Socitm Insight produces toolkit to improve libraries online

These were exposed through a comprehensive mystery shopping exercise that tested online library services provided by Bromley, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lewisham, Southwark, Wandsworth and Westminster. A Socitm researcher joined libraries these London boroughs and experienced a range of processes from sign up through catalogue searches to paying fines for overdue books.

Think customer online: a detailed analysis of mystery shopping in six London libraries, used a 68-question survey to test how easy it was to find the council website via a URL or search engine, find the right place to start the task using site search, navigation or AZ, and then follow a sequence of links until the task is complete.

The research also tested the library IT systems that sits behind the web 'front end' to provide account and catalogue functionality directly affecting the user experience.  

The report concludes that both library managers and providers of library IT systems have challenges in providing public facing web pages that enable their library members to carry out their library tasks quickly and easily. The Toolkit has been developed to help them.

According to other Socitm research, libraries are the fourth most popular reason for people to visit a UK council website, with an estimated 25.7m visits to libraries taking place online across the UK each year.

Think customer online: a detailed analysis of mystery shopping in six London libraries (35pp) and Think customer online: a toolkit for improving online library services (30pp) come as a package that is free to Socitm Insight subscribers and costs £99 to others (£85 for Socitm members).