Improving search experience and content with British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the second largest library in the world by number of items catalogued, with well over 150 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books and journals produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK.
Stats
12 lab-based user testing sessions
12
2 days of observation revealed user journeys
2
6 stakeholder interviews
6
Challenge
To improve its services for everyone who wants to do research, the British Library needed to understand how users currently discover and retrieve content — covering the search experience on a catalogue containing millions of items, how easily users can view content both in person and online, and how the Library compares to similar institutions.
Through stakeholder workshops, user testing, and contextual enquiries carried out in London and Sheffield, the project set out to identify key usability challenges and opportunities for improvement, building a clearer picture of user needs across new and existing audiences.
Strategy
GAIN ran a multi-method research programme built around real users and real stakeholders. This began with a stakeholder workshop to establish user types and sketch personas, followed by six stakeholder interviews to understand current business processes and pain points.
Twelve lab-based user testing sessions took place in London and Sheffield with existing and potential Library users, supported by two days of contextual enquiry and onsite observation to understand how new and regular users actually move through the Library. GAIN also reviewed the search experience on four comparable catalogues from university and national libraries, and mapped the full experience — from a user’s first awareness of the British Library through to studying with items on site.
The findings were captured in written reports and shared with stakeholders across multiple presentations, ensuring the evidence reached decision-makers at every level.
Results
The research gave the British Library evidence to inform strategic decisions in support of its vision: making its intellectual heritage accessible to everyone for research, inspiration and enjoyment in a digital, global age. It built a clearer understanding of different user types and their needs, and quantified the severity of existing usability issues by tracing their impact on real user journeys.
The work also validated internal hypotheses about issues caused by existing infrastructure and constraints, and surfaced strengths from comparable library catalogues that the British Library could adapt or learn from — alongside evidence of existing processes already working well.
Client Testimonial
GAIN delivered a very high-quality research study, with strong evidence and clear recommendations. This evidence has helped motivate staff at all levels to act on the results – which is exactly what we wanted. The researchers and other GAIN staff were all extremely professional, hardworking, innovative and a delight to work with.
Sally Halper
Head of Research Service and Content Strategy, British Library