Abstract
OpenURL is a valuable tool within library communities because it offers a gateway to the rapidly growing online information sources otherwise disconnected. However, the access it provides is not, as it is often billed, seamless. Reference librarians at Adelphi University were concerned that students were having difficulty retrieving full text articles via our link resolver and that distinctions between the various resources included in the OpenURL process was unclear. To examine these and other issues we designed a usability study with four objectives: (1) to measure the relative success of student use of OpenURL to link to full text; (2) to evaluate, edit, and improve an existing OpenURL instructional guide; (3) to explore additional ways of promoting effective use of the link resolver; and (4) to seek new methods of advancing information literacy skills. Within the investigative process, the researcher concluded that student difficulties might well be addressed by building scaffolding into the OpenURL results page.