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Library Vision of the Future: University of Rochester Libraries - Focusing on Users, Hiding Technology
Melinda Stowe
David Lindahl
At the University of Rochester our vision is very much one of “user-focus.” We believe that a more in-depth knowledge of patrons will be essential to the future of the library. A number of trends observed in user groups stand out as the basis for current developments: first-year students enter the university setting with more and more experience in diverse technologies; advanced researchers are becoming more “expert” in the full range of electronic resources available to them; and the concept of sharing previously hidden materials is growing in popularity.
In the Rush Rhees Library we are focusing on usability. Library staff are making it their business to learn the nature of our users’ work with electronic databases, the library catalog, institutional repositories and other e-resources. By studying the techniques they employ to complete a task, such as locating articles relevant to their study topic, we can determine how to best offer them the services they need. What we want to achieve is an interface that’s really tailor-made for our users. Our usability testing is showing us that such an interface should be intuitive and should help users make the right choices.
One of our key goals is to highlight what users can get to online versus what they can access in print. Aiming to determine how to best expose resources for the user’s needs, the library already “hides” the technology terms from the user. Branded software is renamed in the vocabulary of the user, not of the librarian. We want to make sure what we’re presenting to the community is clear. Usability testing is showing that even when we list subject area databases, new students don’t know which are appropriate or good resources. They may choose the one listed first because they are used to relevancy ranking from commercial websites. So, we are discovering how best to design navigation for users and how to suggest best resources.
The big question we’re all asking is: “Will one-stop shopping-the opportunity for a single search box to accurately access all relevant library materials - emerge soon?” At the moment, we’re in the process of integrating federated search into our library Web presence. The search is multidisciplinary in that freshmen can type in a search phrase and find all results that are relevant. Researchers can access multiple sources in a single search, select one result, and view that result as an entry-way to link-out to other related resources. Work is still ongoing to fine-tune available technologies and resources, but we believe that this goal is achievable in the near future.
Academic libraries have different levels of users: those who know how to use databases and those who don’t. Libraries either need multiple interfaces, matched to different skill sets, or one interface accessible to users of all levels. A researcher should not need to understand how technology works or how the library functions in order to access the information most valuable to him/her. Our Digital Initiatives Unit looks to commercial websites for examples of easy-to-use search technologies. Amazon and Google are prime examples of constantly evolving sites that will set the pace for academic research interfaces into the future.
Institutional repositories may also grow in importance in the next several years. A large initiative underway at Rochester aims to discover the nature of the researcher likely to use these local collections. A federally funded grant is currently being used to study the anthropological nature of researchers who are sharing and using “grey” literature such as technical reports, theses, preprints, conference papers and bibliographies. Rochester is a collaborative partner in DSpace, an open source software initiative (developed jointly by MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard), enabling institutions to describe, manage and preserve their digital works.
The library of the future will also become increasingly more integrated with previously non-library related institutional technologies. The CoURses system, a Rochester-developed open-source software to integrate faculty course Web pages with related library materials, provides the library with an opportunity to promote additional resources that students may be interested in reviewing while obtaining course materials.
The development of new technologies is a given. The library world needs to keep inventing “bridging the gap” technologies, and at Rochester we believe that we - the librarians - need to keep discovering the language of the user. 
Penny Emke, Marketing Communication Manager, Endeavor Information Systems, Des Plaines, IL, USA
