What your
patrons think
about dppl.org


A summary

In general…


People love the Des Plaines Public Library


”One of the jewels of the town”


Some go onto website first thing every morning


They see the librarians as the curators of 

what's important, what's new.

The Catalog


The biggest use case, by far. Used to:

  • Check out books
  • Check status of books/holds
  • Renew books


Idea for improvement:

Patrons would love recommendations on new books to try

Events


Huge use case. Patrons like to look for:

  • Summer activities 
  • Events for kids
  • Events for families

Could be resource for visitors to the area as well, not just patrons.

Problems with Events


  • Bad UX. Hover over events until they find right thing. Type is small.
  • Slow emails.
  • Real world vs online. Patrons usually find new events through fliers or signs at library. Go back online when they get home, but it can be difficult if they don't remember exact date.
  • Confusion about registration. Sometimes they don't know if they're registered or not, and there's the possibility of arriving at event unregistered.
  • Confirmation number. Hard to remember, so they don't

Ways to improve Events


  • Filter. By age.
  • Personal calendar. Save events to it.
  • Short URLs. Print on signs, so they're easily remembered.
  • Show just what's new.

Downloadable media


Problems:
  • Lack of awareness.
  • People of all ages are unfamiliar with it.
  • eBooks have very long hold times.

Ideas for improvements:
  • More marketing 
  • Rotating feature on homepage promoting staff favorite.
  • Retitle section to something more descriptive. e.g. "Movies, Music & eMedia."

Databases/Reference


Problems:
  • Lack of awareness.
  • Hard to find what you want. 
  • Usually use the same ones.
  • Unclear what they're for, or why they'd want to use them.

Ideas for improvements
  • Organize databases by topic
  • Promote staff favorites
  • Use cookies to remember which databases are used most.
  • Call it "Resources"

Newsletter


Problems:
  • Some people knew about this, some not.

Ideas for improvements:
  • Some would love it more if it had listings for kids events

Blogs


Problem:
  • Most don't read them regularly.
  • Often only read if something jumps out at them from homepage.

Ideas for improvements:
  • Tease latest blog post on homepage. 
  • Use images.
  • Associate with human.

Kids & Teen sites


Problems:
  • Adults don't know about them
  • Kids don't know about them
  • Or they know about it, but don't use it, because why?

Ideas for improvements:
  • Consider "teens" or "students" as a category for other sections (Events, Resources)
  • Remove Teens as site of its own. Meanwhile, offer up a Tumblr for Teens who are interested.
  • Kids don't even use the web, so no reason for a kids website.

Marketing


Problems:
  • They want to see more. More emails, more media, more pushes.
  • Some only find out new things through bulletin board at library (and word of mouth).
  • One user believes that this is a common sentiment: "Oh I didn't know about this or that. Please email more more information."

Ideas for improvements:
  • Sign up everyone for newsletter. Push more events through it.

Giving Feedback


Problems:
  • Patrons have feedback, but don't think to offer it.
  • They don't know the best way. 

Ideas for improvements:
  • Humanize site more. Make it clear there are people behind it.
  • Offer easier ways to get in touch. Show that it's wanted.
  • Add third-party tool, like Groove or UserVoice or Tender.

Other stuff


Catalog problems:
  • Hard to search catalog by topic. 
  • Much easier to use Amazon, find book, copy and paste title.
  • Don't get the hold call or email in time.
  • Wish books stayed on hold longer.
  • Wants ability to search by ISBN.



In conclusion


Humanize

Organize

Surface

Simplify

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