A Curation Evaluation

I was tasked with selecting three different curation sites, utilizing them to create a list of my choosing, and evaluating them for usability. Believe it or not, the conclusion was an easy one. The three sites I used were Listly, LiveBinders, and Scoop.it!. I chose these because they are curation sites I had never used before, and I was curious about how they would function in comparison to ones that I have used, like Evernote. Please note that all blog sites are linked at the blogs name. 

 

 Let's start with the best: Listly.  

Listly was the easiest tool to use. Its interface was intuitive, the instructions clear, and it was not littered with ads (though it did have some). Using Listly, I put together 10 articles for a reader who is thinking of getting a dog. When I pasted the URL's into Listly, it automatically took the image from the article, as well as the articles title and own blurb (though I did replace the blurbs with my own). Moreover, it is easy for the viewer to find, as well as read--it has no overwhelming colors, and it is neat without any further editing from me. Thus, this is a great way to curate information for your patrons. It is easy to use for you, and it is easy to navigate for the patron. 

Our second curation tool, LiveBinders, was by far the worst one. 

 

LiveBinders was not intuitive at all. It was hard to navigate, to the point that I could not figure out how to add an image to the page for the life of me. That's why it's stuck as a little blue disk. Moreover, it is not a pretty curation site, which can effect how a patron uses it and views it, believe it or not. Finally, it was unable to load many of the articles that I included in the other lists, and it had a word limit for the title, which made me shorten it. Overall, it was more unpleasant to use than the other ones, and it is visually unappealing and difficult to use on the patron side, therefore making it a poor choice. Perhaps I just need to work with it longer to understand how to best use it. 

 

Our third and final curation tool was Scoop.it! 

 

 

Scoop.it! was not a favorite either, but it was still better than LiveBinders. It is less intuitive to use, there is a lot visually going on on the page, but it is neater and works better than LiveBinders. It reminds me of the sites that you accidentally end up on when you mistakenly click an add at the bottom of a page. It does not, however, have ads on the sides itself like Listly does--which is a big plus. Moreover, it was able to load all of the links I added, take the picture from the site, and the blurb as well just like Listly. Overall, Listly and Scoop.it are on the same level of usability, aesthetics, and content for the patron. However, Scoop.it! is just a tad harder for the publisher to use.

 

Overall, Listly comes out on top by probably one point, with Scoop.it! following in a close second, and LiveBinder way behind.  It was very interesting to see the differences of these sites when using it through the lens of patron-facing curation. For each of the sites, I can see them be useful a resource pages for various topics. A resource page for taxes, a resource page or ESL, a resource page for employment assistance, etc. I can also see them being a great place to offer reading lists on a variety of subjects and genres. You could put the website names on a bookmark as a way to market them to patrons! In conclusion, believe that I will return to Listly and Scoop.it! in the future. These sites are wonderful ways to offer a collection of authoritative resources to patrons in an accessible way, and the customization of these sites makes the opportunities absolutely endless on what you can offer.