Creating Audience and Environment-Friendly Research Guides: Findings from a User Study

摘要

Introduction In Fall 2013, the investigators conducted a user study of the DePaul University Library Subject Research Guides. At that time, librarians at DePaul had created a total of 410 research guides on the Springshare LibGuides CMS platform, with 148 active in Spring Quarter 2013. The library website supported a variety of guides, including subject guides, how-to guides, and course guides; this user study focused only on the subject research guides. While the number of guides had been growing steadily, it remained unclear how students were using these webpages. Although quantitative data was readily available from Springshare, the investigators wanted to gain a fuller picture of usage beyond the numbers. This qualitative study was intended to fill that gap by investigating how students perceived, navigated through, and understood these guides. Results were analyzed in support of a redesign that would better meet actual student needs.