user engagement with digital archives: a case study of emblematica online
DESCRIPTION
A presentation on my user study of Emblematica Online given at the 2014 DLF Forum.TRANSCRIPT
User Engagement with Digital Archives: A Case Study of
Emblematica Online
Harriett Green, Timothy Cole, MJ Han, and Mara
WadeUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DLF Forum 2014
The Tool: Emblematica Online
What is an Emblem?
Motto
Pictura
Subscriptio
Peter Isselburg, Emblemata Politica, 1617http://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OCA/
Books2009-10/emblematapolitic00isel/
Emblematica Online
• Currently funded by NEH Humanities Collections & Reference Resources grant
• Began with Illinois and HAB Wolfenbüttel digital collections expanded to Glasgow, Utrecht, Duke, and Getty Institute collections
http://emblematica.library.illinois.edu
Joseph Mayer, Vortrefflich-Hoch-Adeliches Controfeé, http://hdl.handle.net/10111/EmblemRegistry:E001002
Why User Assessment?
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
User Engagement Study
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
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
What did the users say?
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
Teaching
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
Research
Research
• Access to archival materials from around the world
• Helps to cultivate language skills• Interdisciplinary material for art,
literary studies, history, cultural studies, etc.
Functionalities
Suggested Functionalities
• Indicate editions of the volumes• Enable annotations• More intuitive search interface• Improve IconClass metadata
navigation• Add historical essays for context
Impact on Field
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
To Come
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
http://emblematica.library.illinois.edu
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
Thank you!
Harriett GreenEnglish and Digital Humanities
LibrarianUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
[email protected]: @greenharr