Assessment and User Experience

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10161/5738

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 129

Access status: Open Access ,
TRLN Requesting Interview Study - August 2025
(2025-08) Zhang, Jinjiang; Dong, Shelley
In 2025, the Duke University Libraries conducted interviews to better understand the experiences of library users who frequently requested materials from Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) institutions, which include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina Central University. In individual interviews, the research team asked 5 frequent TRLN borrowers about their experiences accessing materials from libraries outside of Duke, primarily focusing on their experiences using the TRLN search feature in Duke’s Books & Media Catalog and interlibrary loan (ILL). The goal of this study was to understand how a potential discontinuation of the TRLN search feature would affect its most frequent users at Duke, and to determine what changes the Libraries could implement to best support these users should the feature be discontinued.
Access status: Open Access ,
Anubis Pilot Project Report - June 2025
(2025-06-26) Aery, Sean
In May & June 2025, Duke University Libraries (DUL) staff successfully implemented Anubis, a configurable open source web application firewall (WAF), in order to stave off persistent onslaughts of AI-related bot scraping activity. During this pilot period (May 1 - June 10, 2025), aggressive bot scraping led to extended outages for three critical library platforms (Duke Digital Repository, Archives & Manuscripts, and the Books & Media Catalog), and in each case, implementing Anubis mitigated the problem.
Access status: Open Access ,
DUL's Bento Search - June 2025
(2025-06) Brown, Annie
This usability study examined the effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction of Duke University Libraries’ (DUL) bento-style search interface, particularly in comparison to Dartmouth’s Primo-based discovery platform. The study involved five graduate students who completed three representative search tasks—open-ended exploration, known-item search, and journal discovery—on both systems. Findings revealed high satisfaction with DUL’s interface and a preference for its format-based categorization, though visual inconsistencies and unclear labeling in the bento interface occasionally hindered task completion. Based on participant behavior and feedback, the study recommends specific refinements to the bento UI, including the addition of a dedicated “Journals” bento, separation of “Books & Media” into distinct categories, and improved visibility of homepage search elements.
Access status: Open Access ,
WorldCat Discovery - May 2025
(2025-05) Brown, Annie; Roberts, M; Prakash, Neha
This report summarizes a usability study conducted by Duke University Libraries (DUL) to evaluate WorldCat Discovery as a cross-institutional search platform following a recent migration to the Alma Library Management System. Six students participated in task-based testing to identify common user challenges throughout the search process. Findings revealed usability issues related to search result relevance and feature discoverability. The report offers targeted recommendations for local customization and vendor engagement.
Access status: Open Access ,
Zooming in Duke’s West Campus Libraries - April 2025
(2025-04) Brown, Annie
In response to student concerns about virtual meeting spaces, identified in a biennial survey, Duke University Libraries’ Assessment and User Experience Strategy (AUXS) Department conducted focus groups with graduate and undergraduate students to better understand their experiences Zooming in the West Campus Libraries. Students identified key challenges, including a lack of private, acoustically secure spaces, limited room availability, and confusion around room reservation systems and policies. Within the constraints of existing infrastructure, students proposed practical solutions ranging from enhanced communication and reservation system features to the introduction of a “Zoom Hall” and spatial modifications using low-cost dividers. Recommendations were prioritized based on ease of implementation and potential impact, though further cost-benefit analysis is advised. This report offers actionable insights to help library leadership improve the overall student experience of Zooming in the West Campus Libraries.
Access status: Open Access ,
Online Journal Title Search usability test - September 2024
(2024-09-13) Bacon, Tricia
On July 15, 2024, Duke University Libraries (DUL) migrated to a new suite of tools for our Online Journal Titles (OJT) Search as part of the migration to Alma. The combination of pages and platforms patrons now use when searching for Online Journal Titles differs from what they encountered previously and results in more clicks to reach a journal issue or list of articles. There are a few known issues with the OJT search that may impact its usability. This study was conducted to see how students interact with the new interface and whether all features are accessible and obvious to them.
Access status: Open Access ,
Creating Areas for Students to take Zoom Calls in Duke University Libraries - September 2024
(2024-09-13) Bacon, Tricia
In our Biennial 2023 Student Satisfaction Survey, our second-most requested service for undergraduate students and top-most requested service for masters and doctoral students was private rooms to conduct video calls from a laptop. The primary question we hoped to answer through this environmental scan was: How can we design library spaces to support student needs to participate in Zoom meetings while in DUL?
Access status: Open Access ,
Biennial Student Survey Dashboard usability test - November 2024
(2024-11-29) Yellapuntula Venketa, Anjali
Duke University Libraries conducted a usability evaluation of its Biennial Student Survey Dashboards to understand how effectively the platform supports user-friendly data exploration. The evaluation identified both strengths and areas for improvement, focusing on layout, navigation, and functionality. Five participants with varied backgrounds and levels of experience with data dashboards provided feedback on their interactions with the platform. Key themes emerged, including initial visual overwhelm, issues with dropdown visibility, and challenges with filtering and interpreting data. However, participants valued the dashboard’s interactive features and found it effective for comparative data tasks.
Access status: Open Access ,
Research Data Repository usability test - December 2023
(2023-12-19) Saxena, Yasha; Dong, Shelley
This study investigated user experience of the Research Data Repository (RDR), an online digital repository intended for researchers to both download published datasets and upload datasets from their own publications. Therefore, the study was split into two sub-studies, one for the upload interface and one for the download interface. The upload interface study investigated how well the submission interface supports a participant’s ability to successfully fill out metadata related to a publication dataset. The download interface study investigated how well the search interface supports a participant’s ability to search for datasets and comprehend specific content within a dataset’s homepage.
Access status: Open Access ,
Transparency Tool usability test - July 2023
(2023-07-11) McKinnell, Jimmy; Dwyer, Sarah
The DUL Racial Equity Roadmap was developed in 2020 and has been used to guide strategic actions around racial equity over the last few years. The Report Recommendations Transparency Tool (or R2T2) was developed by the Racial Justice Strategy Task Force to keep track of specific recommendations related to DEI initiatives in the Libraries. The latest version of this tool was a spreadsheet that summarized these recommendations and any progress updates, but the format of the file didn’t seem like a good fit for staff who have to update the contents or who want to learn more about these initiatives. Transparency is the result of converting R2T2 into an interactive website. This study was conducted during Transparency’s active development phase, with the goal of collecting usability data prior to a staff-wide public launch. This usability study was performed by Sarah Dwyer and Jimmy McKinnell, two Assessment and User Experience summer practicum students from UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. These sessions occurred via individual Zoom sessions across two days, July 6 and July 11, 2023.
Access status: Open Access ,
Duke Digital Repository usability test, part 2 - May 2023
(2023-05-10) Siqi-Liu, Audrey
This is part two out of two usability tests of the Duke Digital Repositories (DDR). Both parts were designed to answer stakeholder questions about the usability of specific DDR functions. All test sessions were conducted remotely via Zoom by Audrey Siqi-Liu. Part one included basic tasks like downloading digital materials and requesting access to metadata only items. Part two included more advanced tasks: navigating finding aids and collection records, and using the relations feature. Participants were recruited from users of the DDR who had logged in for the first time over the past six months and were prescreened for either experience with browsing digital collections or using any reading room.
Access status: Open Access ,
Duke Digital Repository usability test, part 1 - April 2023
(2023-04-27) Siqi-Liu, Audrey
This is part one out of two usability tests of the Duke Digital Repositories (DDR). Both parts were designed to answer stakeholder questions about the usability of specific DDR functions. All test sessions were conducted remotely via Zoom by Audrey Siqi-Liu. Part one included basic tasks like downloading and requesting access. Participants were recruited from a list of students who volunteered to be contacted about library user studies and were not prescreened for previous DDR experience.
Access status: Open Access ,
Attending Scholarly Events During the Pandemic
(2023-06-20) Boers, Greta; Chapman, Joyce
When WHO identified Covid-19 as a pandemic in 2020, the resulting international lockdowns required immediate changes to all aspects of the scholarly enterprise, as in-person formats transferred to online modalities. The objective of this survey was to understand the impact of the pandemic on preferences about attending scholarly events, including conferences, workshops, and seminars. It was distributed to international communities in classical studies, ancient studies, archaeology, medieval studies, public history, and related fields. Since the sample was entirely voluntary, the results are only suggestive. The attendance factor which changed most dramatically from pre- and post- pandemic was personal interest, from 38.3% of respondents to 54.01%. Accessibility accommodations and assistive technologies nearly tripled in importance after the pandemic started (from 2.4% to 6.7%). The degree to which geographic location, affordability and institutional support influenced attendance decreased drastically. Social networking was consistently the least important factor in pre- and post-pandemic attendance (10.8% to 6.7%) but generated the highest number of free text comments(48.8%). More respondents (43.2%) weighed the trade-offs between in-person and online events, followed by those who liked online events (37.6%). Relatively few disliked them (18.0%). The respondent’s comment quoted above summarizes the value of the survey results as material for reflection. Relevance to research and teaching, personal interest, inclusion, accessibility, and affordability are considerations which cut across disciplines, academic status and employment. The survey results suggest that online and hybrid events lift some of the barriers to scholarly communication and communities.
Access status: Open Access ,
Understanding the experiences and needs of international students at Duke
(2023-06-15) Chapman, Joyce; Hayes, Matthew; Park, Sarah; Wang, Candice
How can Duke University Libraries further support the needs of its international students? To explore this question, a cross-departmental team of library staff conducted discussion groups with international graduate and undergraduate students during the 2022-2023 academic year and analyzed international students’ responses to the Libraries’ 2023 student satisfaction survey. We sought to understand international students’ experiences in the Libraries and on Duke’s campus in order to improve how well library services, staff, facilities, and materials meet their needs. We spoke with students about their experiences outside the Libraries so that we could understand their experiences holistically, and the greater context in which the Libraries function for them. Findings identify challenges students experience and suggest specific points for library intervention and support. While this report focuses on the experiences and needs of international students, it should be emphasized that some challenges experienced by international student are challenges experiences by all students. In many cases, support or expansions of campus and library services targeted toward international students will help all students succeed.
Access status: Open Access ,
Duke University Libraries: Web Analytics Pilot
(2023-04-21) Conway, Patrick; Dalsheimer, Sam; Foley, Chance; Leonhardt, Wesley; Wegner, Delia
Our team worked with the Assessment and User Experience Strategy (AUXS) team of Duke University Libraries (DUL) to run a pilot test of Matomo, an open-source alternative to Google Analytics. The purpose was to evaluate the feasibility of decoupling from the Google ecosystem to better meet their commitments to user privacy. Through a collaborative and agile process, we implemented Matomo on DUL servers, tested technical processes on high- and low-traffic sites, engaged stakeholders, and provided a series of recommendations on how to best transition all 110 DUL websites to Matomo. This work was completed for a UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science Master's Practicum Project, 2023. Site sponsor: Sean Aery (Duke University Libraries). The poster was presented at the 2023 UNC SILS Scholar Showcase (April 21, 2023, Carolina Union) and at the DUL First Wednesday Presentation Series (May 3, 2023, virtual).
Access status: Open Access ,
Interlibrary Loan usability test - March 2023
(2023-03-23) Rowland, Gary
Gary Rowland, a UNCG MLIS capstone intern with the Duke Libraries’ Assessment & User Experience Strategy Department, conducted a usability study to test students’ feedback regarding Duke’s Interlibrary Requests page and ILLiad webpages, as well as their perceptions of Duke’s interlibrary loan webpages compared to NC State’s Tripsaver page. The study gathered impressions of these pages and asked participants to perform two tasks: requesting a book and an article from Duke’s interlibrary loan. The test included four pre-test questions and lasted approximately 15-20 minutes. The study was developed by Gary Rowland with guidance from Dr. Angela Zoss and Thomas Crichlow.
Access status: Open Access ,
Support Request Form Assessment - November 2022
(2022-11-22) Crichlow, Thomas
This report summarizes findings from a focus group session with 16 IT staff who receive IT support requests submitted through the DST Support Request form and findings from an anonymous online survey shared with approximately 250 library staff who submit IT support requests through the DST Support Request form. Specific recommendations are provided and key insights are documented. Complete responses are provided in the appendices.
Access status: Open Access ,
Top Textbooks usability test - November 2022
(2022-11) Yu, Qian (Tracey)
Qian (Tracey) Yu, practicum student in the Assessment & User Experience Strategy Department, conducted a remote usability test on the DUL Top Textbooks interface on the Duke University Libraries website. Test sessions included two undergraduate students, one graduate student, and two staff members.
Access status: Open Access ,
Staff Directory remote usability test - October 2021
(2021) Wilson, Carrie; Dunefsky, Chadwick
This study aimed to gather feedback from undergraduate and graduate students regarding the redesigned Duke University Libraries staff directory’s search functions. The testing script was developed by Chadwick Dunefsky and Carrie Wilson with guidance from Candice Wang, Emily Daly, and Thomas Crichlow. An ad was placed in the undergraduate and graduate email newsletters to gather potential participants via a Qualtrics poll. Then, seven students with varying experience with searching for library staff information and varying years at Duke were selected from those who responded to the poll. Candice Wang, the graduate research assistant to the AUX department, was asked to be the pilot study participant. All eight sessions were conducted remotely between October 6th and October 18th, 2021.
Access status: Open Access ,
Priorities and Guiding Principles for Protecting Patron Privacy
(2021-08-17) Zoss, Angela; Gatlin, Shadae; Girardeau, Arnetta; Guthrie, Brooke; Healy, Ciara; Hill, Jack; Wickes, Abigail; McGeary, Tim
The Duke University Libraries’ Data Privacy and Retention Task Force was charged in the Spring 2020 in response to a Data Privacy and Retention Audit conducted by the Assessment & User Experience Department. This task force was charged to develop a document clarifying DUL's priorities and guiding principles related to privacy.

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