The Research Rundown: January 2024 - June 2024

Welcome to the research rundown from the User Research Center at Harvard Library. In this quarterly blog post, the URC will share recent research our team has conducted at Harvard Library.

If you have any questions about the research or would like to consult with our team about helping you plan or conduct research at Harvard Library, please email libraryux@harvard.edu.

Library Staff Use of ChatGPT+ Pilot Project

From Jan 2024 to April 2024, Meg led the longitudinal study ChatGPT+ Pilot Project to explore potential applications of conversational AI to support library work and better serve the Harvard Library community. Fourteen library staff members representing different departments and library work participated in this project, using ChatGPT+ to conduct various structured experiments relevant to library work.

Major Insights

  • ChatGPT+ adds efficiencies at the individual level by acting as a guide or outside perspective on tasks.
  • Prolonged and structured experimentation (at least 10 hours) uncovers the best uses for individual staff.
  • ChatGPT+ can be an effective partner for staff, but the output always needs to be reviewed by a human.
  • Image or AV materials output cannot be used unedited because of inconsistencies.

The work columnated in the creation of a use case library for library work so that all staff could benefit from the larger group's experimentation.

Emily Dickinson Archive Survey

The Emily Dickinson Archive website has been serving scholars for over 10 years. The project team engaged with users to understand how they use the site, what features are most important, and to solicit ideas they have to improve the site through a survey project. Over 45 Emily Dickinson Archive users participated in the study.

Major Insights

  • Most participants use the Emily Dickinson Archive for research.
  • Site search and browsing by first line are the most popular ways to find materials in the Emily Dickinson Archive.
  • Participants prefer reading or interacting with digitized items directly online.
  • Participants rated searching inside text of items and downloading images as the most important and frequently used.
  • Participants are satisfied with the Emily Dickinson Archive features but find it challenging to find information on viewing items in person.

The results will help prioritize future enhancements to the Archive going forward.

Library Communications Newsletter Accessibility Audit

An accessibility audit was conducted with a Fable expert to understand how library newsletters can be more accessible for assistive technology. The URC collaborated with the Library Communications Team on this project.

Major Insights

  • Overall, the library newsletters are highly usable for screen reader users.
  • Links should open in a new tab because navigating browser tabs is easier than reloading a previous page.
  • Links long enough to be displayed on two lines can lead to confusion because the fable expert thought they were two links instead of one link.

It is always a pleasure working with Fable experts on projects. These results will help the communications team have more accessible newsletters going forward.

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