Skip to main content

About Athena Hoeppner

My favorite summary for what I do is “I connect people to content”. A lot goes into that simply-stated feat, of course, but, in this digital age, the final step relies on discovery systems and user interfaces. The interface mediates the discovery and delivery of content, influencing user behavior and selections. The choices we librarians make about those systems and interfaces – from incorporated indexing and content, to relevancy ranking, to icons and link texts, and in-context suggestions – all have a big effect on user success, efficiency, and satisfaction. Getting those systems right is key to whether people connect to the content they seek. Naturally, I’m keenly interested in them.

I’ve had the good fortune to explore discovery systems and interface design through projects for the University of Central Florida Libraries and for consortial committees. Shortly after I started as a UCF Reference Librarian in 1995, I joined the OPAC taskforce which helped create and refine the consortia's first web-based catlog interface. Later, as UCF’s Electronic Resources Librarian reporting to Systems, I became the Libraries webmaster and led redesign projects to create user-centered a website. Most recently, my work and interests involve our discovery system, EDS.
Throughout my career, the user has been the center of my efforts. I now report to Acquisitions, but still serve 2 hours per week at the Research and Information Desk and two hours on Ask a Librarian. Working directly with UCF’s students helps me maintain a user-centric perspective on content, discovery, and interface choices.

Positions

Present Faculty Member, University of Central Florida
to



$
to
Enter a valid date range.

to
Enter a valid date range.

Recent Works (11)

Research Works (1)

Keynote (1)

Authentication Systems (2)

Assessment (1)

Electronic Resources Management (4)