Category: Updates

Welcome to 2020

I was pretty happy with my blogging output last year.

But, still: Smaller posts and more of them.

This year, I plan to share:

  • Completed projects and updates
  • Incomplete projects in-progress. I didn’t do this as much last year even though many projects remain on-going
  • Updates from me — articles, presentations, reflections

If you’re new here, you might benefit from:

Library services platform update

We have updated our library services platform, which includes the catalog, acquisitions, resource description, user accounts, and everything else. The new platform is Alma by Ex Libris and the update includes changes to the public-facing Primo discovery product.

I created a basic user guide which includes how-to information on basic tasks as well as temporary access to previous systems. I’ll be updating these pages for the next several months for sure.

Based on the last search update we did, it was important we do this to reassure users about the change and provide options for them to reach us to ask questions and report issues, which we can analyze later to determine next steps. We started publicly promoting the upcoming change in late June.

The public started seeing changes on July 29. I have been fielding user questions coming from the web side, making changes to web content where necessary, and forwarding things to our liaison and discovery departments where appropriate.

Expect more posts about search for the rest of the year.

Long-term, I’m optimistic about what this change will allow us to do with search experience. We already have simplified our search box considerably, which I posted about at the time. Now that our services platform is basically a single system, I feel like we have a lot of flexibility and can introduce interesting new features.

Webpage TLC, summer 2019

I’ve updated a few pages on our site this summer in need of some TLC, mostly pages relating to library space.

Pages updated include:

Most of the changes were made to improve the visual hierarchy and scannability of each page. Less grafs, more lists, and better hyperlinks.

I also made some changes for the sake of promoting spaces. Before, the TCR was only a few grafs on the Learning Commons page. Now, the TCR has its own page, making it easier to find.

New library UX book in MD Anderson Library

A book cover showing the book title, book editor, and conference themesWe have a new book in our collection, User Experience in Libraries: Yearbook 2018, edited by Andy Priestner. Catalog link

The book is the conference proceedings of the UX Libs IV conference. The theme of the conference was: Inclusivity, diversity, and belonging.

I recommend all interested Libraries staff to checkout this book for excellent writing and case studies on library UX. Work of mine appears on page 260.

Welcome to 2019

In 2019, my mantra is: Smaller posts and more of them.

What I plan to post about this year:

  • I will continue to post about completed projects and updates
  • Incomplete projects that are still in-progress
  • UX issues that will require future work
  • Updates from me — articles I’ve written, presentations, UX reflections

Please note these updated pages as well: