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Part 4. Impressions of DocView
The fourth area of interest in the survey asked users for their subjective opinions on DocView. This consisted of four statements requiring subjective answers, plus a written comments section.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 46 |
| Tend to agree | 30 |
| Hard to decide | 23 |
| Tend to disagree | 0 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
An impressive 76 percent of users agreed that DocView improved the way they receive documents from their library. This is probably the single most important factor that may help a document delivery librarian decide whether to begin electronic delivery of documents to patrons. For patrons who have received copies of journal articles for decades via slow, unreliable mail, the newly acquired ability to have electronic delivery to the desktop is, as one respondent noted, "Great!"
4.2 My sessions with DocView were straightforward
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 40 |
| Tend to agree | 42 |
| Hard to decide | 10 |
| Tend to disagree | 6 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
Most users (82%) felt that their DocView sessions were straightforward. Of those who had problems, some were with installation of the software, or with non-reception of documents. This minority of cases required extra assistance from the delivering library.
4.3 I want to continue using DocView
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 71 |
| Tend to agree | 18 |
| Hard to decide | 6 |
| Tend to disagree | 4 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
An impressive 89 percent of users wanted to continue using DocView. Once a library begins electronic delivery of documents to the patron’s desktop, it could be difficult to go back to traditional document delivery. Users may insist that they keep getting electronic document delivery.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 71 |
| Tend to agree | 14 |
| Hard to decide | 11 |
| Tend to disagree | 3 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
Comments on overall impressions of DocView that were favorable
1. Overall, great idea.
2. As a librarian who is promoting DocView to our patrons, I love it! It is very easy to use. Our patrons who use it, love that they are able to receive their ILL requests electronically.
3. It’s a great program.
4. I like to use the DocView file management. It is useful and quite easy to learn. DocView can save the patron some time saving steps, since documents come right to the PC screen.
5. Easy to use, eliminates paper waste.
6. Printing was relatively easy.
7. In our experiments we were delighted with DocView and would love to link all of our 70 members to our Ariel workstation with DV.
8. Easy and intuitive to use.
9.It’s great – a good use of technology.
10. Very easy to use and helpful.
11. I use DocView to get papers when I am in a hurry and can’t wait for interlibrary loan, which takes about 10-14 days. Most documents I can wait for, but when I am writing a grant and the deadline is near, having DocView is wonderful.
12. Certainly is a pleasant advancement in document delivery.
13. The program is straightforward, instructions are clear and easy to follow. Set up is easy enough for a neophyte to follow. While I make infrequent use of interlibrary loan services this service eliminates trips to the library.
14. It was relatively easy to use.
15. I find DocView to be a very valuable asset.
16. DocView is great! I’m impressed by the quality of the documents received. Thank you.
17. I have been very impressed with the product. I look forward to the day that we can have this installed on may of our patrons computers to be able to speed up the delivery of documents to them.
18. I haven’t had a chance to use DocView much yet but so far I like it very much. It is easy to use and makes it much easier for me to receive document to view and then print.
19. Being at a remote site from the main library with limited library sources locally, DocView has been a tremendous asset in the daily tasks involved with research and grant writing. Wonderful time save. Love it.
20. Great utility program!
21. It’s an excellent product. It has reduced the time lag between ordering and receiving it by months.
22. Simple yet quite effective.
Comments on overall impressions of DocView that that indicated
user problems or dissatisfaction
1. The static IP address is a real problem.
2. Incredible memory hog.
3. I am still not receiving documents!
4. Feels cumbersome. Printer cuts page off, apparently not enough printer memory, unless I decrease image 20%. Printing very slow, ties up computer when I need to get other work done.
5. I like the idea, but it just isn’t working. It’s slower than the old way, I only receive about half the documents being sent, it’s extremely slow to print and sometimes overloads an average printer, outbox has small memory…
6. There seem to be some glitches using DocView Message function. It sometimes produces and error message and shuts down the program.
7. This new "beta" version will not allow me to print.
8. Installation a little confusing for a novice.
9. DocView can lock up the system – when attempting to print and receiving at the same time.
As these latter comments show, some users had problems with printing. This seemed to be the chief complaint received from beta testers through other channels, such as email and telephone conversations. Due to the large amount of data that must be sent to the printer for each bitmapped image, printing takes a long time. Users should expect about 45 seconds to print each page on most computers. Printing on slower computers requires a lot of CPU resources, and users find that they are not able to do anything else while they print a document. Using a faster computer will alleviate this problem. Users may also alleviate printing problems by making sure that their printer has at least 2 megabytes of memory and that their computer has sufficient free disk space on the so-called "temporary drive" when using Windows 3.1. The temporary drive is designated by the TEMP environment variable. Users of Windows 95 and NT should make sure they have sufficient disk space available for "virtual memory." Finally, printers attached directly to the computer are faster than networked printers.