Getting Started - RUL Ethnographic Web Project Underway

Back in January, the Rutgers University Libraries began an interesting research project - to examine the online research habits of students and to use those findings to inform the eventual re-design of the libraries' website down the road. Two teams were formed, a Core Team and a Project Team, and there is already growing interest in the project both at Rutgers and within the larger academic library community. It is a unique approach to a website re-design, and there is a lot to learn about the collaborative nature of team design. We expect the project to take a number of months, and that doesn't include the website work itself, which is yet another phase. Besides the stuff one would expect to encounter and learn with any research project, we are hoping to have our assumptions about how the Internet and the website are used, and the ways our users conduct their work, challenged. The Rochester study of undergraduates was eye-opening, and subsequent studies of both faculty and graduate student research habits have been just as interesting. We hope our project will allow us to step into the shoes of our users, and engage the entire library community to set the stage for a groundbreaking look at one of the libraries' most important access points - the website.

Valeda Dent Goodman
Associate University Librarian
Research and Instructional Services
Rutgers University