Lucy Holman, Director of the U Baltimore Library, and a former colleague of mine at UMBC, got back to me about this. Her reply puts this particular document into context. It is an interesting reminder that not everything you find on the web is as it seems, and it certainly is not necessarily the final word. We gotta go buy the book! Lucy is off-list, but asked me to post this on her behalf. Her contact information is below, though....
Very interesting discussion This issue of what is right and feasible in discovery services and how to configure it is important stuff for many of our libraries and we should be able to build on the findings and experiences of others rather than re-inventing the wheel locally.... (We use Summon) - Jonathan LeBreton ------------------------ begin Lucy's explanation -------------- The full study and analysis are included in Chapter 14 of a new book, Planning and Implementing Resource Discovery Tools in Academic Libraries, Mary P. Popp and Diane Dallis (Eds). The project was part of a graduate Research Methods course in the University of Baltimore's MS in Interaction Design and Information Architecture program. Originally groups within the course conducted task-based usability tests on EDS, Primo, Summon and Encore. Unfortunately, the test environment of Encore led to many usability issues that we believed were more a result of the test environment than the product itself; therefore we did not report on Encore in the final analysis. The study (and chapter) does offers findings on the other three discovery tools. There were six student groups in the course; each group studied two tools with the same user population (undergrad, graduate and faculty) so that each tool was compared against the other three with each user population overall. The .pdf that you found was the final report of one of those six groups, so it only addresses two of the four tools. The chapter is the only document that pulls the six portions of the study together. I would be happy to discuss this with any of you individually if you need more information. Thanks for your interest in the study. Lucy Holman, DCD Director, Langsdale Library University of Baltimore 1420 Maryland Avenue Baltimore, MD 21201 410-837-4333 ------------------------- end insert -------------------- Jonathan LeBreton Sr. Associate University Librarian Temple University Libraries Paley M138, 1210 Polett Walk, Philadelphia PA 19122 voice: 215-204-8231 fax: 215-204-5201 mobile: 215-284-5070 email: lebre...@temple.edu email: jonat...@temple.edu > -----Original Message----- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of > karim boughida > Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 5:09 PM > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] U of Baltimore, Final Usability Report, link > resolvers -- > MIA? > > Hi Tom, > Top players are EDS, Primo and Summon....the only reason I see encore in the > mix is if you have other III products which is not the case of Ubalt library. > They > have now worldcat? Encore vs Summon is an easy win for summon. > > Let's wait for Jonathan LeBreton (Thanks BTW). > > Karim Boughida > > On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Tom Pasley <tom.pas...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Yes, I'm curious to know too! Due to database/resource matching or > > coverage perhaps (anyone's guess). > > > > Tom > > > > On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 7:50 AM, karim boughida <kbough...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > >> Hi All, > >> Initially EDS, Primo, Summon, and Encore were considered but only > >> Encore and Summon were tested. Do we know why? > >> > >> Thanks > >> Karim Boughida > >> > >> > >> On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Jonathan Rochkind <rochk...@jhu.edu> > >> wrote: > >> > Hi helpful code4lib community, at one point there was a report online at: > >> > > >> > > >> http://student-iat.ubalt.edu/students/kerber_n/idia642/Final_Usabilit > >> y_Report.pdf > >> > > >> > David Walker tells me the report at that location included findings > >> > about SFX and/or other link resolvers. > >> > > >> > I'm really interested in reading it. But it's gone from that > >> > location, > >> and > >> > I'm not sure if it's somewhere else (I don't have a title/author to > >> search > >> > for other than that URL, which is not in google cache or internet > >> archive). > >> > > >> > Is anyone reading this familiar with the report? Perhaps one of the > >> authors > >> > is reading this, or someone reading it knows one of the authors and > >> > can > >> be > >> > put me in touch? Or knows someone likely in the relevant dept at > >> > ubalt > >> and > >> > can be put me in touch? Or has any other information about this > >> > report or ways to get it? > >> > > >> > Thanks! > >> > > >> > Jonathan > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Karim B Boughida > >> kbough...@gmail.com > >> kbough...@library.gwu.edu > >> > > > > -- > Karim B Boughida > kbough...@gmail.com > kbough...@library.gwu.edu
