The top OHSU Library page will be changing on Wednesday, November 10, 2010.

OHSU Library staff conducted usability testing on the library site that was launched in July 2009. Based on findings from these usability tests, we concluded the following:

·         OHSU researchers, students and community need easier, more immediate access to searching on journal titles.

·         There was confusion between looking for journal titles in our catalog (e.g. "does OHSU have this?") versus searching for articles in databases.

·         No one else except librarians understands what all we have in the catalog - "books and more" is more descriptive.

·         Very few people were aware of our e-books titles.

·         Very few people understood what "Summit" meant (for the record, it means a consortium of over 35 Pacific Northwest academic libraries with whom we can check out books for free).

To address these issues of disconnect between users' mental models and how we had library resources laid out, we are moving to a simple tabbed design in which:

·         Journal title search is the first search available - no hunting and pecking for this functionality.

·         We have included links to "Looking for articles?" if that is really what users are wanting to do.

·         Relabeled "Search the catalog" as "Books and More"

·         Included an "E-Books" tab in the design to highlight these resources.

·         Relabeled "Summit" to "Libraries Worldwide".

Based on these findings, OHSU librarians worked with OHSU Web Strategies to develop a new top page. Below is an approximation of what the new interface will look like.

 If you have questions or concerns regarding these interface changes to the OHSU Library web site, please contact Laura Zeigen, User Experience Librarian, at 503-494-0505 or zeigenl@ohsu.edu.