Grant Awarded To Evaluate Library Web Site

The Faculty Research Committee at the University of Scranton has awarded Bonnie Oldham an Internal Research Grant to evaluate the Weinberg Library's Web site using focus groups. Professor Oldham hopes to elicit users' perceptions of the seamlessness and self sufficiency of the site with her research which will be conducted in September.

 

Focus groups are small homogeneous groups led by a moderator who asks questions that have been designed to facilitate discussion of a specific topic by all the group members. Focus group research collects qualitative rather than quantitative data. Five groups will meet in the library, and one group will meet using the library’s virtual live chat software. Each group will consist of five or six people and will meet for approximately ninety minutes. Each of the discussions will be tape recorded and the recordings will be transcribed to facilitate data analysis. Once she has analyzed the data, Professor Oldham will create a report that will summarize the key themes that arise from the focus group discussions which will assist the library's systems staff develop and implement a plan to improve the usability of the library's Web site. She also hopes that her research will provide subject matter for an article to be published in a library journal.