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![[WWW]](/www/moin/htdocs/classic/img/moin-www.png)
The Internet Goes to College: How Students are Living in the Future with Today's Technology (a study that is part of the Pew Internet and American Life series)
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Scholarly Work in the Humanities and the Evolving Information Environment
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How Academic Librarians Can Influence Students’Web-Based Information Choices
Other studies of interest:
Influence of big web systems on desires of patrons for library systems. See Library Website Redesign Focus Group Study:
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As mentioned above, participants tended not to make distinctions between the library web site and the online systems accessible through it. For example, several expressed desires for features that we think of as related to the library catalog, such as better access to the tables of contents and indexes of books, and perhaps prefaces and introductions ("like Amazon," as one student put it). One student wanted the catalog to "just list the copies that are available to be checked out now," or simplify the results display with details given under each location for an item. Another student wanted to "check out books online, then go pick them up [at the circulation desk]."
Likewise, participants felt that a search that works in Google should produce similar, or at least some, results in the library catalog. One reported with some frustration that Google gave 47,000 hits on his search term, while Pathfinder gave zero. Some participants voiced concern about whether Pathfinder gives results consistent with, or as complete as, what one would get from GLADIS; others commented on confusing search choices and "back button" behavior in Pathfinder.
It was evident from these discussions that abnormalities and frustrations that users encounter with display, downloading, or printing of records in the catalog or full text items in article databases are closely associated with, if not actually attributed to the library web site. This underlines the importance of negotiating with vendors to provide services at a level of excellence that we ourselves would want to provide.
