Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
Explain details to help users select and access resources
Offer a good description of each digital database and what it covers (Crowley et al., 2002). Listing databases by name only is not enough. Most users are not aware of exactly what type of content a specific database contains. Hampered by lack of knowledge, users experience difficulty quickly deciding which databases are good resources to meet particular research needs.
Offering brief but excellent descriptions can help speed researchers on their way and keep them happy with your library’s site. It is also a good practice to specifically mark the most used or recommended databases so users can easily find them.
Users like to know how they can access materials. Is the fulltext available electronically? If so, from home or campus only? Is a password needed? Explain up front the most critical details about access, and you help users obtain needed content.
Brief descriptions of electronic resources such as ScienceDirect appear in the catalog offered on the UQ Library website at
http://library.uq.edu.au"The ultimate goal of digital libraries is to serve users. That is why digital libraries need to keep in mind their audience in order to present information to meet their needs."
— Hong (Iris) Xie (2006), “Evaluation of Digital Libraries: Criteria and Problems from Users' Perspectives”
www.sciencedirect.com
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