OH!Libraries: Spotlight on Ohio library services

Stephen Abram, the author of the ground-breaking "Born with the Chip" article about the information attitudes of Millennials, made an interesting suggestion on his blog this weekend: "How about offering (sanitized just like Lycos) lists of the most popular online searches at the local library to the local press?"

Intriguing idea. I checked the stats for searches on OPLIN's OneSearch and found this top 25 for the past 6 weeks:

1. Enter your search topic here.
2. Monkey's Paw
3. google
4. yahoo.com
5. death penalty
6. www.Yahoo.com
7. yahoo
8. dysleix
9. sanborn maps
10. auto repair
11. sanborn
12. heritage quest
13. Hurricane Katrina
14. genealogy
15. ohio
16. google.com
17. Neighbor Rosicky
18. science
19. pickaway ross vocational adult classes
20. census
21. child abuse
22. obituaries
23. geneology
24. ebay
25. Cleveland Ohio

Conclusions?

• Most people just click the "Go" button rather than following the instructions to "Enter your search topic here." That's a usability issue that we should address.
  
• Many people use the search form instead of the browser address bar to type in website addresses. That's a training issue, but I think usability is a factor too -- after all, if you type "yahoo" into a Google search box or "google" into a Yahoo search box, the first result will be the site you're looking for. Not so with OPLIN OneSearch. I think our search vendor should address this.
  
• Many people think OneSearch is a site search for OPLIN, a quick way to locate links to resources like "Sanborn Maps" or "Heritage Quest." We should accommodate them by making our site one of the "databases" searched by default.
  
• Some people treat the OneSearch like a library catalog search, entering subject terms and expecting to be presented with resources that match the subject. Perfectly understandable, but very limited, ignoring the power of OneSearch to look for terms deep inside subscription databases. I wonder how we address this usability flaw?

For decades, we in the library biz have said a library is "automated" when they can check out books with a computer. And we still think that way. Today, there are only a couple public libraries in Ohio that aren't "automated."

But automation can be so much more: any manual task that can be assisted with technology can be said to be "automated." Take for example the relatively new chore occupying much of a library's time: controlling how long someone gets to stay on a computer, and figuring out who gets to be on next.

This is a big deal. So big, that it was a news story when the Wadsworth Ella M Everhard Public Library put one of these systems in place.

My prediction? A few users will hate it, and of course there will be deeply frustrating technical glitches. But generally everyone understands that libraries sometimes have to control access to scarce resources. Twenty-five computers isn't enough for everyone in Wadsworth to have all the time on the computers they want. Nor is it practical just to buy more computers until no one has to wait anymore. Not only isn't there space for it, there isn't staff to maintain and help.

"Automation": it's not about imposing controls; it's about using tools to do some of the routine tasks so people can put their energy into other things.