Analyze problems and propose solutions through the application of evidence.

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Determining usability is a complex process whether you are designing a website, a floor plan or  or an entire building.  Finding the problems and solutions requires analytical skills, research, experience, wisdom, ingenuity and patience as well as the ability to put yourself in the position of people from all walks of life that may or may not approach the system you are analyzing in a way that you would. Problem solving requires creating scenarios and designing something that would be able to accommodate challenges so that the system can be used by anyone. In an article titled Our Experience with User Experience: Exploring Staffing Configurations to Conduct UX in an Academic Library , the authors describe a need to redesign a database that was widely used at ECU by students, but before the system was upgraded it underwent a User Experience research study. After a literature review, the students involved had a framework to use for the study and conducted a pilot study, then conducted testing and retesting of the website. The process of the study allowed the students to learn from the users and determine what worked and what could be improved. Other libraries benefit from the knowledge that was gained in the process of designing the experiment, sampling, collecting data and analyzing data and the methods that were used, and the conclusions of the study. Reviewing previous research studies on problems that may be similar to yours may yield solutions or give you ideas on how to remedy many situations (Webb et al., 2016).

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The collection management library website was created specifically for students in a dual enrollment program with career/ course tracks either in Social Sciences, Public Health or STEM fields. The collection management website was based on an environmental study of students in Wake County and was a library that my team created after developing a 5 year collection management plan for the Early College and Dual Enrollment Library for students in the program that we came up with. There is a marketing plan for this library as well to increase interest and awareness of the library focus. Also included is the PSA video on early childhood literacy. The purpose of this video is to increase school readiness skills for preschool children and tips for parents to implement during reading and together times since data shows increased vocabulary and exposure to books and language helps children learn to read. In additon, a collection management plan is included based on map and demographic data to expand the foreign language collection to more appropriately represent the diverse native languages of the community to include children's books to encourage parents to read to their children in their native languages. The social media profile featured  the analytics and follower data of the UNCG Archives twitter page and made recommendations based on engagements from the tweets. Finally, the research proposal included is based on the current need to include more STEM exposure in library programming and conducting a study on whether current STEM library programming is effective and high in quality.

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Kavanagh, W. K., Rhodes, T., Cook, E., Andresen, C., & Russell, R. (2016). Our

experience with user experience: exploring staffing configurations to conduct ux in an academic library. Journal of Library Administration, 56(7), 757–776. Retrieved on November 7, 2020 from  https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1109892