Content area
Purpose
>To better respond to user needs for personalized information services in the context of academic libraries, this study aims at developing a prototype to provide mobile curation services by using the concept of content curation.
Design/methodology/approach
>This study used a mobile application software development process, which consisted of five phases: user and organizational requirements, architecture design, navigation design, page design and implementation and usability testing. Usability testing was conducted with a total of 20 college students by online surveys at a university.
Findings
>Meta-analysis identified key user needs: diversification of services, more personalized services, active communication with librarians, quality improvement of information and interface improvement. User and organizational requirements derived four main service modules – namely, Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page and My Log. Usability testing regarding ease of use, perceived usefulness and satisfaction indicated that participants were satisfied with the prototype.
Research limitations/implications
>The study extends the discussion of quality academic library services by introducing the concept of content curation that uses the advantages of mobile technologies to overcome existing limitations in library services insufficient for meeting individual user needs.
Originality/value
>Although many studies have discussed mobile library services, few studies have focused on developing a system for such services. The model developed in the study fills the research gap. Above all, the key modules specified by the prototype – Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page and My Log services – are expected to improve existing research and learning support services currently offered by academic libraries.
1. Introduction
With the use of advanced technologies, mobile library applications (apps) can help users easily access and work with research materials anytime and anywhere (Chang, 2013; Mansouri and Asl, 2019). Many academic libraries provide a variety of mobile services, including online public access catalog retrieval, circulation and renewals; resource discovery; facilities information; and other library information (Mansouri and Asl, 2019; Wei and Yang, 2017). Nevertheless, limitations in mobile services have been observed, including inconsistencies and inadequate customized services. Previous studies have shown that with mobile apps, access to frequently used information resources, such as journals, databases (DBs) and multimedia, is not as smooth as on personal computers (PC) (Moon and Kwak, 2011; Rafique et al., 2020). In addition, mobile library apps have been unable to meet the high demand for personalized information services based on inquiry histories and specific disciplines of individual users (Zhao et al., 2016). Studies to develop mobile library apps have focused on identifying features and services that satisfy user needs (Mansouri and Asl, 2019; Pu et al., 2015). Regardless, such studies are scarce. Furthermore, previous research asserts that perceived usefulness or perceived ease of use in mobile library apps have significant effects on user acceptance of these apps (Rafique et al., 2020; Yoon, 2016). Thus, the present study aims to develop mobile library services with applied curation services to optimize user needs and highlight ease of use.
Curation is defined as the active selection and arrangement of works or content by experts in galleries of art, museums, libraries, or other similar institutions to create a relevant theme or narrative for patrons [Bhaskar, 2016; Oxford University Press (OUP), 2020]. One of the main reasons that libraries have adopted curation services is due to the fact that information overload in academic settings has been aggravated by big data or digital environments. In particular, content curation services are drawing attention for being effective in solving these information problems by selecting and providing information through the intervention of experts or the analysis of big data. What mobile curation practices have in common with general curation services is that both sets of services focus on customized offerings. The former, however, are distinct from the latter in that mobile curation practices leverage the advantages of social networking environments and smart mobile technologies to better understand the needs of individual users (Zhao et al., 2016). Thus, mobile curation services are able to provide more advanced information services than general curation. One of the greatest benefits of portable mobile devices is that they facilitate easy and ubiquitous access to information resources, which has the potential to make library services readily available to users.
Previous studies have discussed curation services regarding research data management or data repositories. Few studies have focused on curation services for academic library users, however, and there is a dearth of studies that discuss the development of mobile library curation services in particular. To better respond to user needs for personalized information services in the context of academic libraries, the present study aims to design refined curation services for academic library users and to ensure access to such services through mobile applications. The development of a prototype for mobile library apps is an insightful exercise for academic libraries seeking to offer customized information services to users.
2. Literature review
2.1 What are curation services?
Curation, which refers to selecting and caring for works and/or content as collections of art, is used today in a variety of fields [Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2020]. In the digital age, curation is defined as the process of collecting, classifying and providing information that suits a user’s interests or meets a user’s specific needs (Bhaskar, 2016). According to type or category, curation services are divided into digital curation services, content curation services, data curation services, social curation services and book curation services, among other examples (Park, 2016; Ranasinghe and Chung, 2019). Digital curation services refer to comprehensive activities that produce, collect, maintain, preserve and provide digital resources for use beyond strictly managing the resources (Kwon et al., 2015; Little, 2013; Ranasinghe and Chung, 2019). Along with a huge amount of online resources, have emerged content curation services, which include selecting, organizing, editing and providing online content (e.g. documents, music, web content) relevant to individual users’ particular areas of interest or specific topics (Little, 2013; Miralbell et al., 2013). Further, social curation services provide collaborative sharing of various web content in support of social media features, such as liking, following and commenting, with content curation features (Kim et al., 2016). Next, book curation services focus on recommending books to users by analyzing their interests, profiles, log data and bibliographic citations (Ahn et al., 2017). Similarly, data curation services recommend appropriate information selected from a variety of sources in convenient ways to users who are interested in differing topics (Lyon, 2016; Steven, 2013).
While these curation services differ in terms of the works or types of content they feature, what they have in common is that they provide customized information services to users through the judgment of experts or systems. Intriguingly, social curation services rely on information evaluation through the consumers, unlike other services which rely on the judgments of the information providers. In comparison to the first three services described above, the final two services – book curation services and data curation services – highlight a qualitative judging function in the form of recommending particular information to users.
Previous studies have discussed curation services in diverse venues, such as online shopping boutiques, online bookstores, libraries, health information and media content (Kwak, 2018). Curation services have evolved to overcome difficulties in decision-making processes due to excessive information, but these general curation services may ignore user needs in specific contexts (Park, 2016).
Some studies in curation services have attempted to develop systems to complement the limitations of information filtering by the services. Information filtering is a process that recommends content to fit given characteristics or interests to provide services that meet the needs of individual users (Kim et al., 2012). Types of filtering include rule-based filtering to identify user interests and preferences through their behaviors, content-based filtering to recommend similar items based on content consumed by users, and collaborative filtering to recommend the preferences of similar users (Kim et al., 2006). Today’s existing services mainly use rule-based filtering systems, but recent advancements suggest a combination of content-based filtering and collaborative filtering for more accurate recommendations (Ahn et al., 2017; Kwon et al., 2015).
Studies on user satisfaction with curation services and user intentions for continued use have been mainly conducted in curation commerce, which is used in electronic commerce (e-commerce). Higher levels of individualization in curation services lead to more favorable user perceptions of services and greater willingness by users to accept and use the services (Bang et al., 2011; De Keyzer et al., 2015; Walrave et al., 2018). Research has shown that curation reduces the inconvenience of information exploration and reduces time and costs for information seekers, thereby increasing satisfaction with curation services (Kim et al., 2017; Lee and Park, 2018). In other words, the two variables of customization and convenience have been shown to have a positive impact on user satisfaction with curation services (Lee and Park, 2018).
2.2 Library curation services
Curation services in the context of libraries vary depending on the institution. First, specialized libraries focus on curation services (Kwak and Noh, 2019) that are based on recommendations by experts who have researched and collected content on specific topics, rather than on recommendations generated by automated algorithms. This is because specialized curation reflects the characteristics of specialized understanding more precisely than other approaches. The need for curation services emerged in middle and high school libraries, which encourage reading to promote learning and skills refinement based on guidance, such as “recommend keywords of interest,” “books checked-out most per grade” and “recommend books checked-out most” (Kim et al., 2015; Park, 2016). Academic libraries, which aim to support teaching and research, have proposed curation services based on user interests and characteristics in different disciplines (Hwang et al., 2017). For example, some academic libraries in South Korea have offered customized curation services, including “recommend customized books” and “reading profiling” (Chung, 2017). In general, users of academic libraries need various scholarly information resources, such as academic journals, DBs and videos. Curation services in academic libraries, however, have been limited to the provision of printed monographs rather than diverse sets of resources better suited to the dynamics of modern scholarship (Kim, 2012; Kwak, 2018).
Due to advances in information and communications technology (ICT) since 2009, information seeking has begun to shift from PC-based platforms to mobile platforms. Following this trend, academic libraries have faced challenges in providing current data and services through mobile devices (Farkas, 2010; Kim, 2013). In particular, with explosive growth in the use of mobile devices by college students, academic libraries have endeavored to provide active mobile services (Kim, 2013; Park and Nam, 2017). Many studies analyze the current status of mobile services and user needs and intentions (Jung, 2011; Kim, 2013, 2014; Kwak and Kim, 2015; Moon and Kwak, 2011). Studies regarding mobile services have mainly focused on personalized services, such as data retrieval, information gathering, information about collections and facilities, loan status and notifications about reservations (Kim, 2012). Recently, services including big data-based book recommendation features, seat assignments and self-checkout have increased (Noh and Son, 2016; Park and Nam, 2017). Above all, the ubiquitous nature of services and the ability of mobile services to provide an immediate response to user needs have had a great impact on user intentions for mobile services, along with user familiarity with mobile services and ease of use, usefulness and playfulness in services (Kim, 2013).
Although previous studies have discussed mobile library services or customized information services, few studies have focused on developing a system for mobile curation services. Mainly, the existing studies have not identified key services that are essential for an academic library system to overcome the drawbacks of current mobile services or to better meet individual user interests and needs according to their query records, disciple-specific subjects, or often-used resources in mobile environments.
3. Methodology
The present study uses a mobile application software development process (Derksen et al., 2021) to design academic library curation services in the mobile application environment. The novel app model is developed for either Android or iOS operating systems. The development process followed five phases including consideration of:
user and organizational requirements;
architecture design;
navigation design;
page design; and
implementation and usability testing.
As presented in Figure 1, the development process involved iterative cycles with feedback and evaluation between phases, intended to improve the quality of the model.
3.1 User and organizational requirements
The first phase defined user and organizational requirements of the app, specifying key functions and services according to the needs of target users. To identify user needs, because few academic libraries in Korea offer curation services to users, meta-analysis was conducted based on pertinent findings from previous literature.
3.2 Architecture design
Following the identification of system requirements, the next step was to design the architecture of the app based on findings from the requirement analysis. Architecture design represents the page structure and the navigation system of the app. The navigation label list and items for the individual pages of the app were defined and mapped into a single structure. Researchers divided the individual domains into subdomains to reduce the complexity of the system. The navigation label list and the items of the pages were developed to offer services to meet the user needs identified in the previous phase.
3.3 Navigation design
Once the diagram of the architecture design was completed, the third phase proceeded to navigation design. Navigation considerations featured a flowchart to define the relationship and data flow between the pages or screens of the app, including components of the pages, movement within the pages and other such elements of design.
3.4 Page design
In this phase, researchers designed the interfaces and functions of dynamic pages describing the workflow of the mobile curation services. The page design diagrams represent DB access and data processing in detail.
3.5 Implementation and user testing
In this final phase, a prototype that reflected system requirements and design specifications produced in the previous phases was implemented by programming the page design diagram in detail. Next, researchers conducted usability testing to examine user satisfaction with the prototype and its novel mobile curation services.
For usability testing, the application prototype was implemented with OvenApp, a user interface prototyping tool (Kakao Corp, 2015–2016). Usability testing was conducted among a total of 20 college students by online surveys in August 2019 at a university in Seoul, South Korea. The university is a large institution with approximately 35,000 students and has been partially offering mobile library services for a couple of years. All of the study participants had prior experience with mobile library services.
Study participants were provided with a 5-min introduction to usability testing, the prototype and the tasks they were expected to perform. The researchers explained to participants that they assumed real-life scenarios using mobile curation services recommended by the academic library. Before the formal usability test, participants were introduced to 5-min warm-up practices to explore diverse aspects of the prototype given that none of them had previously experienced anything like the prototype. The study participants were asked to complete specific tasks exploring the four main categories of services offered by the prototype – namely, Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page and My Log for approximately 10 min. The tasks were as follows:
Task 1: Test each icon and service menus provided on the main screen of the mobile curation app. Check whether access for each icon and sub-menu is smooth and test whether the menu configuration is appropriate.
Task 2: Search the book (given) in the search box located at the top of the main screen. After the search, test the services or results provided.
Task 3: Move to the site map from the main screen and test for each sub-menu. Test whether the site map for each sub-menu is appropriately provided and whether navigation between sub-menus is smooth.
Task 4: Go to the menu of resources and test the categories of DB, e-book and e-learning. Check whether the configuration of each sub-menu is appropriate.
Task 5: Go to the research/learning support menu on the site map and test for each sub-menu. Check whether the configuration of each sub-menu is appropriate.
Task 6: Move to the services guide menu from the site map and test each sub-menu. Check whether the configuration of each sub-menu is appropriate.
Task 7: Move to the My Library menu from the site map and test each sub-menu. Check whether the configuration of each sub-menu is appropriate.
Task 8: Move to the library guide menu from the site map and test each sub-menu. Check whether the configuration of each sub-menu is appropriate.
Task 9: Move to the Notification/Inquiry menu from the site map and test each sub-menu. Check whether the configuration of each sub-menu is appropriate.
Task 10: Click the chat icon located at the top of the main screen to start a real-time chat. Ask the real-time chat for book recommendations. Tests whether it appropriately recommends the book needed.
Task 11: Click the chat icon located at the top of the main screen to start a real-time chat. Request a real-time chat for library services-related queries. Check whether an appropriate response is provided for the requested question.
Task 12: Click the My Page icon located at the top of the main screen to move to My Page. Test whether the information and keywords for Interests provided on the My Page screen are appropriately provided.
Task 13: Click the My Log icon located at the bottom of the main screen to move to the My Log page. Test whether information is provided appropriately for each item in the menus of Like and Comment provided on the My Log screen.
Task 14: Click the Curation Services icon located at the bottom of the main screen to move to the Curation Services page. Test whether the curation information of Journals, Books, Databases, News and Video provided on the screen of Curation Services is appropriate and check the usefulness of the curation services.
Task 15: Curation service provides customized information according to a user’s major(s). For a student with multiple majors or minors, click the menu of major option located at the top to change the major and test whether curation information is provided appropriately according to the changed major.
Task 16: Test whether it is easy to move to the screen of curation services according to class, major and interest by clicking the icon located in the bottom middle of the main screen. Test items that appear enlarged by clicking an icon and parts that can be moved by item by dragging.
After completing the test, usability evaluation was conducted through online surveys. A total of 27 questions (including one open question) were asked about dimensions of the prototype, specifically in terms of ease of use, usefulness and satisfaction with services offered, with no time limit (Oliver, 1980; Ryu and Smith-Jackson, 2006). Each question consisted of responses on a five-point Likert scale, as well as additional open questions that allowed survey participants to provide further comments. User testing took approximately 30 min to 1 h, and each participant received an incentive of approximately $5.
Usability testing showed a 100% success rate. It is possible that because the mobile curation prototype evaluated herein was developed by adding curation services based on current mobile library apps known to be effective, study participants were somewhat familiar with the prototype. Nevertheless, no failures were detected in usability testing because the prototype is based on an intuitive and simple design.
4. Results
4.1 Defining user and organizational requirements
Meta-analysis identified five-user and organizational requirements including:
diversification of services;
more personalized services;
active communication with librarians;
quality improvement of information; and
interface improvement.
Table 1 presents the function/design requirements as specified in the overall user and organizational requirements of the prototype build.
Defining the user and organizational requirements yielded four key services for meeting user needs as presented in Table 2. These services include:
(big data-based) Curation Services;
Live Chat;
My Page; and
My Log functions.
4.2 Architecture design
After analyzing system requirements, the architecture design was presented with information architecture based on the latest trends of application development as shown in Figure 2. The architecture depicts six key pages: My Page, Live Chat, Sitemap, Curation Services, My Log and Search under the main page, thus representing the navigation mechanism of the app. Each key page consists of its own main menu. The main menu for Curation Services consists of Journals, Books, Databases, News and Video.
4.3 Navigation design
Figure 3 depicts a brief navigation design for the Curation Services. Curation Services recommend user-customized information based on a user’s personal data and library records. Recommendations are performed according to the user’s classes, major and interests. Available information is categorized into journals, books, DBs and the other buckets described above, as well as recommendations, new arrivals and popularity.
A brief navigation design for Live Chat is presented in Figure 4. Live Chat provides information to a user through conversation. After analyzing questions through natural language processing, Live Chat distinguishes types of questions. Depending on the type of question, a given scenario is provided with answers or curation services. If the answer is unsatisfactory or the question is not properly analyzed, a function to ask a librarian can be used. This option for extended communication between a user and a librarian enhances reliability and the accuracy of information provided to users.
4.4 Page design
4.4.1 Interface design for Curation Services.
Through the compass-shaped setting below, Curation Services provide a user with diverse resources (e.g. journals, books, DBs), which are curated according to three categories including the user’s classes, major and interests, together with the user’s checkout data or inquiry history. Course items are curated using “collective filtering,” which recommends helpful information to a user based on the preferences of other users who have similar characteristics or course-related keyword filtering. In conjunction with undergraduate DBs, the “major” item provides curated content based on a user’s data (e.g. primary major, dual major and minor), while content-based filtering provides information in line with the user’s preferences. Items of interest are provided to users via curation services by applying rule-based filtering, which collects information-seeking behaviors or interests and recommends information based on algorithmic analysis. Data analysis of the user’s checkout and information search history over an established period is used to curate content that might be of interest to a user. Figures 5 depicts specific interface examples of curation services.
4.4.2 Interface design for Live Chat.
Live Chat is a type of chatbot (Collins, 2020) in which artificial intelligence interacts with and provides information to users in natural language when they input questions in a format identical to instant messaging. This aspect of the prototype offers a Live Chat on the main screen, enabling quick answers to user inquiries and a simple platform for questions and answers, as depicted in Figure 6. Questions about basic library information, such as library operation information and in-house collections, are immediately answered based on scenarios prepared in advance. However, if the generated answer is not what the user needs, then the “Ask a librarian” function is activated for users to communicate directly with a librarian.
4.4.3 Interface design for My Page.
The My Page service provides the same loan and reservation services as current curation services. In addition, My Page provides keyword-based types of interests through analysis of user search records. Keywords are used and analyzed according to a set period to provide preferred keywords in a field of interest. When selecting keywords, the keyword search page can be linked to look up information associated with each keyword. In addition, this customized process is designed to provide a familiar interface by adding a curation function that allows a user to modify his or her profile. Figure 7 depicts specific screen examples of My Page and My Log.
4.4.4 Interface design for My Log.
My Log is a function that collects and checks “like” and “comments” – popular features of social networking services (SNSs) – which a user posts by date. By applying these key functions of SNSs, the prototype is designed to share user’s different ideas or thoughts about library resources or services to effectively use them. My Log is similar to user-tailored services offered by SNSs. A user can look up all the information that he or she has liked or commented on at a glance on the My Log page. Data regarding “like” and “comments” for all resources managed by the library are provided, along with the user’s machine-readable cataloguing record information. For academic journals saved in My Log, full texts can be accessed immediately by clicking through.
4.5 Usability testing
Table 3 presents the demographic information of the study participants. Of the total participants, 70% were female students and 30% were male students. The majority of participants were in their 20s and 30s. The proportions of undergraduate and graduate students were almost equal.
Table 4 presents the results of usability testing. The average score for the prototype was 4.03 out of 5. Breaking down scores by the novel services, Curation Services scored 4.02 points (SD: 0.87), Live Chat scored 4.15 (SD: 0.80), My Page scored 4.13 (SD: 0.74) and My Log obtained 4.18 points (SD: 0.96), on average. These scores indicate that study participants were overall satisfied with the unique feature-added mobile prototype.
Test results for each evaluation item are as follows. Regarding ease of use, Live Chat was the highest (4.40), followed by My Log (4.25), My Page (4.15) and Curation Services (3.90). This result indicates that study participants were familiar with real-time chat platforms and were easily able to understand and use the function. With respect to Live Chat, study participants highlighted that issues with question and answer (Q&A) services that do not function properly as offered in existing library apps could be overcome with the instantaneous answering services and the Ask-a-Librarian feature of the model (Sheikh, 2017; Zickuhr et al., 2013).
As for perceived usefulness, Curation Services scored the highest (4.25), which might reflect the high demand for personalized information among college students using library apps as identified in a previous study (Zhao et al., 2016). Regarding satisfaction, My Log obtained the highest score (4.18), which might be due to the fact that college students who are familiar with social media positively evaluated My Log for having key features (i.e. “like” and “comments”) that are similar to social media.
It is notable that the perceived usefulness (3.90) of Live Chat was evaluated much lower than its ease of use (4.40), while the ease of use (3.90) of Curation Services was evaluated much lower than its perceived usefulness (4.25). Regarding this finding for Live Chat, the scores might be because real-time responses are critical for this service, but study participants could not experience real-world services insofar as the present study conducted usability tests with a prototype. Thus, it is possible that Live Chat was less impactful in usability testing than it stands to be in actual use.
Findings in Curation Services indicate that the study participants recognized the usefulness of the service, but experienced some difficulty in using the Curation Services module. According to previous studies (ChanLin and Hung, 2016; Wei et al., 2015), users who encounter new apps are not yet familiar with how they work, so they tend not to find entry points easily for function modules and feel difficultly in performing tasks. Answers to open questions in the usability testing support these results as well. More specifically, the study participants responded that the menu buttons on the Curation Services screen were too small to press and that the labels were too small to read. These are typical problems due to the small screens of mobile devices and remain challenges that many existing library apps currently face (Yusof et al., 2015). An additional suggestion pointed out that Curation Services should offer the number of citations for journal content.
Study participants reported overall satisfaction with My Log and My Page. However, feedback about My Log indicated that search results should be presented by category (e.g. academic journals, books) and that when a user participates in My Log activities, his or her activities should be visible with different colors or the addition of specific new marks. Testing results suggest that user education or instruction services for how to use the mobile curation app are essential and that interface design should be improved. Furthermore, due to the fact that the prototype mainly provides simple search functions, there were suggestions for the necessity of advanced search and filtering functions for effective presentation of information and efficient satisfaction of user-specified conditions.
5. Discussion
Previous studies in mobile academic library services have focused on migrating existing services to mobile devices, mainly evaluating the components of mobile apps (Mansouri and Asl, 2019), mobile services (Wei and Yang, 2017), or user perceptions of these things (Rafique et al., 2020). In comparison to previous studies, the present study is salient in that it proposes a system that meets user needs and requirements by supporting college students in using a variety of resources that focus on their academic tasks or activities.
Excessive information provided by academic libraries tends to cause information anxiety in users about seeking and choosing information, thereby hindering users in effectively finding and using diverse resources for their academic tasks. To overcome these problems, the present study suggests curation services to meet user needs in academic library settings. The proposed curation services were developed based on user needs to enhance customized services and to improve the quality of the information provided. The prototype designed herein was optimized for smartphones because the majority of academic library users have been shown to have high mobile self-efficacy (Han and Yi, 2018) and to prefer real-time information services and information-seeking through mobile devices (Mansouri and Asl, 2019).
After launching a draft of this prototype, usability testing was conducted to identify user satisfaction with the app as well as potential future improvements to the mobile curation services. Results regarding ease of use, perceived usefulness and user satisfaction confirmed that overall user satisfaction with the mobile curation services proposed herein was high.
Four new services were identified as the most essential components of mobile curation services that academic libraries should provide: Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page, and My Log. The first new set of services provided by the academic library mobile app is Curation Services, which provide customized services by analyzing user profiles. Curation Services provide curated information through journals, books, academic DBs, news, videos and other formats, based on analysis of the characteristics of individual users according to the students’ classes, majors and interests. The second novel aspect of the prototype is a real-time chat service that meets various needs, including the expansion of direct communication with librarians. This service, known as Live Chat, means to provide immediate library guidance and interactive curation services by applying chatbots (which are already being used in various fields) to academic library services. In addition, Live Chat intends to support the prompt acquisition of reliable information via direct communication with a librarian through the function of “Ask a librarian” as needed.
The third set of novel services in the prototype is My Page, partly composed of the strengths and value-add functions of existing services. In addition to services, such as loan status and reservation status updates, and together with the personal settings of library mobile apps (which have been successfully used in the past), areas of interest and personal profile settings have been added to the My Page functions. In addition, My Page provides personalized services that allow users to directly modify their profile information and enter keywords in their fields of interest by way of big data analysis of the user’s search and loan records. The final novel aspect of the prototype is My Log, which adds “like” and “comment” functions to all kinds of information provided by academic libraries. My Log services, which use user-tailored services based on SNS, collect “like” and/or “comments” posted by users, storing the data by date. This dimension of the prototype is designed to improve the quality of curated information in the context of academic libraries by collecting and organizing information that is known to interest individuals.
In addition, specific areas of satisfaction and future improvement directions were analyzed through survey items about the prototype’s discrete services. By collecting the responses of participants in the form of open short answers, the authors were able to examine in advance the problems that may appear when rolling out the mobile curation services for adoption in academic libraries. Usability testing (conducted with heuristics of usefulness, ease of use and satisfaction) showed that participants were overall satisfied with the prototype services. The findings of a previous study investigating user acceptance of mobile apps in academic libraries imply that apps with these types of results for usability testing will positively affect a user’s intention to use (Yoon, 2016).
While the present study provides insights into effective mobile curation services for academic library users, it has some limitations to be overcome in future studies. The present study analyses user needs based on the findings of previous literature, rather than by asking actual users to identify their current needs. With rapid changes in ICT technology, the user needs also change rapidly; to reflect such changes, future research needs to conduct interviews with academic library users in conjunction with user surveys. Because only college students participated in usability testing, this study does not analyze evaluation by other user groups, such as faculty or staff. To encompass the perspective of different user groups, future research needs to include feedback from these groups. In addition, the prototype was developed in the context of academic libraries in South Korea. Therefore, there may be limitations in application depending on the environments or context of academic libraries in other countries.
6. Conclusion
Many previous studies have been conducted in the development of user-centered mobile apps and academic use of mobile apps (Bomhold, 2014; Schnall et al., 2016; Wei and Yang, 2017; Yi et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2019), but few studies have discussed customized mobile services in academic library settings. The model developed in the present study fills the research gap by developing a mobile curation services system for academic libraries. Above all, the study extends the discussion of quality academic library services by introducing the concept of content curation that uses the advantages of mobile technologies to overcome existing limitations in library services insufficient for meeting individual user needs. The key modules specified by the prototype – Curation Services, Live Chat, My Page and My Log services – are expected to improve existing research and learning support services currently offered by academic libraries.
The idea of critically selecting, organizing and providing information from a wide range of resources to users according to each user’s major(s), classes and interests is unique. Moreover, the prototype has the potential to serve as a scaffolding model that fosters the effective use of academic resources and ultimately suggests practical insights in providing customized information services for individual users.
Development process model for mobile applications
Architecture design
Navigation design for Curation Services
Navigation design for Live Chat services
Interface examples of Curation Services
Interface examples of Live Chat
Screen examples of My Page and My Log
User and organizational requirements
| User needs | Function/design | References |
|---|---|---|
| Diversification of services | – Access to academic resources other than books |
(Bishop, 2012; Karim et al., 2006; Zhao et al., 2016) |
| More personalized services | – Collecting and managing information about personal interests on social networking sites | |
| Active communication with librarians | – Question and answer sessions with librarians | (Bishop, 2012; Sheikh, 2017; Zickuhr et al., 2013) |
| Better quality of information | – Reliability through expert recommendations |
|
| Interface improvement | – Configure a readable interface |
(Miller et al., 2013; Yeh and Fontenelle, 2012) |
Key services based on user needs analysis
| User needs | Key services |
|---|---|
| Diversity of services | (1) Big data-based curation services |
| More personalized services | |
| Active communication with librarians | |
| Better quality of information | |
| Interface improvement |
Demographics
| Category | Frequency (N = 20) | (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||
| Male | 6 | 30 |
| Female | 14 | 70 |
| Age | ||
| 21–30 years | 15 | 75 |
| 31–40 years | 3 | 15 |
| 41–50 years | 2 | 10 |
| Grade | ||
| Undergraduate | 9 | 45 |
| Graduate | 11 | 55 |
Results of usability testing
| Evaluation items | Mean | SD | Min. | Max. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curation services | ||||
| Ease of use | 3.90 | 0.91 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Perceived usefulness | 4.25 | 0.79 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Satisfaction | 3.90 | 0.91 | 1.00 | 5.00 |
| Mean | 4.02 | 0.87 | 1.67 | 5.00 |
| Live chat | ||||
| Ease of use | 4.40 | 0.60 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| Perceived usefulness | 3.90 | 0.91 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Satisfaction | 4.15 | 0.88 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Mean | 4.15 | 0.80 | 2.33 | 5.00 |
| My page | ||||
| Ease of use | 4.15 | 0.75 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| Perceived usefulness | 4.15 | 0.75 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| Satisfaction | 4.10 | 0.72 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| Mean | 4.13 | 0.74 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| My log | ||||
| Ease of use | 4.25 | 0.85 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| Perceived usefulness | 4.10 | 1.02 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Satisfaction | 4.20 | 1.01 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Mean | 4.18 | 0.96 | 2.33 | 5.00 |
| Overall | ||||
| Ease of use | 4.00 | 0.97 | 1.00 | 5.00 |
| Perceived usefulness | 4.10 | 0.79 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Satisfaction | 4.10 | 0.79 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Mean | 4.07 | 0.85 | 1.67 | 5.00 |
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