The master thesis presents the user interface Blended Shelf, which provides a shelf browsing experience beyond the physical location of the library. Shelf browsing offers numerous advantages and users apply it as a research strategy in libraries. Little usable and proven applications exist to provide shelf browsing in the digital domain, which would allow time and location independent shelf access for the users. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to develop and evaluate a user interface, which offers the experience of digital shelf browsing, without losing the essential advantages that are deeply rooted in the physical space.
The talk summarizes the master thesis and its results about the Blended Shelf. This includes the definition of basic design goals, an analysis of related work and the actual implementation of a comprehensive prototype. It also shows the results of its evaluation in the wild during a ten day user study. It concludes with a summary of current and future efforts to transfer the concept into the real library world.
Keywords: Blended library, Shelf browsing, Reality-based interaction.
