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This
research was carried out during 2000, at the time
when the Gulliver Program, part of the Victorian Government’s
Libraries Online project, was being undertaken in
Victoria.
Four
databases (World Magazine Bank, IAC Health Reference
Center, IAC Custom and Infosentails Electronic Library)
were trialled to assess their usability. Four Victorian
public library services (Bayside, Port Phillip, Corangamite
and Casey-Cardinia) were involved, with each of these
services being allocated two of the four resources
for assessment.
The
research began with focus groups of library staff
which explored their perceptions of the content and
usability of their two databases and which discussed
general access issues. Focus group participants were
also asked to follow a topic of their choice using
the databases and to answer questions related to content
and usability.
The
qualitative data were supplemented with quantitative
measurements, the latter being produced by a generic,
multi-criteria evaluation tool called MultiVal, developed
by researchers at the University of Melbourne and
Monash University to evaluate the success of decision
support systems. The tool uses a pre-defined set of
evaluation criteria (for example ease of use, user
satisfaction) which were adjusted to this research
context by a range of users of the information resources,
including library staff, patrons and SLV/VICNET. This
enabled the resources to be assessed from a ‘multiple
constituencies’ point of view.
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