Helping the help: a history of libraries and usability through help documentation

Ilana Barnes

Why do libraries matter?

• Because we provide research instruction no on else does.

• Because we are a dominant access point for the public for internet

• Because it is one of our missions to “provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources” – ALA Code of Conduct

Why does library help matter for UX?

• A vital intersection between online help documentation, research instruction and user research

• Hundred of libraries across the country implementing similar models- tremendous opportunity

Critical Questions Moving Forward

No single model exists for - describing characteristics of help from both

content provider and user's perspective.- identifying any gap between existing help

content and user needs. - helping identify appropriate representational

format for user needs in different context.

Critical Questions Moving Forward

• How do we contextualize help for those that avoid reading help documentation?

• How do deal with expert and novice users?• How do we continue to create systems that

allow us to reuse the content from our multiple customer service attitudes?

• How do we tell if it worked?