The Usability and Functionality of an Online Catalogue

I had chosen this topic “The Usability and Functionality of an Online Catalogue” to share with others about the online catalogue uses and functions. Hope you guys can understand that online catalogue really help people that need information because it is remotely and can used it anytime at anywhere. 

The Usability and Functionality of an Online Catalogue
by Jenny Craven, Frances Johnson and Geoff Butters

Craven, J., Johnson, F., and Butters, G. (2011). The Usability and Functional of an Online Catalogue. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 62(1), 70-84. doi: 10.1108/00012531011015217

Nowadays, there are so many choices for user in delivery of and access to information and resources by using technology and use of the web. For library and information professionals, this way has been used effectively to deliver a range of resources and services such as e-journals, online databases, inter-library loans and access to resources via the online catalogue. People enable to access and share worldwide collection using digital library. This paper contain the usability of the user interface to an online catalogue and to explore how user assessment of both system usability and functionality.

According to Brophy and Craven (2007), access to digital library resources can be broken down into the following user-related processes such as resources discovery, location, request and delivery. To take place there is generally a user interface, the resources to be discovered they must be described, organizes and then used. The term accessibility generally refers to the application of technical solutions to the design of a web site in order to render it more accessible to user in regards to usability. Alongside usability, the usefulness or functionality of a system should be considered to ensure a product is not only to use, but the functions it offers are also of relevance to the target audience.

Usability is including learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction.  Shneiderman (1997) stated that a usable system is one where learning how to access the resources is intuitive; finding desirable resources takes minimal times; errors of not finding what the user wants or finding the wrong things are rare; searching is a pleasant and rewarding experiences; and the user returns to use the system in the context of their work.

Any system development should begin with an investigation of user requirement. This will enable the developers to make decision about the inclusion or exclusion of specific features and functions of the system. The next stage is to evaluate the system with different groups of people where undertaken by usability testing. Usability studies include an evaluation of a digital library system using interview and observation technique to help designer better understand about the target audience and their needed.

A feasibility study of user evaluation of internet search engines explored the value of a framework for evaluation based on multi-dimension. Copac is an online library catalogue of around 32 million records created by the merging of records from catalogues of members of Research Library UK, specialist collection in other academic libraries and other specialist research libraries. Traditionally Copac has been a stand-alone service. The development team is taking steps to improve and extend its service by redesigning elements of the existing interface and by linking Copac to other services over the web.

The usability using of Copac used a mixture of search tasks, interviews and a structured focus group to gather data for understanding the project objectives. Thus for each of the specific system features supporting the user in searching for information an associated task was devised. For example, users may be required to find a copy of a particular edition of a book requiring the goal directed use of the full record display of the item. The results of the usability testing have been summarized as follows under the specific areas and features investigated which are search, display of record, functions and potential functions.

Users are an important aspect of service design and development. This paper provides an overview of usability testing and includes examples of a selection of usability studies, including a recent usability study of the Copac online catalogue. In my opinion, to improve interaction between the user and the system, the usability testing is often sufficient in itself to provide recommendations. The usability study has demonstrated the importance of the application of usability principles in the interface design. Many of these issues related to the attributes of appearance, navigation and terminology and provided the evidence base on which recommendations for re-design could be made. The system with services and features beyond search to the boarder context of information use might attract the users.

In conclusion, this article provides knowledge for people who had read it. There might be a certain terms or words that rare and hard to understand. But as a total, I can still understand what the article about even there have a term that not easily to understand because mostly they using a simple and basic of English language. The explanation of this article is too long. I suggested that the writer need to write the explanation that not too long but compact with the knowledge. The arrangement of this article is in a good condition. The writers used the numbering and bullets, so that reader can understand the flow of the article. The discussion section about The Usability and Functionality of an Online Catalogue is too short and need to elaborate more to reader. The references are provided to users that want to know or read more about this topic.

Online catalogue helps patron to search and retrieved material faster than manually. The technology nowadays gives many advantages to people as a many disadvantages. We need to use technology effectively. Read more to learn more.