

10.What is your favorites service that the SAPL offers?

Ben: wandering reference personnel, and good community classes and activities for elderly and children.

Dan: great reference by all staff, kind staff- they always say, "Do you need help?" and professional assistances- "going to extra mile to find books" for the patrons.

Curtis: nice staff, and teach computer skills.

Lupe: nice staff. They are always looking for something for the users.

Tony: every thing is cool in this branch library but in the main library, using computer is not easy. The staff at the main library are rude.

11.What things would you like to see available on the SAPL Website?

Ben: "Picture of index card" returned when I search for my book

Dan: making a better search engine for users, and "Cyber book mobile"

Curtis: when I do a search I would like to get back a digital representation of an index card.

Lupe: an online format of card cataloging. More graphics on kids page.

Good advice about Latino page from Ben, a Webmaster for the county:

*He did not know about Latino section in SAPL Websites.

*He said that in his dealings (both personal and business) with the Spanish community that they could neither read nor write Spanish because of lack of education. Therefore, if we are going to make the Latino section for people who are using Spanish, speech or simple words would be good for Spanish users. His point is that "people can speak Spanish very well but can't read or write the language." According to him, older people can read Spanish but the new generation who are using computers can't and don’t want to read Spanish especially if there are only lists of words on the screen. For example, "biblioteca" means library in Spanish but people do not understand this word when written however, “libro” could be translated if there were enough white space around the word. He recommend these websites www.state.tx.us and texas.online.com for making the Spanish section.

§ Las Palmas Library - Saturday Feb. 24.

1. Brother and Sister- The day they were at the library was the first time they had been to the library in many years. The older sister had come in to use the encyclopedias for a homework assignment she was working on. The younger brother was looking at magazines related to games.

They stated that they did have Internet access from home but didn’t know about the library’s web site. I asked what kinds of things they would like at a library web site. They really had to think about this question. Things they thought of where checking to see if the library had a particular book for either leisure reading or school work. The younger brother would like to check for books on motorcycles and cars. I suggested a couple possibilities like having “recommended reading” list and they thought that would be really neat. I sensed they didn’t have a grasp of the possibilities of a web site.

2. Father of a preschooler - The father has just started to bring his four year old daughter about a month before. He said he had gone to the library as a child but had never thought about bringing his daughter until recently. He was concerned that he had waited too long and his daughter was at a disadvantage. He came to get books and videos for his daughter.

They didn’t have Internet access from home. He had access from work and knew the library had access. He had never used the computers in the library but wanted to try it. He had never seen the SAPLs web site. He apologized for not being able to help me, but I think for a city the size of San Antonio, he may represent a good number of the patrons, parents who want the best for their kids but are not aware of all of the resources the library offers.