Kacy Helwick
LIS 7410: Homework 1
Case Study: USC Digital Library [link]
Background
In the late 1990s, USC merged its campus technology operations with their libraries
and formed the now defunct USC Information Services Division (ISD). One goal of
the ISD was into be innovative in the face of the rapid increase in the use of
developing technologies. With this in mind, the Center for Scholarly Technology
created the USC Digital Archive, which is now called the USC Digital Library (Quinlan
& McHarg, 2012).
USCDL contains forty-two different digitized collections (with a variety of sub
collections) that span a wide range of visual media. The major emphasis of the
library’s collection is related to the geographical area of Southern California, but
there are also collected items archived from all over the world. The archive is
comprised of “digital images of drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps,
photographs, posters, prints, rare illustrated books, as well as audio and video
recordings” (“About: USC digital,” 2014).
USCDL has also collaborated with other institutions to make archival materials more
widely accessible. In 2007, USCLD received a grant from the Getty Foundation to
consolidate two repositories of historical missionary photographs to create the
Basel Mission Image Archive (Miller, 2007). Further grants from the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities saw this project
expand into the International Mission Photography Archive, which includes 65,000
images collected from eleven different institutions (“About: International Mission,”
2014). In another example of its commitment to accessibility, in 2013 USCDL
became the first digital library in California to become a content hub for the Digital
Public Library of America, contributing more than 250,000 items (USC Libraries,
2013).
Interface Design
On the main page (Fig. 1), there are three distinct areas. At the top is a header with a
simple navigation bar (leading to “Home”, “Collections”, and “About”) and a simple
free text search box. The background of this area features an image from the various
collections that changes as the page is refreshed or revisited, and there is always a
link to learn more about that featured image. Further down the main page, the page
is split into two columns. The left hand column contains “News & Features” that lead
to featured image collections. It seems that they add a new feature monthly at the
very most, since the six that are currently on the page were created between August
and December of 2013. The right hand column includes scholarly interpretations of
USCDL’s historical image collections and recent posts on the library’s various social
media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, and Pintrest). It is a standard look for a library
interface, intuitive to use, with the only particularly interesting feature being the
changing background image, providing a chance element of discovery.
When one delves further into interface it changes. The background image and
columns make way for a clean and simple space when the user clicks the
“Collections” tab (Fig. 2). When one chooses a collection, the navigation bar expands
to include an option to “Browse this collection” (Fig. 3). Each collection has a page
that explains the topics and types of materials that will be found in that collection
and there is a column that features “recent additions” to the collection. There is also
an option to subscribe to a RSS feed that will update frequent researchers when new
materials are added to the specific collection.
System Infrastructure
According to Geneva Henry (2012), there are five areas to look at when considering
the digital infrastructure of large digital libraries: storage and content delivery,
metadata approaches and harvesting, search and discovery, services and
applications, and system sustainability. Though it would be preferable to analyze all
five of these areas with regard to USCDL, the information needed to do this is not
readily available to the public. However, it is possible to talk about the metadata
(briefly) and the search and discovery, as well as the image standards.
Metadata
USCLD uses a standard XML schema, and describes the materials using the Dublin
Core field set. Library of Congress subject headings are used for the subjects, and the
formats are recorded according to AARC2 standards.
Search and Discovery/Browsing
As mentioned earlier, the general header of the USCDL interface includes a free-text
search box towards the top of every webpage. The advanced search option is highly
customizable to the user. The user can search within one specific collection or add
more of the collections. There are options to find “all of the words”, “any of the
words”, “the exact phrase”, or “none of the words” in 19 different fields. The user
can search in one field or add additional fields using either the Boolean “AND” or
“OR”. Controlled vocabulary is used in some of the fields, like the subject field that
uses LCSH, but not in all of them. There is also an option to search by a date (before,
after, or on) or date range.
When browsing a collection or going through search results, there are options to
narrow down searches by format, subject, creator, geography, etc. Occasionally,
when there are related images to the one chosen, like taken by the same
photographer, there is a sidebar linking to those images. However, this is not true of
all collections.
When browsing a complete collection, there are two options for the display. One is
to see a larger thumbnail image with a title and the other is a smaller thumbnail
with more information, like the date created and description. The second option,
which gives more information initially, seems like a better option, but there are
many collections that do not have descriptions included or that have descriptions
that are duplicated exactly from the title.
Image Standards
USCDL materials have minimum quality guidelines. All original digital photographs
will be in TIFF format, with the largest possible average spatial resolution.
Derivative formats of images files that are created during the archiving process
(thumbnails and quick view images in particular) may use a lossy JPEG format (USC
Digital Library, 2009).
Strengths and Weaknesses
The sheer size of this digital library is both a strength and a weakness. There are
currently 42 separate collections with various sub collections. Some of the
collections have nearly 65,000 items, while others contain 60-70. It would be easy
for a user to feel overwhelmed at the possibilities found in the larger collections,
and to be disappointed in the scope of materials found in others. But the skilled
researcher would overcome that weakness.
Even considering the size of the current collection, a major strength is that it
continues to grow. USCDL only represents a fraction of the visual collection found in
USC Libraries. There are standards in place for users and staff to propose new
projects to digitize research materials and selection criteria for the Selection
Advisory Committee.
The design of the interface is simple and easy to use for all levels of researchers. The
complexity of the search function is variable. However, the ability to find related
items to a known item is inconsistent. For each item, there is an extensive
description that is filled with links. Unfortunately, in many cases the link will lead to
searching that individual word instead of the entire field. In Fig. 4, there is a
“Geographic subject” field that indicates this picture was from West Hollywood, but
to the clicking the red linked words will lead to a geographic field search of just the
word “West” or just the word “Hollywood”. Clicking in the “Photographer” field
leads to a search of all photographers with the name “Vaughn” or “Taylor”, not both.
Comparisons
USCDL is a part of a university library system. To find comparable libraries, I looked
at other academic digital libraries primarily in California and then around the rest of
the country.
Stanford University and UC Berkeley had smaller collections in general. Stanford’s
advanced search option only offered five searchable fields and the descriptors did
not lead to links. UC Berkeley had no ability to browse images, and the search
function was not intuitive.
UCLA was comparable in the size of its collection, perhaps it was even larger, but the
infrastructure was weaker. The site took a long time to load, and even crashed while
trying to access an art collection. There was no option to browse thumbnails of
images; the user has to browse subjects within a collection. The subjects are then so
narrow that some bring up only one image.
The University of Miami Libraries, Cuban Heritage Collection had a very similar
interface to USCDL. The browsing and searching functions were exactly the same.
Items had less detailed descriptions, fewer fields entered, but it did not have the
problem of breaking up links into separate words. Tulane University Digital Library
(TUDL) also had the similar interface and fewer description fields than USCDL.
TUDL’s website referred to it being powered by CONTENTdm ®. It is possible that
the same company was used for USCDL’s interface, but it is not listed anywhere on
the CONTENTdm ® list of collections or USCDL site.
Conclusion
There are a few factors that determine if a library, be it digital or analog, can be
considered a success. Is it useful, usable, and accessible? In the case of USCDL, I
would answer yes to all three of these. The collections are varied enough and
extensive enough to be useful to a variety of people. It is intuitive to use, and much
easier to browse than some of its contemporaries. It either uses software that is a
standard in the field or comparable to a standard, so that makes it even easier to use
for the researchers who use multiple libraries. And finally, by becoming a content
hub for the Digital Public Library of America, USCDL has made its collections
accessible far beyond the faculty, students, and staff of USC.
Fig. 1: Main page of USCDL
Fig. 2: Collections
Fig. 3: About this collection
Fig. 4: Float in pride parade
Works Cited
About: International Mission Photography Archive. (2014). Retrieved from
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/about/collection/p15799coll123.
About: USC digital library. (2014). Retrieved from
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/about.
Henry, Geneva. (2012). Core infrastructure considerations for large digital libraries.
Digital Library Federation. Council on Library and Information Resources.
Miller, J. (2007). Major Consolidation of Digital Missionary Photo Archives.
International Bulletin Of Missionary Research, 31(4), 190-191.
Quinlan, C., & McHarg, H. (2012). The Emerging Library: Structure, Culture, and
Lessons Learned from the Dissolution of a Combined Libraries–IT
Organization. Journal Of Library Administration, 52(2), 147-161.
doi:10.1080/01930826.2012.656483
USC Digital Library. File formats and image resolutions. (2009). Retrieved from
http://www.usc.edu/libraries/collections/digitallibrary/documents/USCDL
_Formats_and_Resolutions.pdf
USC LIBRARIES JOIN DPLA AS CONTENT HUB. (2013). Advanced Technology
Libraries, 42(10), 2-3.