Overview

As the information environment becomes increasingly electronic, digital libraries have proliferated, but the focus has often been on innovations in technology and not the user. Although userneeds have become a popular concept, in practice the users are rarely consulted in the development of services. Research and analysis of users is essential to fine-tune the content and approach of digital libraries to the diverging requirements and expectations of incredibly varied communities and to ensure libraries are effective, accessible and sustainable in the long term. Providing a clear and coherent overview of the user studies domain and user issues in digital libraries this landmark edited text captures a truly global cross-section of leading voices. The following key topics are covered across three broad themes: an introduction to the issues, description of the main methods with illustrative case studies and exploration of which methods should be chosen for analysis of common user study questions - what is the place of user studies in digital libraries and what are the basic user study methods? explaining user-centric studies, information behaviour and user experience studies; exploring user-study methods such as surveys, questionnaires, expert evaluation methods, eye tracking, deep log analysis, personae and ethnographic studies; critical issues around user studies such as evaluation of digital libraries, digital preservation, social media, the shift to mobile devices and ethics; user studies in specific types of institutions; libraries, archives, museums, audiovisual collections and art collections; and the most popular questions and what to do next. This is an essential guide for information professionals involved in supporting, developing or designing digital library services and for researchers wanting to address the user dimension in their work. It is also an essential textbook for students on LIS and computer science courses who want to understand the importance of the user in information services.

Full Product Details

Author:   Milena Dobreva ,  Andy O'Dwyer ,  Pierluigi Feliciati
Publisher:   Facet Publishing
Imprint:   Facet Publishing
ISBN:  

9781856047654

ISBN 10:   1856047652
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   22 June 2012
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface Tom Wilson 1 Introduction: user studies for digital library development Milena Dobreva, Andy O'Dwyer and Pierluigi Feliciati Part 1: Setting the scene 2 Models that inform digital library design Elaine G. Toms 3 User-centric studies Sudatta Chowdhury 4 Design issues and user needs Petar Mihaylov 5 Users within the evaluation of digital libraries Giannis Tsakonas Part 2: Methods explained and illustrated 6 Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups as means for user engagement with evaluation of digital libraries Jillian R. Griffiths 7 Expert evaluation methods Claus-Peter Klas 8 Evidence of user behaviour: deep log analysis David Nicholas and David Clark 9 An eye-tracking approach to the evaluation of digital libraries Panos Balatsoukas 10 Personas Katja Guldbak Rasmussen and Gitte Petersen Part 3: User studies in the digital library universe: what else needs to be considered? 11 User-related issues in multilingual access to multimedia collections Paul Clough 12 Children and digital libraries Ian Ruthven, Monica Landoni and Andreas Lingnau 13 User engagement and social media Jeffery K. Guin 14 Significant others: user studies and digital preservation Kathleen Menzies and Duncan Birrell 15 The shift to mobile devices Lina Petrakieva 16 Resource discovery for research and course design Zsuzsanna Varga 17 Support for users within an educational or e-learning context Nicola Osborne Part 4: User studies across the cultural heritage sector 18 User studies in libraries Derek Law 19 User studies in archives Wendy M. Duff 20 User studies in museums: holding the museum in the palm of your hand Susan Hazan 21 Digital art online: perspectives on user needs, access, documentation and retrieval Leo Konstantelos 22 User studies for digital libraries' development: audiovisual collections Andy O'Dwyer 23 A business-model perspective on end-users and open metadata Harry Verwayen and Martijn Arnoldus Part 5: Putting it all together 24 And now - to the brave real world Milena Dobreva, Andy O'Dwyer and Pierluigi Feliciati

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Author Information

Dr Milena Dobreva is a senior researcher at CDLR, University of Strathclyde. She managed the DiSCmap project on user priorities in digitisation of special collections and coordinated the Europeana user and functionality study. Andy O'Dwyer has been with the BBC since 1986 applying technical solutions to the long term preservation of broadcast material. He has managed several European collaborative projects providing online access to parts of the BBC's newly digitized content. Pierluigi Feliciati is a Researcher in the University of Macerata, Italy.

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