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Library Scholarship James E. Brooks Library
4-2016
Mobile Web Site Ease of Use: An Analysis of Orbis Cascade Mobile Web Site Ease of Use: An Analysis of Orbis Cascade
Alliance Member Web Sites Alliance Member Web Sites
Zebulin Evelhoch
Central Washington University
, zebevelhoch@gmail.com
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Evelhoch, Z. (2016). Mobile web site ease of use: An analysis of Orbis Cascade Alliance member web
sites.
Journal of Web Librarianship 10
(2), 101-123. DOI: 10.1080/19322909.2016.1167649
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the James E. Brooks Library at ScholarWorks@CWU. It
has been accepted for inclusion in Library Scholarship by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@CWU. For
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1
This is an electronic version of an article published in
Evelhoch, Zebulin. 2016. “Mobile Web Site Ease of Use: An Analysis of Orbis Cascade Alliance
Member Web Sites” Journal of Web Librarianship 10(2): 101-123.
This article is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2016.1167649
The Journal of Web Librarianship is available online at:
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wjwl20/current
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Mobile Website Ease of Use:
An Analysis of Orbis Cascade Alliance Member
Websites
Zebulin Evelhoch
zeb.evelhoch@cwu.edu
James E. Brooks Library
Central Washington University
Ellensburg, Washington, USA
Abstract
This paper analyzes 37 Orbis Cascade Alliance members’ websites to determine ease of use
across mobile devices. Based on that analysis and a literature review, guidance is provided on
how libraries’ mobile websites may be improved. Websites were examined to determine ease of
locating frequently accessed resources on mobile devices that were identified in the literature:
contact information, hours, databases, library accounts, and search boxes. Scalability of websites
on mobile devices was also evaluated and was found to be non-existent in nearly a quarter of ex-
amined libraries. Areas for consideration and improvement are presented across Orbis Cascade
Alliance libraries that can easily be applied globally.
Keywords: mobile website, academic library, ease of use, accessibility
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Introduction
The ability to access information and services from an academic library website on a va-
riety of mobile devices is increasingly important. However, the question remains: are all libraries
equal in this respect? This paper analyzes the library websites of the members of the Orbis Cas-
cade Alliance (OCA) from a variety of mobile devices to determine ease of access to information
and resources most needed by users of academic libraries as identified in the literature. This anal-
ysis will help to advance the usability of mobile websites not only in the OCA but also through-
out academic libraries by identifying areas in which mobile academic library websites need to
improve as well as providing a foundation for where those improvements should be made.
To determine ease of access to resources across a wide variety of academic library web-
sites, the websites of the members of the OCA were examined to determine the availability of the
most requested resources and information through mobile devices in academic libraries as identi-
fied in the literature. These libraries provided some consistency of web experiences as over a
year and a half period from June 2013 to December 2014, all 37 member libraries migrated from
their legacy integrated library systems (ILS) to an OCA-wide shared hosted library services plat-
form, Ex Libris Alma
(Orbis Cascade Alliance 2015a). Member libraries also generally instituted
Ex Libris Primo as their discovery layer at the time of migration. While each OCA library uses a
shared hosted library services platform and the same discovery layer, there are noticeable differ-
ences in how each academic library has instituted and presented Primo and other content on their
webpages. Primo may be located at various places, in various sizes, or may not be present at all.
Additionally, institutional branding may or may not have been applied to the discovery layer.
The OCA is a consortium of 39 institutions in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
(Orbis
Cascade Alliance 2015b). These intuitions represent the entire spectrum of higher education in-
stitutions from small private schools, community colleges, and regional universities to large
comprehensive research institutions. The combined student population across OCA is 358,232
with 15 schools granting associates degrees, 33 bachelors, 31 masters, and 17 doctoral (Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching n.d.; Northwest Commission on Colleges and Uni-
versities n.d.). There is a mix of both public and private institutions, with 17 private (non-profit),
and 22 public institutions (Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities n.d.). This broad
membership of higher education institutions contained within the OCA provides a diverse cross
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section of institutions to examine and from which to provide insight into any issues, or positive
trends, which are prominent in mobile access across academic libraries.
Literature Review
Considering that library websites are often the primary place academic users go to for in-
formation related to coursework or research, it is essential that these sites quickly guide users to
the information they need
from a variety of devices, especially as college students spend a large
majority of their time on mobile devices
(Chow, Bridges, and Commander 2014; Roberts, Yaya,
and Manolis 2014). As mobile devices continue to infiltrate all aspects of life, it is important for
universities to provide necessary student services, including library services, on mobile websites
(Aldrich 2010).
An initial decision academic libraries may need to make is deciding what content should
be included on their websites and how that content can be displayed clearly on a small screen
(Kim 2013). A survey at Oregon State University Libraries found that overwhelmingly the main
reason users accessed the library’s mobile website was to check hours, though users also ac-
cessed the mobile site to search for a book and to perform research, both basic and complex
(Gascho Rempel and Bridges 2013). Other research supports the finding that the library website
is predominantly used to check hours, search for books, or use a database
(Condit Fagan et al.
2012; Persson, Langh, and Nilsson 2010). The accessibility of these tasks and resources should
be made a priority in academic library website design. In addition to performing research, users
noted the ability to access their online library account as a priority on mobile devices (Seeholzer
and Salem 2011). It is worth noting that a study of academic and public libraries discovered 16.2
percent did not provide contact information on the homepage, even though the ability to contact
a library has been identified as of utmost importance by mobile users of academic library web-
sites
(Chow, Bridges, and Commander 2014; Seeholzer and Salem 2011). Additionally, libraries
could provide tutorials on how to use library resources or perform research so that students could
view the tutorials on their mobile device while performing the tasks on their computer (Aldrich
2010). Whatever approach academic libraries take to selecting the design of their websites “the
restricted space on a small screen requires us to rethink what the most important items are on a
page and how the rest of the content can be presented in a streamlined and uncluttered way”
(Kim 2013, 33).
