 ~ ITSIG Wiki
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A “persona” is a description of a hypothetical user used in designing a web site or service. For more about personas, see Christine Perfetti’s Personas: Matching a Design to the Users’ Goals.
Jane Grey
Since 1989 when she got her first Macintosh, Jane Grey has been intrigued by the opportunities for learning and fun that computers create. Her library was one of the first in New Zealand to have a web site and she has been active in promoting digital library services for her community. She is technically aware and keeps up to date with developments in web standards, eContent, federated searching and open source software for libraries. Jane is now her library’s digital services manager, and she has been an ITSIG member since 1997. She would like to see ITSIG become more active in organising continuing education opportunities for its members. She is comfortable using several web browsers; at home she uses Safari, while at work she uses Internet Explorer “because it’s the de facto standard”. She has just installed broadband at home, but thinks New Zealand broadband ought to be half the price for twice the speed. She haunts eBay for vintage knitting needles and reads Wendy’s knitting blog every day.
Adam Frost
Adam is a relative newcomer to ITSIG, having graduated with an MLIS in 2000. He is currently working as a reference librarian in a Tier 2 public library, and would like to move into systems or web development work. He is comfortable using a range of electronic resources, including both commercial databases and free web sources. He has a particular interest in useability and is interested to see whether wikis can be made intuitive enough for people less IT-savvy than himself. He has a Windows computer at home, and is thinking of purchasing a handheld computer to explore its possibilities. He tends to use Microsoft products exclusively, because that is what his employer provides. His favourite web site is the New Zealand Cycling Advocates Network. He is working on his personal web site, about his annual cycling trips in Asia. He is currently planning a cycling tour of Vietnam. He is using Microsoft FrontPage, but is thinking of upgrading to DreamWeaver.
Hmmm, and do we need a persona for one of Rachel Gordon’s Accidental Systems Librarians, perhaps Joseph Fortune
Joseph was a reference librarian in a medium-sized tertiary institution. He qualified as a Librarian in the days before html existed. Although an historian, he had an interest in technology and always read Scientific American. In 1998 Joe’s Library decided to move to a modern Windows-based ILS. Joe, who owned an old computer at home, was foolish enough to help a colleague move a terminal from one desk to another. He was spotted by the Systems Librarian and immediately recruited onto the ILS implementation team. When a new position arose within the Systems department, Joe was encouraged to apply; it meant a promotion and sounded interesting. Joe was appointed. In his first week no-one talked to him. They weren’t unfriendly, just doing a major upgrade and totally focussed. However, several years later Joe, now in his late 40s, feels comfortable as a Systems Librarian. Because of his library background, he finds himself interpreting IT speak for Librarians. He is involved in a wide-range of Library IT projects and has even learnt a little html. In his systems role, he has learnt more about MARC than he ever learnt at Library School. Although he uses, supports, and teaches Microsoft products, he is old enough to remember life before MS and in his heart is still convinced that WordPerfect 5.1 is better than any version of Microsoft Word. He displays his anarchic traits by using Opera as his web browser. He seldom plays with computers at home — at his age he is far too busy with other things and anyway he lives in a rural area where he is lucky to connect at 28k. He likes the idea of ITSIG — especially if it can help him keep abreast of broad trends in Library IT, both abroad and in New Zealand. Joe has realized that there is so much change in this field, that he has to keep up; not necessarily at the technical level because he can leave that to others, but certainly at the strategic level.
Page last modified on 29 October 2003, at 05:39 PM
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