Shannon and Rufus, her first big dog.

Darryl Friesen, circa 1982, grade 5ish.

On March 6th and 15th the LDC hosted a New Website Q & A for employees to come ask questions, make comments, and learn about the new website. Shannon Lucky and Darryl Friesen from LS&IT were on hand to provide answers and information, but to also gather feedback from participants.

The sessions were filled with rich conversation, valuable information, and even some laughter. Below are questions, answers, and comments from these sessions. Notice that there have been a number of changes to the website resulting from the constructive exchange that took place.

Questions:

1. Can ILL/VDX login page be reconfigured to look like new pages?
   1. Yes, but with much effort. We will have to work in collaboration with VDX to make this happen. It is on the to-do list, but there are other pressing priorities. Hopefully ready for the fall.
2. Distance & Distributed is currently under “Use the Library,” can it also be under “Learning”?
   1. Done! https://library.usask.ca/support/learning.php
3. How do we determine what are the “popular” tasks on the website?
   1. We use a combination of Google analytics and things that were on the How Do I? guide, with a focus on what students are doing often on our website.
4. Do you collect data on people clicking back to old site?
   1. We sure do. Fewer than 4% click back to the old site. This number has remained fairly consistent since the new website launch.
5. Darryl, what are your thoughts on Cascade?
   1. After a long pause to choose words carefully…from a programmer analyst perspective: limiting and hoops to jump through. However, it makes managing and editing content easy for the content managers.
6. The search box on the top right corner of every library website page searches all of the University website pages, but it used to only search library website pages. Why this change?
   1. This is part of the template from Cascade that we can’t change. It comes from central ICT and we do not have control over it. BUT it is a Google search box so you can type in a command that will cause it to only search the Library website: site:library.usask.ca search term(s)
7. Has the default library changed when booking study rooms?
   1. FIXED! Now, the system remembers all the choices made before being reminded to login.
8. The “New Records” facet in USearch is very confusing. It does not clearly indicate how a record is “new”. Is this facet new?
   1. This is a new facet. We agree: it is confusing. It indicates when a record is added/updated in Primo, not necessarily new to the Library. We plan on completely removing this facet OR moving it to he very bottom.
9. Can there be a “last 5 years” limited in USearch?
   1. this is not a standard facet setting in USearch, but Shannon will be looking into this. As a work around, there is a “Year” facet that allows you to adjust the years of publication. Setting this at “2013 to 2018” will give you the last 5 years.

Comments and various tid-bits of information:

• The website had to be updated as old site on a version of Cascade that will soon no longer be supported.
• The new website follows the colour branding of the University of Saskatchewan.
• Interlibrary Loans page: not as clear/intuitive as in past, green button used to say “Create a request,” eyes flip over blue boxes.
  • We heard you and have made updates to the page based on comments: https://library.usask.ca/ill/index.php
• “Use the Library” not intuitive.
  • This terminology was work-shopped in multiple design sessions. It is also the terminology used on other U15 websites.
• Like the understandable language.
  • THANK YOU!
• Thoughts and actions shaping redesign:
  • massive content clean-up
  • student centric as opposed to staff centric
  • research around purpose of a website
  • many students/researchers get library instruction, but the majority don’t: need to ensure website usable for those that don’t get instruction
• Hours need to include Math & Stats and Writing Help (on main page)
  • You are right and we are working on this. We have added a button at the bottom of “Today’s Hours” to click through to “Hours for all services”
    
  • Once you click through for all services you do have to click again on the green icon by Murray Library. We recognize this is not intuitive and we are working on making this better. Way better. We thank you for your patience and please stay tuned for a new and improved hours display.
    

    Please click on image for bigger and clearer picture.

• USearch functionality: more to sift through, often top 5 results not connected to search, hard to find things, pulls all editions together but does not give info on each individual edition
  • We have made a few changes to make USearch work better:
    • Re-balancing of relevance rankings: now local holdings show up higher and more frequently that things we do not own
    • Boosted book titles and database names
      • this can be problematic as databases keep getting bought out and changing names
  • It is good to keep in mind that USearch is designed to privilege academic searches. Therefore, the results are more likely to surface academic writings about Harry Potter, not necessarily the fiction book itself. It does return results differently than a public library catalogue may.

If anyone at these sessions feels that something is missing from this post, PLEASE contact Jennifer Murray (jennifer.murray@usask.ca, 966-2710).