Courtney Greene McDonald is head of the Discovery & User Experience department at Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, and, for the current academic year, also serves as Interim Head of Reference Services. Her professional interests are focused on the intersection of emerging technologies and library public services, and on implementing user-centered design methods and philosophies in libraries. She has presented and written on a variety of topics including user experience design, the selection and implementation of discovery tools, and mobile services in libraries. Her most recent book, Putting the User First: Thirty Strategies for Transforming Library Services, was published in 2014. Courtney is active professionally, currently serving as chair of the editorial board for the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Weave: Journal of Library User Experience. She earned her Master of Library Science degree, as well as a BA in English and journalism, from Indiana University Bloomington, and holds a Master of Science in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago.
Every day, you and your frontline staff create and support crucial connections between the many parts of library operations: collections, patrons, information, services, facilities and policies. All these things together compose your library’s ‘user experience.’ It is challenging to create a good cross-channel experience that keeps the library’s physical spaces, resources, staff, messages, and website all on the same page, especially when our patrons may start and end their journey from literally anywhere, online and in-person. What lessons and insights can we draw from user-centered design that are applicable in our day-to-day work in libraries? What does it mean to approach library services holistically? In this keynote, Courtney Greene McDonald will present a framework for prioritizing your patrons throughout their journey from curiosity to discovery to delivery.