Finding aid as interface? Enhancing K-12 access to digitized cultural heritage resources through adaptive systems technology: An exploratory study
✍ Scribed by Howard Besser; Sheila Afnan-Manns; Dale Ann Stieber; Bryan Griest; Dominique Turnbow; Aimée Dorr
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 445 KB
- Volume
- 40
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0044-7870
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
To what extent must diverse users adapt themselves to singular one‐interface systems, and in what ways does this impede access and use? In a perfect world of adaptive systems, backend architecture structuring digital information would be accessible through multiple user interfaces that support the literacy levels, technological capabilities and other characteristics of different user groups. Collaborating with the California Digital Library, usability testing was conducted with 4^th^ and 12^th^ graders to compare the effectiveness of an existing finding aid‐based interface with a newly developed prototype interfaco in retrieving cultural heritage information. Findings inform the growing number of efforts by cultural heritage communities—including libraries, archives, museums, and community organizations—to create broader access to their rich resources through digitization.