Editorial

Citation

Chiu, D.K.W. and Ho, K.K.W. (2022), "Editorial", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 196-197. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-02-2022-444

Wayfinding from the users perspective: the connection between user experience and library wayfinding

This special section presents four papers related to research in user experience and wayfinding. It covers topics related to using new technology in conducting wayfinding research, analysing survey data to understand the e-service need of library users and knowledge management need for the management and investigating how users navigate bibliographic families.

More research studies have used new technologies, such as eye-movement-tracking devices, to study user behaviour in recent years. Su et al. (2022) report a study using such a device to explore how library patrons interact with the university library signage system design. Their study used an eye-movement-tracking device to capture patrons' eye movement during their wayfinding process in the library interior. They discovered that the route strategy users most attended the informational signage, and the orientation strategy users rarely focussed on the directional signage. Also, participants with high anxiety tended to ignore the visually auxiliary function of the landmarks but paid attention to the directional signage, whereas participants with low anxiety would capture the landmarks that the route strategy users could not easily find. Further, participants who were less familiar with the environment were more sensitive to the landmarks. The authors report the optimisation measures for the university library wayfinding signage system based on their findings. Besides signage, readers may also note that Internet of Things (IoT) technologies (Khan et al., 2021) are also useful for wayfinding, especially for people with impaired vision (Cheung et al., 2021).

In a modern library, most services are provided through electronic systems. Therefore, understanding library users' need for these e-services is essential for academic librarians. In their paper, Umukoro and Tiamiyu (2022) presented a replicated study that shows that service quality, user satisfaction, e-service environment and user factors are predictors of the use of e-services. This finding can help system administrators, designers, library administrators and managers design, implement and use information systems in the library. Readers may also be interested in reading Naeini et al. (2019) about the adoption of mobile services in the libraries of the world's top universities. As for service evaluation, readers may refer to the work of Wang et al. (2019) and Kerr and Pennington (2018). Such evaluations can effectively hint at measures for designing innovative services (Wójcik, 2019).

Another major usage of the electronic system in libraries is knowledge management. In their study, Rafi et al. (2022) tested the four components of performance evaluation within a knowledge management framework to develop appropriate and robust models for improving employee performance and library services. Their result suggests that academic leaders and policymakers value investment in the professional development of top library management. Also, organising training for service employees, supporting innovative research projects and providing library technology infrastructures can improve academic performance and research when integrated into the knowledge management model. Readers may also be interested in the work of Ding et al. (2021) on the characteristics of knowledge diffusion of library and information science from the perspective of citation. Besides, Kaffashan Kakhki et al. (2021) studied the effect of knowledge absorptive capacity on academic librarians' innovation. Notably, Kim et al. (2021) analysed the articles in this journal by profiling its historic footprint, emerging trends and knowledge diffusion.

The last paper of this special selection focusses on the way users navigate bibliographic families. Arastoopoor (2022) notes that users navigate bibliographic families not only when they have no specific document in mind, but also when they have a specific predefined need in mind. In particular, when users had no specific resource in mind, they generated a top-down view of the family and disregarded the item entity and manifestations. However, when they were asked to assume certain situations, they viewed the bibliographic family from a bottom-up approach. Readers may also be interested in reading our previous issue, which includes a special section of bibliometric and literature review (Chiu and Ho, 2021).

Both co-editors thank Mr Ryan Litsey, Texas Tech University Libraries, for proposing this special issue.