User Engagement with Digital Archives: A Case Study of Emblematica Online

A Snapshot presentation given at the 2014 DLF Forum in Atlanta, GA.

Transcript

1. User Engagement with Digital Archives: A Case Study of Emblematica Online Harriett Green, Timothy Cole, MJ Han, and Mara Wade University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign DLF Forum 2014
2. The Tool: Emblematica Online
3. What is an Emblem? Motto   Pictura   Subscriptio   Peter  Isselburg,  Emblemata  Politica,  1617   http://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OCA/ Books2009-­‐10/emblematapolitic00isel/   @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
4. Emblematica Online •  Currently funded by NEH Humanities Collections & Reference Resources grant •  Began with Illinois and HAB Wolfenbüttel digital collections à expanded to Glasgow, Utrecht, Duke, and Getty Institute collections http://emblematica.library.illinois.edu @greenharr green19@illinois.edu Joseph Mayer, Vortrefflich-Hoch-Adeliches Controfeé, http://hdl.handle.net/ 10111/EmblemRegistry:E001002
5. Why User Assessment?
6. User Assessment is Necessary “While a greater reliance and dependency on digital resources is inevitable, the quality of the data and their organization and accessibility in service to teaching and scholarship are major concerns. “Without the guiding voice of scholars, the tremendous effort now being devoted to digitizing our cultural heritage could in fact impede, not facilitate, future research.” —Charles Henry, The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
7. User Engagement Study
8. User Engagement Study •  Two phases: Interviews and usability testing with students and scholars •  Methodology: Semi-structured interviews with graduate students and scholars •  Disciplines: English literature, art history, medieval studies, musicology, book history @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
9. Goals of Study •  Understand the research practices of humanities scholars who use emblem books in their research •  Understand behaviors of researchers working with Emblematica Online and similar digital archives •  Gather input on current and future functionalities and services in Emblematica @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
10. What did the users say?
11. Use •  To look up specific emblems and use as digital illustrations •  To search for emblems on certain topics and themes •  Challenge: Navigating the search interface and results @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
12. Teaching
13. Teaching Use in undergraduate and graduate courses for: •  Analyze an emblem in conjunction with Milton’s emblematic poetry •  Emblems as an Illustrative tool for artistic styles and cultural mores of historical periods •  A unit on emblems planned for an art history graduate seminar @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
14. Research
15. Research •  Access to archival materials from around the world •  Helps to cultivate language skills •  Interdisciplinary material for art, literary studies, history, cultural studies, etc. @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
16. Functionalities
17. Suggested Functionalities •  Indicate editions of the volumes •  Enable annotations •  More intuitive search interface •  Improve IconClass metadata navigation •  Add historical essays for context @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
18. Impact on Field
19. Possible Impact of Emblematica? •  Expand the use of emblems in research across multiple disciplines •  Increase the impact and citations of emblem studies scholarship •  Evolution in humanities research with digital vs. print content @greenharr green19@illinois.edu
20. To Come
21. Coming Up Next…. Open Emblem Portal •  Improved search interface •  Search filter by institution •  Emblem-level metadata •  Annotation Tool •  Collection Building tool User Study •  Winter 2014: Usability testing of the Open Emblem portal •  March 2015: Paper presentation at ACRL 2015 on full user study @greenharr green19@illinois.edu http://emblematica.library.illinois.edu
22. Photo Credits •  "Does he measure up? by Stevie Spiers Photography http:// www.steviespiersphotography.com/, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevies_snaps/15252939767 •  “Measuring Time,” by aussiegall, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/286709039 •  "Magnifying Glass,” by Auntie P, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiep/17135231 •  "Untitled” by rachel a. k., on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonomania/474758933 •  "classroom” by Lauren Manning, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenmanning/2318943806 •  "More Bildsten notebooks” by Jonas Lowgren, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonas_lowgren/7406596056 •  "Crane Gears” by Kevin Utting, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217 •  "Meteor Crater, Arizona” by ph-stop, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ph-stop/2387502810 •  "Paris: telescope on Eiffel Tower // Teleskop auf dem Eiffelturm” by brongaeh, on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/brongaeh/9933790456
23. Thank you! Harriett Green English and Digital Humanities Librarian University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign green19@illinois.edu Twitter: @greenharr