| A user survey of Swedish public library
websites shows that users’ digital access
to their libraries may indeed be an obstacle
course. A project sets out to help libraries
change this in order to provide citizens
with access to digital services. |
Providing citizens with access to information
occupies a central position in
the library organisation. Public libraries
in Sweden are aware of the important
assignment they shoulder regarding
access to information in digital
resources. The task itself is not problematic
as such, as it lies well within the
scope of disseminating democratic
awareness and general education; a task
which has been assigned to public libraries
for as long as they have existed.
The problems however, arise when it
comes to the actual implementation of
the library’s digital services.What
exactly is it that libraries are meant to
make accessible? And how, exactly, are
they to go about it?
In the present situation, libraries offer
a selection of digital services - and one
wishes there were more Swedish
language ones available. The Swedish
public libraries collective purchasing
organisation, KULDA, has contributed
in order to increase supply and support
to the public libraries in their selection
of and subscriptions to license controlled
databases. Nevertheless, libraries
could perform far more satisfactorily
when presenting their digital resources
to the end-users, especially on the
library websites. One could say that the
taxpayers spend money on something
they cannot see and therefore are unable
to use. A subscription to a printed
periodical would never be treated in
such a manner - who would imagine
placing a magazine intended for the
library visitor in the librarians office?
The variations between the different
by Statskontoret, the Swedish Agency
for Public Management and now administered
by Verva, the Swedish Administrative
Development Agency.
In order to increase knowledge as to
how the library websites functioned
from a user-perspective, the project
ordered a user survey from the University
of Uppsala, analysing 10 library
websites from Central Sweden. The
purpose of the survey was to supply
the decision makers of websites with a
basis of data. Are the digital services
offered on the web in phase with the
needs of the users? Is the design and
structure of the web sites satisfactory?
The survey used 40 subjects to answer
60 questions. The questions were about
library services and tasks concerning
information retrieval. The questions
touched upon both the web catalogue
and the library websites. The survey
was carried out at the utility laboratory
at Ekonomikum - Centre for Economic
Studies - at Uppsala University.
The results indicated the difficulty in
responding to the questions and that
there was much that remained to be
done with regards to structure, design,
user perspective and functionality on
the library websites. Some of the more
important matters that the survey
pointed toward were: that nearly all
could cope with simple search queries
in the web catalogue, and what had
mainly divided those used to computers
from those less so, was that the
latter had fewer and inferior search
strategies to rely on and they were
more inclined to give up earlier.
It proved more difficult than expected
for the test subjects to even find the
library website. Some did however
reach the website, yet failed to recognise
it as such due to lack of information.
Some got lost in the jungle of
organisation structure on the municipal
websites. A strategy to seek confirmation
that the user had reached the
correct site was to use the address box
in their web browser. If there is a long,
complicated set of characters it is not
going to be of much use to the user.
Matters were made easier for the users
when the website had a distinct
heading such as "Welcome to the
library". Another function which made
things easier for the user was the "Å-Ö
list", questions and answers known as
FAQ and headings informing as to
what can be found in the library and
what kind of media.When such web
pages were available the quality of
searches improved accordingly. The test
subjects would constantly return to
these pages when they were assigned to
answer questions. However, the database
for periodicals proved to be a
problem. The test subjects failed to
appreciate what could be done with
them.Making reservations in the web
catalogues was another problematic
issue. They were able to perform the
actual reservation, but failed to interpret
the replies they were given.
Messages informing them that "no
reservations can be made as the media
is available at the department" became
utterly incomprehensible to the user.
Overall, there was not enough information
about how physically impaired
persons could gain access to the library
itself.
A number of the problems mentioned
above are part of the library websites
and could easily be attended to by each
library. The websites need to be cleared
of professional jargon and inexplicable
terminology used only by those in the
know. Structures should be adapted
from a user perspective, not present the
library’s position in the municipal organisation.
The problems attached to
the web catalogue itself need to be
analysed to consider what can be done
about local configurations and what
requirements need to be forwarded to
the suppliers of library systems. The
suppliers did offer library web solutions
at an early stage, but it has become
all too apparent that today the
library systems are having a hard time
keeping up with current developments.
Suppliers have a lot to learn from web
services such as Google, Google Scholar
and the approach taken by internet
bookstores in presenting information
about literature.
At the time of writing the project has
reached half-time and it has become
obvious that what is needed is improving
levels of staff competence and
cultural changes. Cultural change
might be the more elusive of the two as
it is necessary for the libraries to think
along new lines when it comes to the
allocation of resources concerning the
media budget. Should the funding of
digital services be distributed as a lump
sum, or should it be ushered into the
regular allowance and be subject to the
same media strategic principles as
printed media? Do libraries deliberately
set aside the necessary time to
establish structures applicable to websites
and digital services, in other
words: do they market the invisible
library? How can the image of the library’s
place in the municipal IT
structure be changed?
There are a number of local authorities who fail to
see that the needs of the library on the
web differ from that, of say, the notification
of opening hours at the recycling
plant. Limitations disabling
possible tie-in of login procedure to
digital services to IP-addresses make
easy access and user friendliness extremely
vulnerable.What ideally should
be questions about access, and in the
longer perspective: democracy, finds
itself trapped in a thicket of technical
and administrative problems.
It is however, important for county
libraries to make clear the necessity in
approaching this issue in a strategic
manner. The county libraries need to
convey an understanding of the context
of the digital library and to create a
comprehensive picture of its importance;
not just provide the public libraries
with digital services and leave it at
that. The concept of the 24-hour Library
and access to e-services as processes
of democratization is important to
make clear. The 24-hour Web guidelines,
which are highlighted in the
LIMIT-project, contain national guidelines
for the development of the web
and e-services in the public sector.
The guidelines can act as an important
gateway to collaborative ventures involving
libraries and the ITdepartments
of local authorities. To occupy a
prominent position on the municipality’s
websites is of vital importance for
public libraries today.
Whilst libraries struggle with improving
levels of staff competence and
adapting to cultural changes, technological
developments move at breakneck
speed and as a consequence the
habits of our visitors change. Over the
past years users have become more
adept, albeit not so efficient, retrievers
of information. Their search behaviour
on the web in general is reflected on
the library websites and web catalogues.
For those who are in their
twenties, the web and the mobile have
"always" been at hand. This implies
that young people, but also many other
users are more demanding when it comes
to the digital contents of a library.
More so than libraries by tradition are
used to. Users query why reserved
books are not sent directly to one’s
home address, why databases can only
be accessed on the library premises and
not via the web, why it is not possible
to search articles in the web catalogue
and why everything is not in fulltext.
While we in the library community
struggle with these issues, we should
raise our own standards, especially
with regard to our educational and
communicational skills.We need to be
made aware of our own self-evident
behaviour patterns, to enable the presentation
and clarification of our
services in an accessible manner and
thereby making the invisible visible.
Lest we forget, this is after all, a question
of democracy.
Translated by Jonathan Pearman
Portrait by Annika Inasson Gillesgård
