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Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage. Designing online library systems British Library November 2004 Richard Butterworth. Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage. 14 month funded project (Aug 2004 – Oct 2005) LASER group EARL Consortium

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Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

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  1. Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Designing online library systems British Library November 2004 Richard Butterworth Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  2. Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage • 14 month funded project (Aug 2004 – Oct 2005) • LASER group • EARL Consortium • Based at Special Collections, Senate House Library • Christine Wise, Mura Ghosh, Richard Butterworth • Steering group • Bernard Naylor (Chair), Linda Berube (Co-East), Cathy Walters (British Library), Else Churchill (Society of Genealogists), Louise Craven (The National Archives), Elizabeth Danbury (SLAIS, UCL), Dr Michael Fraser (Oxford University Computing Services), David Mander (Hackney Archives Department), Adrian Olsen (London Borough of Southwark). Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  3. Overview... • Part one: Designing DL systems generally... • Problems / issues • Part two: What AAMH is doing • Do we address the problems above? • (This is intentionally controversial. Please feel free to ask questions and make comments.) Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  4. Part one: Hypothesis • Current funding and design models for digital library systems are inappropriate • DLs should be core library practice... • ...not a removable add-on. Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  5. Technological maturity • Early on... • Early adoption • Techno-centric / exploration • What can the technology do? • Maturity • Mass adoption • User needs driven • What do the users need? Design process would be a hindrance Design process is essential Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  6. Current design process Preparation (cataloguing etc.) Get requirements/feasibility Apply for funding Get some more requirements Do development Test requirements Maintenance No funding 1 – 5 years 40% of project costs Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  7. More reasoned approaches... • Identify system roles... • Delivery of surrogate library resources? • Delivery of surrogate library services? • Or...? • Identify the users... • End users • Maintainers • Model the users and their needs... • Use cases, needs analysis... Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  8. End users... • Not bounded... • Not from a single organisation... • Not homogeneous needs... • In contrast to other user groups... • This makes DL design specifically challenging • DL design needs a specific design process? • (Maintainers are bounded) • Normal design process can apply Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  9. Pragmatic issues... • Observed DL use... Hits per day Time Sample users Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  10. Pragmatic issues... • Actual DL use... Hits per day Time Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  11. Pragmatic issues... • Actual DL use... • And where are the users? Hits per day Time Sample users? Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  12. So what? • Without the ability to survey users well... Specific use cases Low risk General use cases High risk ...forced into this area Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  13. Where is the problem? • Problems designing and delivering DL systems • Systemic and pragmatic • Is the problem short term funding and DL systems as additional to, rather than part of, core activities? • A traditional library is never ‘finished’ • Why a digital library? Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  14. Problems solved? • Thorough analysis of user needs = reference interviewing • Resources vs services? • Supporting the roles that libraries play in a social/political context using IT • Requires: • Low(er) level persistent funding • Analysis of library and context Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  15. AAMH Project • AAMH is being run as much as possible as core activity • Exit strategy • Leave a working system that can be maintained and improved as part of day to day activity • Part of the MS studies portal • Closely linked to Linking Arms Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  16. Part two: AAMH • Aims: • A working ‘something’ that will help adult learners perform good research • A widening of access to HE library resources • A general model of how HE and public libraries can interact • A model of information seeking behaviour • Continued analysis of DL development Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  17. Deliverables • Better understanding of users • Underlying system • Web interface • Content development • Cooperation model / Publicity Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  18. Two systems... • Underlying system • Ensure sustainability • Bounded user group • Resources and services • Online version delivered by underlying system • Not only online version • Unbounded user group Most of work currently focussed here Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  19. Underlying system • Division of content and presentation • Maintainer should need to know nothing about HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, Browser incompatibilities, etc. • Automatic marking up of glossary terms and site structure • Automatic detection and reporting of problems • Thorough documentation • Should be invisible Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  20. Hiding the technology... Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  21. <script language="javascript"> function showMenu( menu_id ) { var mymenu = document.getElementById( "menu" + menu_id + "drop" ); mymenu.style.visibility = 'visible'; } function hideMenu( menu_id ) { var mymenu = document.getElementById( "menu" + menu_id + "drop" ); mymenu.style.visibility = 'hidden'; } var topRefs = [ 'index.html', 'about.html', 'staff.html', 'news.html', 'stakeholders.html', 'links.html', 'documents.html' ]; var menus = [ [ 'Home' ], [ 'About', 'Introduction', 'Aims', 'Objectives', 'Workplans' ], [ 'Staff' ], [ 'News', '9 Aug 04' ], [ 'Stakeholders' ], [ 'Links' ], [ 'Documents', 'AAMH 1.3', 'AAMH 2', 'AAMH 3', 'AAMH 4' ] ]; var menuRefs = [ [ 'index.html' ], [ 'about.html', 'intro.html', 'aims.html', 'objectives.html', 'workplans.html' ], [ 'staff.html' ], [ 'news.html', 'news.html#9aug04' ], [ 'stakeholders.html' ], [ 'links.html' ], [ 'documents.html', 'AAMH1.3.pdf', 'AAMH2.pdf', 'AAMH3.pdf', 'AAMH4.pdf' ] ]; var drops = [ 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0 ]; function writeMenu( menu_num ) { var DOMCapable; if( document.getElementById ) DOMmenu( ); else preDOMmenu( ); } function preDOMmenu( menu_num ) { document.writeln( '<table><tr>' ); for( var i = 0; i < menus.length; i++ ) { document.writeln( '<td valign="top" style="padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px">' ); for( var j = 0; j < menus[i].length; j++ ) { if( j == 0) document.writeln( '<a style="font-size: small" href="' + menuRefs[i][j] + '">' + menus[i][j] + '</a>' ); else document.writeln( '<br/><a style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal"' + 'href="' + menuRefs[i][j] + '">' + menus[i][j] + '</a>' ); } document.writeln( '</td>' ); } document.writeln( '</tr></table>' ); } Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  22. Shmml <menu> <menuitem> <as><address uri=“about.html”>About</as> </menuitem> <menuitem> <as><address uri=“intro.html”>Introduction</as> </menuitem> <menuitem> <as><address uri=“aims.html”>Aims</as> </menuitem> <menuitem> <as><address uri=“objectives.html”>Objectives</as> </menuitem> <menuitem> <as><address uri=“wps.html”>Workplans</as> </menuitem> </menu> Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  23. Shmml Site <shmmlsite> <process menus=“true”> <page src=“home.xml”> <container> <page src=“about.xml”> <page src=“intro.xml”> <page src=“aims.xml”> <page src=“objectives.xml”> <page src=“wps.xml”> </container> . . . </shmmlsite> Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  24. The maintainer’s interface... Shmml Site Editor New page home.xml about.xml Add page aims.xml objectives.xml Home page wps.xml staff.xml Generate menus news.xml links.xml Save Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  25. Web interface • Lifelong learners • adult learners who are motivated and capable of learning new skills, undertaking investigations as a primary goal • Family and local historians and groups • Targeting other groups later on in the project: authors, archaeologists? Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  26. Rapid prototyping • Do not go to users first • ‘Which of the following features do you want?’ • ‘All of them, please.’ • Rapid prototyping • Make educated guess at how the system should be • Rapidly prototype it • Evaluate the prototype with users • Repeat all stages until funded period completed Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  27. Design process... • User centred, rapid prototyping Refine through empirical evidence Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  28. Behaviour model... Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  29. ‘Weakness’ analysis... • Question formation • What makes an interesting/challenging research question? • Identifying archives • Searching and browsing • Interpretation Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  30. Main specification... • Example driven tutorials • Interactive discussion boards • Database of questions and archives • Annotated links • Searchable catalogue • Digitised resources Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  31. Secondary specification • Linking to Ask-a-Librarian • Links/cross searching other catalogues • Links to supporting organisations • Online browsing? • Automatic translation? • Glossary • Events and news server Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  32. Digitisation... • Also identify some SHL holdings useful to life long learners... • Begin a process of digitisation... • Developing digitisation policy... • Exit with some significant digitisation done... • ...and a system for continuing. Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  33. Publicity and dissemination • Project service website • http://cards.shl.lon.ac.uk/aamh/ • Mug shots, etc. Downloadable project documentation. • Raising profile with history groups • We visit them. They visit us. • Collaboration • SLAIS, UCLIC, Co-East, Linking arms, AIM25... • Publications • JCDL05, DSVIS05, ECDL05, Journal of Documentation Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  34. What we have done so far... • Project service website • Shmml, ShmmlSite, Glossary... • Contacts with a local history group and family history group, initial interviews... • Documenting SHL resources Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  35. What we’ll do next... • Christmas 2004 • Prototype tutorials, finish backend system, finish digitisation system • Easter 2005 • Finish tutorials, finish discussion boards, finish annotated links • May 2005 • Finish question/archive database • Rest of project • Evaluate Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

  36. Summary... • Rapid prototyping eliminates some of the problems in part one... • A lot of effort put into designing for sustainability... • Emphasis on broadening the user base forces us to consider library in social context... Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage

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