Usage and Usability Assessment: Library Practices and Concerns

Additional copies are available for $20 per copy. Orders must be placed online through CLIR's Web site. Denise Troll Covey is associate university librarian of arts, archives, and technology at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2000-2001 she was also a distinguished fellow in the Digital Library Federation, leading the initiative on usage, usability, and user support. Her professional work focuses on the research and development of digital library collections, services, and software; and assessment practices, copyright permissions, and change management as they relate to digital libraries. Covey has academic degrees in theology, philosophy, and rhetoric. Her graduate work emphasized the history of information storage and retrieval. Acknowledgments The author and the Digital Library Federation sincerely thank the 71 individuals who participated in the DLF telephone survey. Their time, experiences, concerns, and questions about library use and usability made this report possible. If the report facilitates discussion and research and encourages the development of benchmarks or best practices, it is because so many talented people shared their rewards and frustrations in trying to understand what is happening in their libraries and how to serve their users better.