This landmark text captures a global cross-section of leading voices and provides a clear and coherent overview of the user studies domain and user issues in digital libraries. As the information environment becomes increasingly electronic, digital libraries have proliferated, but the focus has often been on innovations in technology and not the user. Although user needs have become a popular concept, in practice the users are rarely consulted in the development of services. Research and analysis of users is essential to fine-tune the content and approach of digital libraries to the diverging requirements and expectations of incredibly varied communities and to ensure libraries are effective, accessible and sustainable in the long term. Key topics include: • what is the place of user studies in digital libraries and what are the basic user study methods? • explaining user-centric studies, information behaviour and user experience studies • exploring user-study methods such as surveys, questionnaires, expert evaluation methods, eye tracking, deep log analysis, personae and ethnographic studies • critical issues around user studies such as evaluation of digital libraries, digital preservation, social media, the shift to mobile devices and ethics • user studies in specific types of institutions: libraries, archives, museums, audiovisual collections and art collections • the most popular questions and what to do next. Readership: Information professionals involved in supporting, developing or designing digital library services, researchers wanting to address the user dimension in their work and students on LIS and computer science courses who want to understand the importance of the user in information services.

"This book is an in-depth collection aimed at developers and scholars of research articles from the expanding field of digital libraries"--Provided by publisher.

An international cadre of leading thinkers and experimenters provide their considered opinions concerning the influence of digital technology on teaching and learning in general, and the role of the library in the educational enterprise in particular. Topic treatments include envisioning the future, facing major challenges, creating projects and programs, and developing digital libraries. A must-read for anyone involved in higher education. The Kanazawa Institute of Technology is Japan's largest institution of higher education specializing in engineering and technology. It is a world leader and collaborator in electronic initiatives, often on the forefront of systems design and telecommunications advancement. It is also the site of an annual symposium series on digital library development. Marcum and George have pulled together an international cadre of leading thinkers and experimenters, all of whom have participated in these symposia, to provide their considered opinions concerning the influence of digital technology on teaching and learning in general, and the role of the library in the educational enterprise in particular. Their contributions have, in turn, been arranged into four thematic groupings, which range from envisioning the future, and facing major challenges, to creating projects and programs, and developing digital libraries. An informative read for anyone involved in higher education.

An authoritative and truly global exploration of current research in digital libraries. Internationally-renowned academics discuss what has been achieved with digital libraries and what we can expect in the future through the prism of research. The increasing number of digital libraries in all sectors and the pressure of ever demanding and diverse user needs has encouraged development of user-centred interfaces, intelligent search and retrieval capabilities, effective metadata description and contents organization. In addition to the two editors who are renowned for their works in digital library research, this collection brings together established international names in the field to analyse these developments in relation to users and information access and the future trends and challenges that practitioners will face. Readership: LIS students, academics and researchers interested in digital libraries and access and those developing, managing or just starting out with digital libraries

Viewing digital libraries as sociotechnical systems, networks of people and technology interacting with society.

Initiatives at a cross-cultural level, where libraries, museums and archives work together in creating digital libraries, and making their cultural heritage collections available online, are emerging. Leading academic researchers from the cultural heritage and the publishers sectors approach this issue: Digital library user experience: a focus on current user research; Digital library content: what users want and how they use it; Strategies for institutions: how cultural institutions and publishers respond to the digital challenge.

Evaluation of Digital Libraries summarizes research and practice on both sides of the Atlantic and aims to answer the potential questions that both the theoretical and practical areas of digital library evaluation have posed during recent years. The book systematically presents aspects of participating communities, reasons and aims of evaluation, methodologies and metrics, and application paradigms. The book deals with practical and theoretical issues on digital libraries development and evaluation It will be multi-disciplinary due to its nature incorporating views and perspectives of various contributing fields Distinguished digital library researchers and practitioners present systematically methods, techniques and practices. The list of contributors include Maristella Agosti, David Bainbridge, Ann Blandford, Colleen Cook, Nicola Ferro, Brinley Franklin, Manolis Garoufallou, Sarah Giersch, Richard Hartley, Judy Jeng, Michael Khoo, Martha Kyrillidou, Yvonna Lincoln, David McArthur, Maria Monopoli, David Nicholas, Christos Papatheodorou, Terry Plum, Tefko Saracevic, Rania Siatri, Yin Leng Theng, Giannis Tsakonas and Lee Zia