Food for thought on accessibility workshop @ IUG

Accessability doesn't just have to be from the viewpoint of disabled patrons.
ADA & WebOPAC Accessibility Workshop.

What about:
1. What is JWU's international population? Does our website/OPAC "speak to" ESL students & faculty? What does Catalog and Database mean to them? Some of the sample libraries here at IUG use the phrase, "Books & More!" to represent catalog.

2. Focus2011 has a large focus on international student recruitment, is our website accessible to them? Is the language clear & simple? Are terms used librarianese?

A Sociologist Says Students Aren't So Web-Wise After All

Check out this interview in the Chronicle's Wired Campus column:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2943

Do you think web technology literacy is adequately addressed at J&W?

IUG Conference

Hi everyone,

I will be blogging the IUG Conference in Washington, D.C. and you can view my posts at http://risassylibrarian.blogspot.com/. Please feel free to leave comments!

Talia

Encore Usability Study-URI

At the last Reference Committee meeting, Mary McDonald from URI distributed some interesting results from a usability study they conducted comparing the old HELIN Opac with Encore. The study featured 170 students who had just completed the LIB120 session. Some key numbers, overall, 28.8% found HELIN easier than Encore compared to only 21.5% of students who found Encore easier than HELIN. only 4.6% of students thought that Encore was much easier than HELIN whereas 15.4% found HELIN much easier than Encore. As stated earier, students had just completed LIB120 and were extremely familar with Helin at the point of this survey.

Question for discussion:

1. If Encore is supposed to be what student's want i.e. tag cloud etc.., what does this survey mean?

Blog Settings

I'm so new to the blogosphere that I don't completely understand all the implications of the various settings.

It was suggested by one of the staff that I change the 'Comments' setting to allow anyone to comment. I have done so. This means that even anonymous comments from unregistered users will now be accepted.

Welcome!

Hi there, J&W librarian-- Thanks for taking a look at our freshly minted library staff blog. I hope you will feel free to post ideas, referrals to interesting articles, announcements, or just let off some LIS steam.