The SLA Board of Directors has officially approved the formation of the User Experience (UX) Caucus. This new caucus will focus on how users experience their libraries.
In today’s consumer-focused society, the ways users interact with any environment is important, but with so many tech-transformations taking place in libraries today, the UX Caucus couldn’t be more pertinent. User-experiences with a library or information center involve countless interactions with digital collections, physical collections, library staff, and numerous forms of media. The User Experience Caucus plans to provide members with the opportunity to examine—and improve—each aspect of this multi-faceted interaction.
The first goal of the UX Caucus is to permanently embed the user experience within the culture of librarianship. To accomplish this goal, the caucus will provide structure, advice and support for usability studies. The caucus will ultimately give its members clear strategies to search for, identify, and address areas in their own organizations where usability can be improved. Through collaboration, the caucus will be a constant source of ideas on how improvements in user experience can apply to members' individual organizations. The discussion via SLA discussion list is officially open; join now if you’re interested in taking part. The caucus will conduct its first annual meeting at SLA 2011 in Philadelphia.
The first convener of the caucus is Debra Kolah, who holds a dual position at Rice University as head of the UX office in Fondren Library and Physics, Math, Astronomy, and Statistics librarian. To learn more about the user experience in libraries from Debra’s point of view, check out her Future Ready 365 blog post.
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