Web usability tested
In the development of a Web resource, ideally usability testing is an iterative process that is carried out throughout the development of a resource and can be conducted both internally (expert review) and with outside users (user testing).
The second meeting of the JISC Digitisation programme partly focused on Web usability issues and user interaction with digital resources.
Gemma Richardson, from the Cabinet Papers digitisation project, gave an enlightening presentation on the First steps to usability and user centred design. Subsequently, in a hands-on session delegates tested two different methodologies for carrying out an expert review, the Cognitive Walkthrough and the Heuristic Evaluation. Although different, perhaps unsurprisingly the two methodologies unearthed similar problems with the web site being tested.
Claire Warwick’s presentation also provided projects with insightful and practical tips on key features that the ideal digital humanities resource ought to include, based on the findings of the LAIRAH study (Log Analysis of Internet Resources in the Arts and Humanities), which she conducted as part of a team at University College London.
Five Key Issues in Digitisation - JISC Digitisation Conference, 2007
The JISC Digitisation Conference was held at the St David’s Hotel and Conference Centre in Cardiff on 20/21 July 2007. It gathered together some of the leading digitisation projects, funding-bodies, publishers, archives, libraries and many of the key thinkers in the area. There was an international delegate list, drawing in representatives from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the US, Canada and elsewhere.
The full report, including details of all speakers’ presentations, is available to download as a PDF file (303kb).
The aim was to discuss the key issues affecting those engaged in digitisation and draw conclusions about how best to take these issues forward. Numerous topics were proposed, debated and argued over through the course of the two days; below are the five issues which most regularly surfaced during the conference.
Using Sound in Education - Sound Archives User Panel
The Archive Sound Recording Project is developing its user panel, and holding a related event on 11th March 2008. Details below
The British Library’s Archival Sound Recordings (www.bl.uk/sounds) is a JISC funded project to make selected material from the Sound Archive available online to Higher and Further Education institutions. The project will be hosting a User Community event on 11th March at the British Library, St Pancras, for academics and postgraduate students who would like to become more actively involved with the service.
Reflecting the material we are making available, we are looking for specialists in Art and Design, Art History, Media, English, History, Social Sciences, Music, African Studies, Zoology, Political, Religious and Cultural Studies.
User Community members will have the opportunity to influence the direction and development of the project, support the development of case studies, host workshops, give conference papers and work with us to encourage use of the resource in the academic community.
There are two levels of involvement: User Panel members will be asked to attend a small number of meetings and workshop sessions during 2008 and early 2009, and Online Community members are invited to contribute from afar. Due to the large amount of interest that has been shown in the User Panel, we may have to be selective regarding membership of the Panel itself. Contributions by members of the Online Community are equally valuable to the project, as ultimately the community engaging with the website will be entirely online.
If you are interested in attending the event please send me an email (ginevra.house AT bl.uk) with a short CV or a link to your web-page. Places are limited, and we may have to select attendees to ensure an even spread of academic disciplines and geographical area.
Ginevra House
Engagement Officer
Archival Sound Recordings Project
British Library
The scale of digitisation
The JISC’s Digitisation Advisory Group met at the British Film Institute (BFI) Archives in Berkhamsted, north of London.
The BFI leads the JISC’s InView project, which is digitising 600 hours of unique moving image materials from their collection.
However, as a tour organised by senior preservation manager Andrea Kalas demonstrated such digitisation is just scratching the surface of the material available to digitise.
Thousands and thousands of reels covered the walls of the air-conditioned chambers at the archives.
Of course the work is not just about access but preservation as well, as is now well documented plenty of film material is at risk, especially the self-inflammatory nitrate
based films.
To add to the difficulty, machines need to be maintained which can read and therefore convert to digital form the original media for the film. The archives are awash with machines to undertake these tasks.
