A survey of user studies for digital libraries

Digital libraries are on-line collections of heterogeneous information which are usually maintained by some digital librarian. They pose interesting problems for design because of the large amounts of information involved and the difficulty of determining just what users wish to do with such systems. Elsewhere (Bryan-Kinns & Blandford, 2000) we have examined the use of digital libraries in terms of interaction and its properties. Before drawing broader design implications it is important to consider what attempts to understand digital libraries and their use have been undertaken. This issue is addressed in this document. First we discuss surveys of users and potential users of digital libraries – who use, or might use, digital libraries. This then feeds into the next section which considers what kinds of activities these users might get up to. We then go on to consider studies of digital library user interfaces, and possible new designs, there are and what they can tell us about the design of digital libraries. Finally we sum up with a discussion of the varying techniques used to conduct surveys of digital library use and their suitability. Of course, studies of digital libraries cover a combination of these topics – organising the discussion in this way gives us purchase on the different aspects of digital libraries and how they are related.