1. Redesign the Networked Resources catalog to give more prominence to resources of significant reference or research value by excluding certain genres of material, most notably e-journals and e-books, from the public view of Networked Resources.
2. Undertake a user study to determine current needs and behavior patterns of Networked Resources users before any significant redesign or redefinition is undertaken.
3. Determine whether some type of separate listing or database of e-journals is needed either from the Library Gateway home page or from some intermediate "Networked Resources" index page and the resources that would be required to create and maintain such a list.
4. Redesign the Networked Resources public interface to provide better visual cues to distinguish between those types of resources that will remain in the Networked Resources catalog;
5. Redesign the Networked Resources browsable subject captions to provide more balanced access across disciplines to those types of resources remaining in the Networked Resources catalog.

The Implementation Group should complete its work by mid-July to allow time for the changes to be implemented, for documentation to be revised, and for training to be accomplished by the start of the fall semester.

1. Conducted Focus Groups on Tuesday July 10. A full report is forthcoming within the next few weeks.

2. Set up the test Gateway (http://gould.mannlib.cornell.edu) to function exactly like the production version of the gateway. This meant fully implementing kerberos and the proxy server on the test gateway, which had not been done before.

3. Created a working definition for the new Networked Resources. Towards the new definition, we have used the metaphor of a reference collection to characterize the new Networked Resources Collection. That is, Networked Resources would hold resources that primarily direct readers to information and are useful for supplying authoritative information. Using the vocabulary of the subject captions, these resources fall into the categories of catalogs and indexes. The nature of electronic resources will expand the idea of reference to include electronic journal collections, since they are accessed by an index. So, for example, Project Muse would be part of the new Networked Resources, although its component journals, such as American Imago, would not. While this will mean that titles will be removed from Networked Resources in the Library Gateway, all resources will still be available through the CU Library Catalog.

4. Generated lists at http://ivy.mannlib.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/reports/subjectreports.cgi to see items listed by genre and by category. The "first cut" to remove items from Networked Resources was to keep everything that was assigned the genre "index" or "catalog" or had directory, encyclopedia or dictionary as an LC subject heading. These made the "keepers" list.

5. Selectors were sent lists of items by subject that would be removed from Networked Resources based on the above criteria. They were asked to identify sources that fit within the new definition so that they will not be removed from the final implementation of Networked Resources.

6. IRPC has been asked to look at the resources that will be removed and identify any that they would like to see remain.

7. The test gateway on gould has had all items removed that do not meet the criteria mentioned in item 4.

8. All networked Resources with an 899 were assigned the genre "index" to those items lacking it as a genre term.

THE GENERAL GOALS OF THE FOCUS GROUP WERE TO:

1. Identify any insurmountable public relations obstacles
2. Determine how much training will be needed
3. Determine how much publicity will be needed

• Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the Focus Group.
  [Example: Thank you all for coming. The library is looking at how students and faculty use electronic journals and other online library resources in order to better design access to these materials. We will be asking you a few questions to see how you use online library resources in your research. Any questions before we begin?]

• Explain that this is about their experience and we are interested in what each individual has to say. There are no right or wrong answers.

• Have participants introduce themselves. For students ask their major and year. For faculty ask their discipline.

1. [For students] When handed an assignment that requires articles from research journals where do you start to look for this information?
   1. What other tools do you use?
   2. Do you use the Networked Resources section of the Gateway? Why? Why not?

2. [For faculty] When you need to find journal articles for a research project where do you begin to search for this information?
   1. What other tools do you use?
   2. Do you use the Networked Resources section of the Gateway? Why? Why not?

3. If you want to look at an article in a particular journal, where do you look for it first?
   1. Do you check to see if it is available online?
   2. Do you use the catalog to find this out?
   3. Do you use the Networked Resources section of the Library Gateway to do this?

4. How do you search for something in Networked Resources?
   1. Do you look for specific items by title?
   2. Do you use a keyword search on a topic?
   3. Do you find resources using the subjects that are listed on the networked resources page? (Refer to printout of Networked Resources front page)
   4. Greatest Hits

5. What kind of material do you expect to find in Networked Resources?
   1. Individual journals or magazines
   2. Databases/indexes for searching for articles
   3. Websites
   4. Everything electronic on your topic
   5. Explain what we are planning to do and ask for feedback.
      The library is redesigning the Networked Resources section of the Gateway to remove individual electronic journals and web sites but leave in indexes (for finding articles), catalogs, and reference tools (such as online dictionaries, encyclopedias etc.) All of the material we remove will still be available through the Library Catalog. What is your opinion of this?

• There are no insurmountable public relations obstacles.

• Faculty were generally supportive of the change.

• Undergraduates particularly need more training in how to do library research.

• Many people use the subject captions somewhat regularly, although several people pointed out that they are difficult to use because there are too many resources in some subjects. In general, they were happy with the way the subject headings were distributed in Networked Resources.

• Two out of the twenty subjects look in Networked Resources to find an individual journal title. The rest used either the online catalog or try to find a direct link to the journal through an internet search engine.

• Advertising the changes is essential.

• Very few of the subjects have ever used "greatest hits"; those who had, used it rarely.

• The main reason people like having the journal titles in Networked Resources is to be able to browse journal titles in a particular subject area.

• There is a lot of confusion about what Networked Resources really is and what items are and are not available there.

1. The Gateway Catalog description will be updated to allow a Status of "h" for "hidden". All other Status values will remain as is.
2. The current database will be converted as follows:
   1. Any Gateway catalog records that have a Genre that includes Index or Catalog or have a LCSH field containing the words Directories, Dictionaries, or Encyclopedias, will be retained. All others will be changed to a Status of "hidden", which will keep them from showing up in Networked Resources.
   2. Individual records removed in error (due to incorrect Genres) will be added back manually by CTS.
3. The Networked Resources button will be renamed to a name that hasn't been decided yet. Other references to the words "Networked Resources" will be changed to the new name.
4. The Staff Interface must be changed to allow for the new Status of "hidden". (Verify the there will be no unnecessary fields required.)
5. The proxy server generation procedure must be updated to include "hidden" resources along with the "active" ones.
6. The Glimpse Index will need to be checked and tested to insure that only "active" resources are indexed. (It should work this way, but needs to be verified.)
7. Add announcement prior to change to "warn" our patrons.
8. Add announcement after the change to "remind" our patrons.
9. No longer pull in ProQuest titles to the Gateway search function.
10. The Gateway connection cgi will still allow connections to "hidden" resources that were previously added to MyLinks by MyLibrary subscribers. MyLinks will no longer allow for the selection of these resources. By doing this, no changes need to be made to the MyLibrary software.
11. Change the "no hits" message to include information about this change.
12. Notify all Webmasters with direct links to Networked Resources that they will need to make a change. For example, the new Mann Library Home Page will have a link to Gateway Networked Resources within the "Quick Links" section. The link and name will need to be changed.
13. The Documentation Committee will update the impacted Library Gateway Help pages.
14. Write up Focus Group Report.
15. Write up Final Report.

• Target undergraduate students for library training.

• Create an icon or logo for the New Networked Resources.

• Enlist a person or committee to work on publicity beyond what is mentioned in the timeline of section 3.

• Follow the timeline as described in section 3 so that Networked Resources will not change until after the summer session has ended.

• Address the problems that will be created with MyLibrary. MyLibrary is designed to search Networked Resources only. People who are currently using MyLibrary will still be able to view and use individual journal titles; no new titles can be added. NRRIG recommends that this be addressed in the future.

• Leave the subject captions in Networked Resources as they are.

• "Regenrify" Networked Resources for the Encompass era.

1. Redesign the Networked Resources catalog to give more prominence to resources of significant reference or research value by excluding certain genres of material, most notably e-journals and e-books, from the public view of Networked Resources.

The implementation will be complete and in production by Thursday August 9, 2001.

2. Undertake a user study to determine current needs and behavior patterns of Networked Resources users before any significant redesign or redefinition is undertaken.

The focus groups were conducted on July 10th. A report will be issued within the next few weeks.

3. Determine whether some type of separate listing or database of e-journals is needed either from the Library Gateway home page or from some intermediate "Networked Resources" index page and the resources that would be required to create and maintain such a list.

In the focus groups, patrons expressed a desire to be able to see what online journals are available in their field. An alphabetical listing of available online journals would not accomplish this. In voyager it is possible to generate such a list using a relevancy keyword search. We recommend providing instruction on how to do this in our instruction classes and in gateway help.

4. Design the Networked Resources public interface to provide better visual cues to distinguish between those types of resources that will remain in the Networked Resources catalog.

Focus group participants mentioned that they recognized MyLibrary because of the logo, even if they didn't use it. Some mentioned that it would be a good idea to create a logo for the new Networked Resources. Since the types of resources remaining in the gateway would be more like each other in the new design, such visual cues may not be as necessary. A logo for the new Networked Resources is desirable as might be icons for the different types of remainig resources. A graphic designer would be best suited to this task.

5. Redesign the Networked Resources browsable subject captions to provide more balanced access across disciplines to those types of resources remaining in the Networked Resources catalog.

The subject captions in the test gateway currently reflect the new Networked Resources with its initial "machine cut", i.e., they do not have resources re-added that selectors have identified. In this implementation the number of resources has been reduced to about four hundred. In looking at the subject captions, there are none that appear with nothing in them. In general, the captions seem better suited to the contents than they have in the past, and should be left as they are.

StaffWeb Index

7/19/01 jwg