Journal Article: Library Terms that Users (Don’t) Understand

The journal College & Research Libraries has published an article entitled Library Terms that Users (Don’t) Understand: A Review of the Literature from 2012-2021:

"This paper compares website usability—specifically library users’ understanding of library terms—for fifty-one original research studies between 2012-2021, with the findings of John Kupersmith’s 2011 white paper 'Library Terms That Users Understand. Studies reported approximately twice as many terms that users didn’t understand than terms users did understand, with some terms appearing in both categories. Analysis of the findings suggests a majority of Kupersmith’s guidelines remain applicable to today’s online environment, with some adjustments related to technology advances (...)"

"John Kupersmith iteratively revised and published a white paper summarizing best practices for using library terms, originally gleaned from findings of library usability research published between 1997 to 2008. He later included studies published from 2009 to 2011. His paper presented seven best practices:

1. Test to see what users do and don’t understand and what terms they most strongly relate to.
2. Avoid—or use with caution—terms that users often misunderstand.
3. Use natural language equivalents on top-level pages.
4. Enhance or explain potentially confusing terms.
5. Provide intermediate choices when a top-level menu choice presents ambiguities that can’t be resolved in the space available.
6. Provide alternative paths where users are likely to make predictable “wrong” choices.
7. Be consistent to reduce cognitive dissonance and encourage learning through repetition."

"Acknowledging the enduring usefulness of Kupersmith’s white paper, as well as the significant changes in both user interfaces and user expectations since 2011, we wished to provide updated results for library practitioners and library web developers, including a review of whether Kupersmith’s summary findings still hold true. In this paper we present an analysis of original research studies conducted between 2012-2021 with findings related to library users’ understanding of library terms, and compared these findings with Kupersmith’s work."