Blog Assignmnent #5, 6/17

The articles this week were focused on library websites (particularly academic library websites), and on efforts to increase their usability.

The Liu article gave an overview of some of the uses of these websites, as well as some of the more common features. The author especially pointed out how most such sites are heavy on text and links, although a few have more intuitive graphical interfaces. He discusses how Web 2.0 principles can be used to make the website more easy to use and user-friendly, through RSS feeds and folksonomies, among other features.

The McGillis and Toms article was a study of a particular university website, and of its ease of use. The article was written in 2001, and as a result many of the features and concepts now associated with information retrieval systems and websites (especially anything related to Web 2.0) were not then in existence; nevertheless, many of the principles of increased usability were. The study discovered that for a variety of reasons, many users had difficulties with some of the features (but more success with others). In fact, in many cases, the way information is normally cataloged by professionals is not intuitive to amateurs.

How can Library 2.0 change the way that these systems work? Will "user-generated content" go so far as to allow users to change the interface of a system, rather than just its content, and will that make it easier to use?