Digital Access In Context:
Mass Digitization of
Manuscript Collections
Jody L. DeRidder
University of Alabama Libraries
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jlderidder@ua.edu
Page 1
Libraries organize information…
primarily books.
Trinity College Library, Dublin, as captured by Candida Höfer in
her book Libraries (Thames and Hudson ,UK: 2005).
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A digital object may belong in MANY
potential virtual collections…
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Slavery
African Americans
Sheet Music
Tombigbee River
Southern History
… and more
“Gum Tree Canoe,”
Published by G.P.
Reed (Boston: 1847).
Wade Hall collection of
Southern History and
Culture, Hoole Special
Collections, University
of Alabama Libraries.
… but it originated from
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ONE SINGLE
ANALOG collection.
Page 3
HOLDER
ID
COLLECTION
ID
Free
Powerpoint
u0003_0001980_0000001 is the
first
digitizedTemplates
item in the MSS 1980 collection
Page 4
Bringing Order to Chaos
Holder ID: u0003
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Clarity
Collection ID: 0000023
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Low cost
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Simple
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Extensible
Item ID: 0000007
Sequence ID: 0005
Archival File:
u0003_0000023_0000007_0005.tif
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Finding Aid
for Search
& Context
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The Information at Hand
For All Content:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rights statements
Repository information
Collection name
Collection number
For Each Item:
URL to collection
Language
• Box number
OCLC code
• Folder number
Knowledge of digital origin
• Item sequence
Awareness of electronic form • Extent
• Item identifier
• MIME type
• URL to item
• Record creation date
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Record Stubs
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Box, Folder, Sequence
…all in the file names
Example: u0003_0000252_4701004_0001.tif
u0003
u = university content
0003 = manuscript materials
0000252 = MS 252
4701004
47 = Box 47
01 = Folder 1
004 = item 4 in sequence
0001 = first page of
document
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Page 9
Delivery Via
Finding Aid
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Page 10
Automated… All The
Way
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Quality Control
File movement
Generation of derivatives
Generation of MODS
Linking into EAD
Transfer to web directory and archive
Indexing and display in Acumen
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How long does it take?
Old method: 8.25 min. / scan
New method: 4.34 min. / scan
Processing: reduced.
QC: reduced.
Metadata time: none.
47% LESS TIME!
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What does it cost?
Old method: $2.47 /scan
New method: $0.80 /scan
Processing: reduced.
QC: reduced.
Metadata costs: none.
68% CHEAPER!!
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Page 13
Usability Testing: Tasks
1:
2:
3:
4:
Locate a piece of legal correspondence.
Locate an estate document.
Locate some kind of deed.
Locate a family history document or some
other family item.
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Usability Testing: Measures
Efficiency:
Time on task, number of clicks
Effectiveness:
Successful task completion
Satisfaction:
Ranking of perceived difficulty and
positive vs. negative comments
Learnability:
Improvement in time, clicks, and
success over 4 tasks in a single session
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Usability Testing: Participants
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 11 12 13 14 15 16
Participant
Number
G G U G G G S G U G U U U U U
Educational
Status*
X
X
X
Educational
Background in
History
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Previous Special X X
Collections
Experience
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Previous Digital
Collections
Experience
X
X
X
X
English as a
Second Language
* U=Undergraduate, G=Graduate Student,
PG=Post graduate volunteer, S=University staff
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17
18
19
20
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U
P
G
G
G
G
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
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Results: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Satisfaction
of item-level described content,
compared to finding aid access:
Efficiency:
35% less time, 48% fewer clicks
Not surprising: finding aid provides more context.
Effectiveness:
Success rates 7.5% higher
Not surprising: no search-in-page function
or navigation box.
Satisfaction:
Preferred by a ratio of 3:1
Not surprising: these are novice users.
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Notable Comparison Between Participants
English as a second language
Difficulty with both interfaces!
• 51% more time and 10% less success in the itemlevel interface
• 41% more time and 13% less success in the finding
aid interface
• 80% preferred the item-level interface
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Notable Comparison Between Participants
No previous experience with digital
collections:
Found finding aid interface
significantly easier
than those with digital collection
experience!
•
•
•
42% less time
27% fewer clicks
12% more success
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Page 19
Results: Learnability
Paired-sample t- test comparing task 1 to task 4:
Paired Differences
95% Confidence Interval of
Mean
Pair 1
FirstClickJem1 -
Std.
Std. Error
Deviation
Mean
the Difference
Lower
Sig. (2-
Upper
t
tailed)
df
-.39286
3.30605
.88358
-2.30171
1.51600
-.445
13
.664
.00000
2.44949
.65465
-1.41429
1.41429
.000
13
1.000
.714
2.813
.752
-.910
2.338
.950
13
.359
-1.071
8.713
2.329
-6.102
3.959
-.460
13
.653
2.143
13.061
3.491
-5.398
9.684
.614
13
.550
5.786
44.295
11.838
-19.789
31.361
.489
13
.633
-.14286
.53452
.14286
-.45148
.16577
-1.000
13
.336
FirstClickJem4
Pair 2
FirstClickCab1 -
FirstClickCab4
Pair 3
TotClickJem1 TotClickJem4
Pair 4
TotClickCab1 TotClickCab4
Pair 5
TotTimeJem1 TotTimeJem4
Pair 6
TotTimeCab1 TotTimeCab4
Pair 8
EffectCab1 EffectCab4
No significant differences
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Page 20
Conclusions
Don’t compare item level access to
finding aid access;
they aren’t comparable.
Find ways to make the EAD more
user-friendly.
Certain images and/or photos on this page are the copyrighted property of 123RF Limited, its Contributors or
Licensed Partners and are being used with permission under license. These images and/or photos may not be
copied or downloaded without permission from 123RF Limited.
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Page 21
References
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Joyce Celeste Chapman, “Observing Users: An Empirical Analysis of User
Interaction with Online Finding Aids,” Journal of Archival Organization 8, no. 1
(2010) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332748.2010.484361
Cory Nimer and J. Gordon Daines III, “What Do You Mean It Doesn’t Make
Sense? Redesigning Finding Aids from the User’s Perspective,” Journal of
Archival Organization 6, no. 4 (2008),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332740802533214
Wendy Scheir, “First Entry: Report on a Qualitative Exploratory Study of Novice
User Experience with Online Finding Aids,” Journal of Archival Organization 3,
no. 4 (2006), http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J201v03n04_04
Tom Tullis and Bill Albert, Measuring the User Expereience: Collecting,
Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics (Burlington, MA: Morgan
Kaufmann, 2008, 92-94.
Tim West, Kirill Fesenko, and Laura Clark Brown, “Extending the Reach of
Southern Sources: Proceeding to Large-Scale Digitization of Manuscript
Collections,” Final Grant Report for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
Southern Historical Collection, University Library, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, June 2009,
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/archivalmassdigitization/download/extending_the_r
each.pdf
Elizabeth Yakel, “Encoded Archival Description: Are Finding Aids Boundary
Spanners or Barriers for Users?” Journal of Archival Organization 2, no. 1 & 2
(2004), http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J201v02n01_06.
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Page 22
For More Information:
• University of Alabama Libraries, “Septimus D. Cabaniss
Papers Digitization Project.”
 Project Site:
http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/cabaniss
 Wiki: http://www.lib.ua.edu/wiki/digcoll/index.php/Cabaniss
 Display: http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0003_0000252
• Jody L. DeRidder, “Leveraging EAD for Low-Cost Access to
Digitized Collections at the University of Alabama Libraries,”
Journal of Library Innovation, 2:1 (2011),
http://www.libraryinnovation.org/article/view/69
• DeRidder, Jody L.; Presnell, Amanda Axley; and Walker,
Kevin W. "Leveraging Encoded Archival Descriptions for
Access to Digital Content: A Cost and Usability Analysis," in
• American Archivist (Spring/Summer 2012), Vol. 75, Iss. 1.
• .
Jody L. DeRidder
UniversityFree
of Alabama
Libraries
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Templates
Page 23
jlderidder@ua.edu