Proposition: Digital Collections Are Easier to Find and Use

through DLF Aquifer’s American Social History OnlineKatherine 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?

kkott@diglib.orgwww.dlfaquifer.org