Problem Solving

While it may not be a librarian's first course of action, the methods of ADDIE can be used to solve problems within the workplace environment.

Below, we'll discuss a common issue within academic libraries, and how using the ADDIE model can help solve the issue.

Students are reporting having a difficult time with their research, and have continually expressed gratitude over subject specialists they have encountered, typically at the instruction of their department professors.

Librarians know that there are dozens of subject specialist librarians available for these students to work with, but the students don't know these individuals exist.

How can the library make the connection between specialist and student clearer?

An increase in marketing, along with a careful examination of the current structure in place, will help the library determine what roadblocks stand in-between students making impacting relationships between themselves and their subject specialists.

In this case, analysis can be completed through a few different forms of testing. The first can be with a round of surveys sent to students, possibly aimed at undergraduates (librarians can assess if a certain student body has expressed more interest in this problem than others). The LRS provides guidance on designing user surveys, which is where the first level of testing will begin.

Once surveys have been collected, a second round of analysis should be conducted in the form of usability testing. The library likely relies on its LibGuides to help guide students in the right direction towards their subject specialists, either via the librarian's photo and contact information embedded in the Guide, or through a searchable feature on the LibGuide's homepage that allows students to browse Guides by owner/creator.

By completing this second assessment through usability testing, librarians can determine where the exact faults are with the library's website. This allows for them to make improvements that will directly benefit the users, as opposed to improvements that are only being made off the librarians' best guesses.

Once the exact problems of students finding subject specialists has been determined (bad layout on LibGuides; poor marketing throughout the library's homepage; limited back links through other library pages), the library can begin taking steps towards fixing these issues.

Based on the user testing, recommendations should be created on what users feel would most benefit the library. These can often come across as counter-intuitive to the librarians preforming the test, and may even be recommendations that offer push-back in the department. In these cases, outside research should be conducted on how similar libraries have approached the issue, and this information should be used in conjunction with the testing data.

Design of the methods being used to fix marketing and layout problems should come with a time line, a specific indication of who will be in charge of what, and a clear method of communication with all team members.

Multiple levels of development will occur during this kind of project. The kinds of changes being made should be placed in a hierarchy; as each phase is complete, smaller tests can be completed to ensure that development of that change has been successful.

While initial testing should try and encompass as many students as possible, these smaller development tests can be completed using a much smaller user population. For areas that are not necessarily needed to verify usability, it is simply recommended that librarians approach them together and attempt to predict ways that these updates may not work as well as originally planned.

Marketing solutions, changes in web layout, and improved website design are all things which can go “live” simultaneously. Alternatively, the library can choose to stagger these releases, letting their student body acclimate to the changes they are making while simultaneously preforming small checks on the individual components they are releasing, ensuring that every change being made is the best version possible.

It is recommended that librarians predict an up-tick in technical support queries, both with the school's official tech support team as well as at the circulation desk. All staff members should be made aware of what changes are occurring, and be ready to field questions that may be asked based off the new website or new marketing materials.

The final course of evaluation is a summative form. There are two ways that the library will be able to see if the connection between student and subject specialist has been improved. The first will be in the form of reviewing website traffic data and seeing if numbers are improving on the LibGuides themselves, as well as on the contact pages for individual subject specialist.

The second is simply to survey librarians who serve as subject specialists and find out how the change in procedure has affected them. Are they setting up more appointments with students? Are they receiving more calls and emails?

These evaluations may lead to a second form of testing and analysis that may be needed. As subject librarians begin to garner more attention (which will ideally occur, as that is the problem attempting to be solved here), further issues in the library's LibGuide structure may become apparent. Subject specialists may find themselves fielding technical questions as well as research questions. By this time, the library will be well-equipped to look at this issue and recognize the opportunity for further usability testing, as well as using the ADDIE model to address these problems.

The ADDIE method works well in trying to solve issues of access and increasing visibility within a library's web page setting. By breaking the problem down into individual pieces, then seeing the solution as five specific components, a fix can be designed and put forward that will ultimately work well for both the library as well as the community it serves.