AARL

Touring by design: using information architecture to create a virtual library tour

Pat Kittelson and Sarah Jones

Abstract: Based on student responses to a 1999 survey conducted at the University of Otago Science library, traditional tours are not a popular part of the existing user education program. In order to combine an effective learning tool with the need for user orientation of the physical library building and resources, a virtual tour was developed. The design of the tour set out to incorporate learning outcomes from the SUNY (State University of New York) set of Information Literacy Student Learning Outcomes and to address concepts from the field of information architecture; namely, that an internet based tour must consider how the information is organised, how concepts are labelled and how navigation is to take place, all within the highly visual web-based environment. Evaluation was considered a vital part of the project and was implemented throughout the design process. As a teaching tool, the virtual tour was then integrated into the course work of first year surveying students. The tour was used by 83 students who completed an evaluation and an assignment. These responses contribute valuable data on the advantages and disadvantages of a virtual library tour.

The URL for the tour was http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/scivtour/scitour.html [not found].

What is information architecture?

In the commercial world web page designers use the term information architecture to describe website design and structure. WebWord says that, 'information architecture involves the design and organisation and navigation systems to help people find and manage information more successfully'.[1] Because this description sounds much like what librarians do, it was not surprising when further exploration of the concept of information architecture revealed the names of two librarians and web architects, Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. As owners of Argus Associates, a web design company in Ann Arbor Michigan, Rosenfeld and Morville have written extensively on the subject of information architecture. Rosenfeld describes information architecture as '...creating consistent and functional systems for navigation, graphics, page layout and title labelling so that the user knows where he or she is, where to go, what to do, and will feel encouraged to return, and the site designer knows how to add and link new content and functions to an existing site without having to re-engineer it completely.'[2] In the library context, information architecture could be considered to include all that librarians do in the classification and organisation of print and non-print resources. However, the term is usually applied to the electronic information environment of library web pages and websites.

What is an information architect?

Any person who is responsible for organising systems for managing and retrieving information could be called an 'information architect.' Historically, information architects might have worked as librarians or in a number of careers requiring these skills. However, in the current world of websites and web pages, an information architect has been defined as 'an individual who organises the patterns inherent in information, structuring the systems that will define the next century'.[3] Although this definition is perhaps a bit grandiose, when translated into the everyday activities of a librarian it means defining the nature and scope of an information service before the actual web pages are saved on someone's hard drive.

The first step in developing a new library information service involves the information architect or librarian producing a plan.[4] This plan or blueprint should include the following steps:

1. Defining the mission or goal of the website
2. Incorporating the corporate (either the university's or the library's) vision of the website
3. Defining the audience of the website
4. Identifying the technology and staff available for constructing, supporting and accessing the website
5. Creating the site map, its structure and navigability
6. Designing the pages and writing the content
7. Establishing evaluation criteria and a plan for evaluating the site.

Teaching, learning and information architecture at Otago

For the last five years, first year students studying surveying at the University of Otago have been required to complete a library assignment that provides an orientation to the science library and necessitates the use of the library catalogue. During these years, the library has experimented with a variety of teaching and learning models. These models included course-required tours or voluntary tours with a required library assignment. Eventually the tour was eliminated and students were assigned a self-directed exercise that attempted to orient, teach and evaluate student learning.

In a survey conducted by the library in 1999, 150 students were asked to complete a survey question asking them to select effective means of learning about the library's resources from a list of nine items. They could select more than one item. These items were:

• library tours
• library classes/tutorials
• one-to-one assistance from library staff
• printed library guides
• information from the library web page
• assistance from your peer group
• assistance from staff within your department
• course materials from departments
• self-teaching.

Only 27% of the students' responses indicated that library tours were an effective means of learning about the library. Preferred means included one-to-one assistance from library staff (61% of the responses), course materials from departments (46%), and assistance from peer groups (41%). Yet in focus group interviews, students identified a need for some kind of library orientation and expressed interest in taking a virtual tour.

A solution

An opportunity to implement change became available for the library when the teaching librarian discussed the situation with the surveying course instructor who was open to online learning. Student learning outcomes for library orientation were written by the librarian and approved by the instructor in order to provide a framework for developing an alternative approach to library orientation and for assessing student learning.

Student learning outcomes

1. The student will be able to identify service areas in the science library.
2. The student will be familiar with the following library terms: interloans, reserve materials, Library of Congress (LC) classification, library catalogue, journals, microform/microfilm, internet, database, display, reference, library storage, autoloader.
3. The student will be able to locate books and journals in the science library.
4. The student will be able to navigate the library home page.[5]

It was decided to create a virtual library tour, requiring students to complete a tour evaluation and assignment. This activity sought to combine a flexible, measurable, and enjoyable learning tool with the need for user orientation of the physical library and its resources.

Becoming information architects - the blueprint

Setting goals
Having identified our student learning outcomes for a library orientation program, we then had the task of matching those learning outcomes with the information architecture concepts. At the same time we needed to remain mindful of including an appropriate tour evaluation component.

Defining the audience
The audience or clients were to be the first year science students of Otago University, the staff of this division and in particular the Surveying 113 students. The tour was also aimed at prospective staff and students of the university while recognizing that the library and the global community might also access the tour.

Corporate vision
We understood that the tour had to maintain consistency with the library's website and also reflect the University of Otago science library in a positive manner. We shared our vision, ideas and content with various colleagues throughout the blueprint process.

Identifying technology and staff
The tour was created on a G3 Power Macintosh computer using Adobe PhotoShop version 5.0.2 and Adobe Pagemill 3.0, with Netscape 4.0. The tour was designed to run on computers using Netscape versions 3.0 and above. The digital photographs were taken using a Sony Digital Still Mavica camera. The pictures were downloaded to a computer hard drive and saved as jpeg files and inserted into the pages.

Creation of the site map
Using a storyboard format in combination with our library floor plans, a paper site map was constructed. This allowed us to move pages around and easily view links.

Page design and content
The aim of the tour was to minimise user time looking for answers; the means of navigation being so intuitive that users did not have to stop and learn how to use the site. The pages employed consistent layouts and imagery as well as consistent typography to lend familiarity to the site and therefore aid navigation. Pages were kept short to minimise scrolling times and limit the boredom factor. Navigation was designed to provide multiple options and therefore satisfy a range of users.

To achieve this, we mined the web for other library virtual tours and selected features from various tours that we brought to the site map. These features included: floor maps, lift buttons, clear photographs, simple text, linear and non-linear navigation, links to other sites and pages, and fun and interesting aspects to gain and maintain the interest of the viewer. It was partly for this reason that a toy penguin was added to the tour as a reappearing character in each photograph. It was intended that the penguin act as a pointer to detail in the photographs that we wanted students to notice.

Content was written and photographic ideas were noted on the paper site maps in order to facilitate the actual photo shoot.

Selecting an evaluation tool
We examined research on virtual tour evaluation and searched the web for existing evaluations that we could adapt to our tour. An evaluation form was selected and slightly modified based on Kathy Schrock's website.[6]

Integrating the virtual tour into surveying 113
Integration of the tour into the course work occurred in three ways:

1. The librarian collaborated with the instructor to design a new teaching and learning approach to traditional library orientation.
2. The librarian presented the virtual tour within the course lecture time in both semester 1 and semester 2.
3. The librarian and instructor collaborated on the design of the assignment.

Tour evaluation results

Eighty-three students out of a total of 86 took the virtual tour and completed the evaluation. This was a 96% response rate. In semester 1, 48 students took the tour and 35 in semester 2. The evaluation form had two sections: Yes/No questions (see Table 1) and open-ended questions (see Table 2; selected comments are displayed in Table 3).

Table 1
Results of the tour evaluation: yes/no questions

Table 2
Student responses to question 10:
What did you like most about the tour?

From question 10, comments about what students liked about the tour were sorted into three categories, the penguin, self-learning and design features (Table 2). Of the total responses, 35% referred to aspects of self-learning that the students liked. These comments focussed on how easy it was to use the tour, and that the tour could be taken at any time in any place (Table 3).

Fifty-six percent of the comments were about the design features of the virtual tour - its pages and navigation. Students commented that the information was clear, the photos and maps were useful and that the elevator buttons easily indicated their location (Table 3).

Specific comments about the use of the toy penguin in the photographs were recorded, as we were particularly interested in students' responses to the use of this visual aid. Although the penguin was a static figure in the photographs, students commented on 'the penguin's friendliness' and the 'penguin's interaction' with them. These comments appear to indicate that for some students the penguin played a character role in the virtual tour.

Table 3
Open-ended questions and selected student comments

Student responses to question 11 provided a plethora of 136 positive comments that described what they perceived to be advantages of a virtual tour. These comments were sorted into two categories: self-learning and accessibility. (Table 4)

Table 4
Students' comments on the advantages of a virtual tour

Within the category of self-learning, students identified the following advantages of a virtual tour:

• the ability to self-navigate and focus on your own interests
• the ability to take the tour at your own pace
• the ability to take the tour in your own space at your convenience.

Within the category of accessibility of the virtual tour, students identified the following advantages:

• the ease of access from a remote location
• the ease of navigating the actual tour
• the straightforward explanations (the content and information).

Seventy-six student comments describing disadvantages of a virtual tour were sorted into three categories: humanism, visualisation, and technology. (Table 5)

Table 5
Students' comments on the disadvantages of a virtual tour

Within the humanism category students commented that a disadvantage of the virtual tour was the inability to ask questions of library staff while taking the tour (see comments in Table 3). This was in part remedied in second semester when the teaching librarian set up an 'open computer lab' tutorial in the Surveying department so that students could take the tour with a librarian present for questions. Another option under consideration is to include in the tour an easily accessed form to ask questions that are automatically e-mailed to the reference librarian.

A disadvantage of the virtual tour, within the category of visualisation, was that it was difficult to feel the 3-dimensional space that would be encountered by actually visiting the library (Table 3). This could be addressed in future semesters by offering students a choice of doing the virtual tour or taking a traditional tour or both.

The third category of students' responses addressed the use of computer technology. Only two responses were received in this category. These responses addressed a concern that a potential disadvantage for some students might be the lack of computer skills required to take the virtual tour. Their comments did not indicate that they felt technologically challenged by the tour.

Implications for the future

The students were overwhelmingly positive in their evaluation of the architecture of the virtual tour. They enjoyed being able to sit down at the computer of their choice and at a time of their choice to familiarise themselves with the library. They also remarked that they could revisit the tour at any time. At the same time that they recognised these advantages of the tour, they admitted that a virtual tour lacks the three-dimensional aspects of actually visiting the library.

Plans to improve and enhance the tour include adding Maori language terms; adding an online form for asking questions, adding drop down menus for definitions of library terminology, and further evaluation of the use of the toy penguin as a pointer to important aspects of the photographs.

When the virtual tour is used as a teaching tool it provides students with a self-directed, flexible and enjoyable introduction to the science library resources and services. Future plans include continuing to create new and inventive ways to use the tour as a flexible teaching option for librarians and a flexible learning tool for students as well as continuing to assess the virtual tour student learning outcomes.

Pat Kittelson and Sarah Jones collaborated on this paper and project while Pat was working as an assistant librarian - Science Reference and Document Delivery at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Notes

1. J S Rhodes Information Architecture Revealed! 1999 [on-line] at http://webword.com/inerviews/rosenfeld.html [22 June 2001]
2. L Rosenfeld What is Web Architecture? Web Review 1996 [on-line] at http://webreview.com/96/09/20/arch/index.html [29 May 2000]
3. Threads What is an Information Architect? 2000 [on-line] at http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes/threads/mm1.htm [22 June 2001]
4. H Falk 'Library Web Site Innovations' The Electronic Library vol 17 no 5 1999 pp323-328; and S Gullickson, R Blades, M Bragdon, et al 'The Impact of Information Architecture on Academic Web Site Usability' The Electronic Library vol 17 no 5 1999 pp293-304.
5. These outcomes correspond to a model framework of the nine information literacy student learning outcomes from SUNY (State University of New York). SUNY Council of Library Directors Information Literacy Initiative Final Report 1999 [on-line] at http://www.sunyconnect.suny.edu/ili/final.htm [15 August 2000]. The SUNY framework forms the basis of the user education program at the University of Otago Science Library.
6. K Schrock Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. Is the Tour Better in Person? 2000 [on-line] at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/evaltour.htm [22 June 2001].

Pat Kittelson, Science Electronic Resources specialist, Norlin Library, University of Colorado at Boulder, UCB 184, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0184, USA. E-mail: patricia.kittelson@colorado.edu.nospam.

Sarah Jones, library assistant, Reference Department, University of Otago Libraries (Law Library and Central Library), Dunedin, New Zealand. E-mail: sarah.jones@library.otago.ac.nz.nospam (please remove the '.nospam' from the address).