Combining Product Analytics and User Research to Improve Service and Design

Speakers:

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  Gwen Evans

  Vice President, Global Library RelationsElsevier

  Gwen Evans joined Elsevier in 2020 as the Vice President of Global Library Relations. Prior to her current role, Gwen spent seven years as the Executive Director of the state agency and library consortium OhioLINK. From 2006 to 2012, she held the position of Associate Professor and the Coordinator of Library Information and Emerging Technologies at Bowling Green State University.

  Gwen has extensive experience with all types of academic libraries and institutions: academic content contract negotiations on the consortial level; statewide affordable textbook initiatives including OER; and leading, maintaining and creating shared collaborative services in a technology-driven environment. She was also active in the International Coalition of Library Consortia, serving as Chair of the Coordinating Committee. Her recent publications include an Ithaka S+R issue brief co-authored with Roger Schonfeld, titled “It’s Not What Libraries Hold; It’s Who Libraries Serve. Seeking a User-Centered Future for Academic Libraries” and “Creating Diversity in Libraries: Management Perspectives” in Library Leadership & Management with co-authors Mihoko Hosoi and Nancy S. Kirkpatrick.

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  Kathryn McDonnell

  Director, UX ResearchElsevier

  Kathryn McDonnell is Head of UX Research for Elsevier’s research products having joined the company in 2015. Since this time she has led a range of research projects on ScienceDirect’s book and journal platform including understanding the experience of the purchase process from the librarians’ perspective and evaluating end users’ reactions to alternative access options for full text articles.

  Prior to this she managed the User Experience team at LexisNexis and provided user research consultancy at the BBC and for companies including Reuters and FirstDirect.