Author Archives: Shirley Cousins

Copac user survey results 2012

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Many thanks all those who filled in our annual user survey in Jan/Feb this year. This has given us some immensely valuable feedback and we really appreciate the time our 1,603 respondents put into this.

Overall most people are very happy with Copac but there were also plenty of good ideas for enhancements and additions. We are reviewing all the feedback and will use this to support the Copac development work currently underway, as well as helping us prioritise the next steps in the development of the service.

A summary report is available (below) but the main features are:

The Copac service is focussed on supporting the UK academic community and this is reflected in the fact that:

  • 76% of respondents are UK based or affiliated with a UK institution;
  • whilst 65% of users are based within the Higher Education sector;
  • There was representation across all subject areas, with the Humanities and Social Sciences representing 55% of subject choices.

Copac users are extremely positive about the service:

  • 91% of UK respondents agreed that using Copac saved them time;
  • and it was seen as easy to use by 90% of UK respondents;
  • with 97% of UK respondents saying they would recommend Copac to others.

We received really useful feedback about what people most valued about Copac. This grouped into three main areas of data coverage, ease of uses, and data quality.

We also has many very valuable comments about changes people would like to see, with diverse ideas relating particularly to interface facilities and deduplication, as well as increased library coverage, interface enhancements and record quality.

You can download the full report: Copac user survey 2012

Copac trial interface: feedback

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Many thanks to those of you that gave us feedback on the recent trial of the new Copac user interface. We really appreciate the time you put into testing and responding to us through the feedback form, email, and twitter.

I’ve summarised the feedback below:

  • In general you gave an enthusiastic response to the new interface design, including positive comments on the layout and workflow. Those who tried it on mobile devices were pleased with the how it came out.
  • There were also positive comments about the range of features, with the availability of the holding library list on the initial search result listing being particularly popular.
  • The grey ‘colour scheme’ generated a number of comments. Some people liked it but others definitely didn’t! The lack of colour on the site was to try and avoid getting too much comment on the graphics as opposed to the functionality of the new interface, so it won’t be staying monochrome.
  • There were individual comments about wording, screen elements, or requests for additional features, which are all valuable in helping us refine the presentation and facilities.
  • Amongst those who didn’t like the new interface the major concern was the lack of the ‘Main search’ screen with its range of detailed search options. Whilst the initial test was working just with the Quick search, we can reassure that we always intended to reintroduce the other search screens once we had feedback on the overall design. This obviously wasn’t as clear as we’d hoped.

We are continuing to work on the interface, reassured that we are moving in the right direction for most of you. In the next stage we’ll be incorporating colour as well as adding the missing search screens. We will also be making changes in response to comments or requests relating to individual features, as well as ensuring that it works well for as wide a range of browsers and devices as possible.

You’ll be able to try out the new interface again in a few months time and provide input into the final version before the work is completed.

Hardware move coming soon…

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Copac will be moving onto new hardware on Tuesday 24th August.  This is an ‘exciting’ day for us, but we don’t expect most people using Copac to notice the changeover. However, it will take time for the change to be picked up by all machines across the network. This means that if you use the login interface to Copac on Tuesday 24th there is a possibility that any records added to your reference list etc. may be saved onto the old version of Copac and will be lost when your local DNS starts pointing you towards the new one. So we suggest that on Tuesday 24th August you use the non-login version of Copac. If you have any questions please get in touch with the helpdesk: copac@mimas.ac.uk