Health Sciences Library Website Using LibGuides: a usability study

Abstract

The Health Sciences Library (HSL) serves the students, faculty, researchers and staff at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The main functions of the HSL are to provide its patrons with the information they need to complete assignments, teach, and conduct research. The HSL specializes in collecting and subscribing to biomedical information. With the bulk of the library’s collection being available online it is important that the library’s website is easy to learn and use. For this usability study, the HSL website was consolidated to a single platform called LibGuides, and a new discovery tool/search interface was implemented. This usability study evaluates the learnability, efficiency, and users’ satisfaction of the new website and search tool through online questionnaires and in-person think aloud sessions. Results from the usability study show that the new website is easier to use and participants rated a higher satisfaction with the new website compared to the old website.