proposition: digital collections are easier to find and use through dlf aquifer’s american social...
TRANSCRIPT
Proposition: Digital Collections Are Easier to Find and Use
through DLF Aquifer’s American Social History Online
Katherine Kott, Aquifer DirectorLibrary Assessment Conference
Seattle, WAAugust 5, 2008
From planning to assessment: methods and tools
• Background• Planning• Design• Development• Assessment
Project background: American Social History Online
• To make distributed digital material easier to find and use
• Designed for – Teaching– Learning– Scholarship
• Web site and associated services
What’s the problem?
Use and Users of Digital Resources by Diane Harley Educause Quarterley, November 4, 2007
Too distributed
Overwhelming
Poor quality
The need for a more robust infrastructure for digital scholarship in the humanities and social sciences
What’s the solution?
Number one goal in the Digital Library Federation founding charter (1995)The implementation of a distributed, open digital library
conforming to the overall theme [of America’s heritage and culture] and accessible across the global Internet. This library shall consist of collections -- expanding over time in number and scope -- to be created from the conversion to digital form of documents contained in our and other libraries and archives, and from the incorporation of holdings already in electronic form.
Enter DLF Aquifer
• Emergent distributed open digital library initiative
• Named in 2003
• Organizational structure (director and working groups) established 2005– Created policies, schemas, best practices– Services Working Group responsible for
keeping the focus on the “content consumer”
Contributions to the community
• Experiments• Models• Methods• Best practices
Surveyed DLF membership to determine what information had been gathered
Leverage collaboration for service development
What services?
• Use cases derived from existing user studies– CDL American West project– DLF Scholars Panel– Other reports cited in Institutional Survey Report
• Personas and tasks methodology from CDL• Common business functions from Service Framework• Clarified target audiences
– Faculty– Graduate students– Undergraduates
American Social History Online
• Funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation– Small development team– Link to working groups—an Aquifer “instance”– Emphasis on
• Designing and building for scholar• Assessment• Planning for sustainability
Agile development
• Build prototype based on planning and design
• Involve graduate students, faculty and librarians– User stories– Using the software– Conference calls
• Incorporate ideas and re-release every 2-4 weeks
Products
• American Social History Online Web site
• Integration with Zotero
• Search engine optimization for improved discovery
• Integration with Sakai
• Federated search to include commercial content
Assessment
• Improving access for scholars• Stimulating new research questions• Supporting interdisciplinary study• Supporting cross regional research• Increasing digital collection use
Methods
• Interviews• Survey• Focus groups• Observation• Longitudinal study• Transaction log
analysis
Rapid prototyping & Formal assessment
• User services librarians unfamiliar with agile methods—confusing
• Rapid prototyping—heuristic--creating the framework
• Assessment—digging into the details
Results
• Preliminary results to be reported DLF Fall Forum, November 2008
• Final results to be reported DLF Spring Forum, April 2009
Questions & Comments?
www.dlfaquifer.org