Primo Usability Study, Spring 2018

Abstract

New features added to Quick Search (Primo), besides the new interface, include a choice to search Partner Libraries (TRAC consortium) and a search scope choice of Library Collections + Articles; Library Collections; ISU Digital Collections; and Special Collections. Tasks in the interview scripts were written to explore volunteers’ usual methods of searching for articles and/or books, and to see if they are aware of and use features such as Advanced Search; facets; scope dropdown inside the search box; options to save results such as email, Favorites (pin icon), citation or Endnote; Partner Libraries search; My Library Card; and if they can find items from ISU Digital Collections or Special Collections. If they are not already aware of these features, can they find them? In another task, volunteers were asked to rank the facet groups by importance on a printout of search results.