Research On Usability Evaluation Of Academic Library Websites

With the development of social informatization and the promotion of digital, intelligent campus construction of colleges and universities, changeshave been taken place gradually in the way how teachers and students use the academic libraries. The user number of academic library websites has been increasing yearly. Thus the requirements for high-level construction and accessability of such websites have been put forward. However, lots of website constructors or administrators of academic libraries have shown too many concerns about the appearance and propaganda of their websites. By contrast, researches on theusability of academic library websites are far from adequate, even the awareness about this issue is far from enough too.We always take for granted that academic library websites arerreplaceable for teachers and students in colleges and universities. However, recently more and more researchers have been attracted by academic search enginesand network research communities. So, the status of low level ofusability of academic library websites will push their users to try other network research portals such as Google Scholar,"e-much" site, and that will lead academic library websites to be marginal and unvalued.Up to now, in abroad researches on the usability of academic library websites have emerging the diversification trend in all respects, such as research view, research route, model construction and method utilization. However, domestic researches of usability of academic library website is still in a stage of absorption and reference of abroad relative works, and mainly concerns about three aspects, including information architecture based usability research, interface design based usability research and retrieval efficiency based usability research. The research of academic library websites usability should beenhanced and move on.The main content of the paper is consisted of three aspectsof basic problems about academic library websites usability, which include:1) research onutilization status of academic library websites;2) dimension components andnfluence factors of academic library website usability;3)evaluation model and validation check of usability of academic library website. The detailed analysis process and research conclusion are presented furthermore as following:1) Status of utilization of academic library websitesThe problem of usability is closely connected with user’s task and environments. From the view of ergonomics, the user model of an academic library website constructor should be consistent with mental model of website factual users. From the view of information task, websites with high level usability should be constructed to reflect and match users tasks.The analysis of utilization status of academic library websites mainly focuses on interface elements, user characteristic and user preference et al. According to utilization status and column arrangement of academic library websites, the investigation rolls are designed. As for the columnarrangement, all questions and answer options are considered from9academic library websites of national first "985" project high schools. For the aspect ofutilization status, the investigation rolls are designed to acquire users’ aims, habits and preferences.Through methods of descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, the roll data is analyzed and conclusion can be summed up as following:(1) Columns of resources and services are conspicuous and occupy important positions of academic library website’s homepage;(2) Chief introduction and recommendation columns have been displayed much more frequently in homepage;(3)similarly, Level2 columns under introduction and recommendation columns are also occupying too much web pages;(4) Level2columns which possess more than7items have large scale to simplify and optimize;(5) Column names of academic library websites should consider users’ acceptance;(6) Academic library websites construction should concern much more about user groups function expectation and operation preference.2) Dimension components and influence factors of academic library websitesAccording to the difficulties to accomplish usability evaluation only through experience analyzing, and inexhaustibility to list all of the elements of website usability evaluation, the research synthesizes reasonable method and relative research work to refine critical factors, with elimination of subjectivity and arbitrariness of intuition and experience.Beyond synthesis of relative former research work,25measure items are refined according to the usability problem of academic library websites. Investigation rolls gave out after pre survey, and4series of (?)ploratory factor analysis have been applied after valid rolls reclaimed. During those series of exploratory factor analysis, observation variables have been decreased from25to20,19, and17. Finally,17observation variables, which influence usability of academic library websites, are distinctly divided into4common factors/latent variables (usability dimensions).Those4dimensions of academic library website usability can bedescripting as following:subject satisfaction, effectiveness, learnability and efficiency. Factors structure of usability evaluation model of academic library websites isdefined and21research hypothesis of academic library website usability evaluation are promoted according to the structural model.Furthermore,5control variables such as sex, dignity, major background, network experience, and use frequency of academic library are contained into the theoretic model. By variance analysis, observation of statistic significance about average values of each latent variable in different groups divided by valuevariety of each control variable has been implemented to validate control influence of individual characteristic for each latent variable. Conclusion can be claimed as following:(1) the results of variance analysis about choosirg factors of sex and major background as grouping variables show that, sex and major have no significant influence for each latent variable of usability;(2) the outcomes of variance analysis about choosing factors of user dignity, networkexperience and library use frequency announce that those3control variable have significant influence on latent variables.3) Evaluation model and validation check of usability of academic library websiteIn factual research application, the theoretic model accomplishedthrough exploratory analysis on one set of sample data should be examined by another set of sample to confirm its validation.2surveys have been carried out to examine usability evaluation of academic library websites. The data of first survey is used to perform exploratory factor analysis, and the data of second survey is applied to implement confirmatory factor analysis. Those2series of analysis compose a complete closed-loop research procedure, to confirm the rigorous and scientific research.Examination of confirmatory factor model consists of steps including firstorder model synthesis, estimation, fitting, modification and re-examination, and finally, a second-order4factor inside model is promoted (model4). By comprehensive consideration about model’s simple degree and goodness of fit, the paper chooses model4as the usability evaluation model of academic library websites, and as the basis for empirical research.According to the examination results of model4, the21research hypothesis which is promoted by exploratory factor analysis in first time survey has been significantly supported. More than that, the4newly routes with significance displayed both in model2, model3and model4indicate that, significant covariant exists between variables of access path length and click cost, service feedback speed and waiting cost, memory burden and cognitive load, cognitive load and ease of usability. However, these newly routes should be researched and explored furthermore.On the basis of former research achievements, the paper utilizes several research methods including literature review, questionnaire survey data analysis and model examination, applies data analysis tools such as SPSS20.0and AMOS20.0, and integrates survey of usability status andconstruction and examination of usability model to implement usability evaluation research, in order to maximize effectiveness of integration analysis. The research conclusion and analysis finds somehow can be applied and referenced for usability theoreti research and construction practice of academic library websites.