Measuring Dhaka University students' perceptions of ease-of-use and their satisfaction with University Library's online public access catalogue

摘要

Purpose – The main aim of this paper is to assess Dhaka University students' perceptions of ease-of-use and their satisfaction with University Library's online public access catalogue (DUL OPAC). Design/methodology/approach – A survey questionnaire was developed and used to collect data on students' demographics, online catalogue use and their perceptions of ease-of-use and satisfaction with OPAC. In order to analyze the influence of students' demographic and individual characteristics on their perceptions and satisfaction, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were carried out. Findings – The results showed that students are overwhelmingly satisfied with the DUL, OPAC. Although there are some differences in students' perceptions of and satisfaction with the university OPAC, a formal task-based usability testing and adopting a user-centered design can ensure the usability of the OPAC in the future. The paper suggested some heuristic guidelines for designing interfaces for online catalogues. Originality/value – This is the first time an effort has been made to assess students' perceptions of and satisfaction with a library OPAC in Bangladesh. The authors feel this study may encourage more such research on usability evaluation of OPACs in Bangladesh and beyond.