1. Knowing our users
The constant use of computers and the web is rapidly changing library users. We are all becoming the google generation and it has become crucial for libraries to create tools that will better serve the demanding customers. Thinking of User Experience, what methods can help us getting to know the user? What services should we offer? Are we providing services that are being used ? And if they are not used that well, is it because of the poor content or is it due to the usability of the services?
2. Open Linked data and library data re use
The web has become the place to retrieve your information from. Adding semantics to the web is focusing on adding linked data. Libraries are experimenting by bringing bibliographic records to the web containing linked data information to expose the richness of their bibliographies. Are these experiments successful ? Library data appears in other forms besides Opac search results. They are harvested or reused via RSS for example. Are we serving them with appropriate data ?
3. Tweaking search results relevance ranking
Google has proved that having the most relevant results on the first page works. So users expect any discovery tool to perform this way. Google’s pagerank algorithm is based on references between pages. Pages that get linked to often are supposed to be important.
Traditional relevance ranking methods, using word frequencies etc, do help but do not work as well. These algorithms are even less effective in resources that lack full text, but only consists of metadata. On the other hand, this metadata could be used to improve relevance ranking. Knowledge about year of publication, loans frequency or impact factors and lots of other meta data could be used to improve relevance ranking in library catalogs and other bibliographies. And what about indexing full text to improve relevance ranking ?
4. Fulfillment strategies, what’s in those libraries and how do I get to it ?
Users expect to find everything in the library services, not at least articles. A lot of libraries are thinking about how to meet this expectation, how to collect/access those extended amounts of metadata. Are we going to do this alone, in consortia or are we just going to depend on big central indexes provided by commercial companies? What is the best way to collect/access huge amounts of metadata? How can we cooperate and exchange experiences?
Once discovered, users expect to get to the actual resource instantaneously. Library catalogs and other bibliographic data bases can not always offer these services. For what concerns electronic resources there may be a lack of discovery tools to get to the actual resource or there may be legal issues that prevents access. For paper there are obviously other reasons. What strategies do libraries follow to get the user to the actual resource as convenient as possible?
5. Lending Ebooks
Ebook readers as devices or as applications on existing mobile devices start to get adopted by more and more users. Some libraries are experimenting with the possibility to provide temporary access to documents on book readers, a service that is similar to lending physical books. What are their experiences? Does this service meet new user expectations ?
6. E-memory
With the extinction of paper as a means to communicate, the role of a library meeting user expectations will have to change dramatically. Libraries will have to foster E-memory to remain needed. For university libraries this will mean not only archiving local production of publications, they may also play a role in archiving electronic research data. What do libraries do to pick up this new challenges?
7. Discovery interfaces
New generation library catalogues have made an important step forward in supporting discovery through exploration and serendipity. Faceted search, various recommendations/similar-items lists and tag clouds have proved to be the key elements in creating discovery interfaces. Also FRBR could become a valuable discovery tool, however current implementations are very limited, partial and do not use the full potential of the model. How could we better use and display FRBR in our catalogues and how could we improve and further develop other key elements for discovery? What about recommending services?
