Presentation Type
Lightning Talk
Conference Track
Other
Description
With the debut of OpenURL, seamless transition from citation to online content became reality. But another problem cropped up. What if the desired content, while available, was not in online form? What if, instead, the content was either available in print in the library or only a few hours or days away via interlibrary loan? Thus was born the link resolver helper page – designed to guide library users through various alternative access options to the one that second-best suited their particular content need. Today’s link resolver products provide enough options that, if all deployed or deployed poorly, may well lead users to simply exit the helper page and turn elsewhere rather than wade through the barrage of directions and options to discover which one will solve the information need of that moment. The power to customize helper pages must be exercised judiciously and with a clear idea of what our users need to accomplish. And there is no better way to know what that is than to simply ask them. Designing helper pages with simplicity in mind and employing usability testing of helper page design is critical to users successfully negotiating a positive outcome when they cannot Find It, Get It or Link to Full Text.
Rights
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Start Date
2-11-2011 4:00 PM
End Date
2-11-2011 4:30 PM
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19951
What If They Can’t Find It Or Get It Or Link To Full Text?
With the debut of OpenURL, seamless transition from citation to online content became reality. But another problem cropped up. What if the desired content, while available, was not in online form? What if, instead, the content was either available in print in the library or only a few hours or days away via interlibrary loan? Thus was born the link resolver helper page – designed to guide library users through various alternative access options to the one that second-best suited their particular content need. Today’s link resolver products provide enough options that, if all deployed or deployed poorly, may well lead users to simply exit the helper page and turn elsewhere rather than wade through the barrage of directions and options to discover which one will solve the information need of that moment. The power to customize helper pages must be exercised judiciously and with a clear idea of what our users need to accomplish. And there is no better way to know what that is than to simply ask them. Designing helper pages with simplicity in mind and employing usability testing of helper page design is critical to users successfully negotiating a positive outcome when they cannot Find It, Get It or Link to Full Text.
