Tim Bucknall presented a session on "Patron-Centered Library Innovation."  He began his 
presentation by tying into the keynote speaker's theme of rapid change accompanied by rising 
expectations.  "Libarians need to take charge of technology, not the other way around," Bucknall 
said.  We need to build systems that work well for library users.  His presentation was divided 
into two sections: Making Decisions and Case Studies.  The following is a brief overview:

Making Decisions
*	Involving The Right Staff.   Keeping innovation user-centered should be a library-wide 
endeavor.  Information Technology staff should include people familiar with day-to-day 
operations in various parts of the library.  Information Technology staff should be 
flexible and think about how the average library user uses library systems.

*	Making Good Choices.    Look at what works elsewhere.  Ask library users what they 
want and ask public services staff what users need.  Consider resource issues such as the 
amount of time and money needed to invest versus the goal to be achieved.  Think about 
how many people your innovation will affect.

*	Did We Get It Right?    There are a variety of ways to judge your success, including 
anecdotal evidence, statistics, usability testing, and checking log files.  No one source can 
show the entire picture, so it is important to look at them all as well as to continually 
improve and adjust your innovation as needed.


Case Studies
*	NC LIVE Redesign.    Bucknall showed the audience a preview of the redesigned NC 
LIVE web site.  The new design factors were based in part on usability testing which 
found the success rate for test questions using the old site was about 50%.  Users often 
bypassed NC LIVE altogether to try to find the information they sought.  The new 
interface includes an "EZ Search" function to be released in a few months.  It has an 
entirely new interface that searches all the NC LIVE databases at once and then ranks the 
results.

*	Linking To Book Reviews.    Bucknall demonstrated how the UNC-G library catalog 
links to electronic texts of book reviews where available.  He demonstrated examples of 
links to Infotrac OneFile.

*	Journal Finder.    Bucknall demonstrated a single, simple search interface that integrates all options for finding full-text journal literature.  The link "Find all methods of accessing this title" is also made from the UNC-G library catalog for serial records.


Throughout his presentation, Bucknall stressed the importance of continually assessing 
automation innovations by using qualitative data, not just quantitative data.  The goal, he said, is to make complicated systems simple for all library users.