Alexandria digital library: user evaluation studies and system design

• Published in: Journal of the American Society for Information Science 2000, Vol.51 (3), p.246-259
• Main Authors: Hill, Linda L., Carver, Larry, Larsgaard, Mary, Dolin, Ron, Smith, Terence R., Frew, James, Rae, Mary-Anna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Aerospace Education; Alexandria Digital Library; Computer Interfaces; Computer System Design; Datasets; Design; Digital Data; Digital libraries; Digital systems; Earth Science; Education; Electronic Libraries; Ethnography; Evaluation Methods; Evolution; Feedback; Futures (of Society); Geographic Location; Geographical locations; Geography; Human-computer interaction; Information Management; Information Networks; Information Scientists; Information sources; Libraries; Metadata; Research Libraries; Studies; Systems design; Teaching Methods; User feedback; User groups; User interface; User interfaces; User satisfaction; Users (Information); World Wide Web
• ISSN: 0002-8231; 2330-1635; 1097-4571; 2330-1643
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(2000)51:3<246::AID-ASI4>3.0.CO;2-6

The Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) is one of the six digital library projects funded by NSF, DARPA, and NASA. ADL's collection and services focus on information containing georeferences: maps, images, data sets, text, and other information sources with links to geographic locations. During this study period, three different user interfaces were developed and tested by user groups. User feedback was collected through various formal and informal approaches and the results fed back into the design and implementation cycle. This article describes the evolution of the ADL system and the effect of user evaluation on that evolution. ADL is an ongoing project; user feedback and evaluation plans for the remainder of the project are described.