 Research
in Digital Libraries (RIDL)
Introduction
 IDL conducts research on the design
and use of Digital Libraries. It forms part of the Middlesex University
Interaction Design Centre
(IDC). Digital Libraries offer great potential benefits but are currently
hampered by, among other things, poor usability. Existing libraries provide
the core essential functionality: they serve as structured repositories
of multimedia documents, and documents can be added to and retrieved from
the library. The quality of the interaction depends on such systems also
satisfying various non-functional requirements that relate to usability.
Some of work in RIDL is focusing directly on Digital Libraries, and is
particularly concerned with designing for usability. Other research is
on core computer science, but using Digital Libraries as a challenging
and valuable test domain.
People
The principal local participants working on research in Digital Libraries
are (in alphabetical order):
In addition, the following former members of the group have contributed
to our Digital Library Research:
- Ann Blandford (UCL)
- Norliza Mohd-Nasir
- Yin Leng Theng (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Harold Thimbleby
We are working or have worked with a variety of people and organisations
including the University of Waikato, BT, St Alban's School and Childnet
International and are running a mirror
site for the New Zealand Digital Library.
Digital Library Projects
This study is investigating the usability issues of digital libraries
and the potential for known usability evaluation techniques to identify
those issues. The relationship between the evaluation techniques and the
specific usability issues provides the theoretical foundation for specifying
a suite of usability techniques that designers can use to improve the
usability of digital libraries.
Following the successful pilot study of the
BT Digital Library, this study continues to use that environment to develop
an understanding of the users and developers needs. The strategies of
the expert intermediaries conducting a search utilising multiple iterations
only served to highlight the difficulties faced by less skilled users
who lacked strategies to take up the search refinement tools on offer.
Significant modifications are being made to the usability evaluation methods,
particularly to Claims Analysis, to incorporate an understanding of the
information seeking task. The developers meantime find it difficult to
know how to best support users and to predict the effect of changes made.
The context within which the developers work is providing critical insight
into their needs in relation to evaluation tools. Validating these methods
with our collaborative partners at New Zealand Digital Library, and subsequently
California Digital Library should help to ensure improved usability of
both the interface and the evaluation methods.
This three-year study commenced January 2001. This work is supported by
EPSRC Grant No GR/N37858
Developing Digital Libraries for Small Specialist
Museums
 his project is investigating an approach
to the development of Digital Libraries for small specialist museums in
which the librarian plays a central role in interaction by users with
the library. The key problem to be solved is how to develop the library
with limited resources when the user group is potentially unknown. Richard
Butterworth is working closely with various small museums and libraries
in London.
Cultural Problems with the Library Metaphor
 etaphor is used widely in the design
of computer systems to aid usability. Digital Libraries explicitly use
the Library metaphor. By drawing on the user's knowledge of physical libraries
and the way they work, the intention is that they should find a Digital
Library system more comprehensible and easier to use. However, the Library
metaphor is not shared by all cultures and is alien to some. Elke Duncker,
in collaboration with Waikato University in New Zealand, has investigated
the problems of the Library metaphor for Maoris.
Cultural Aspects of Online Journal Collections
 ournals can be prohibitively expensive
for universities and libraries in developing countries. Online journal
collections have great potential to fill the information gap between the
developed and developing world. Sara Gwyn is investigating cultural issues
with respect to such collections.
Usability Studies of Music Digital Libraries
usic collections could become a killer
application for digital library technology. To achieve their potential
however, interaction design issues must be addressed. Hanna
Stelmaszewska and Ann Blandford (at UCL) are testing a variety of
usability evaluation techniques with respect to the design of musical
Digital Libraries. The work has led to recommendations that are being
incorporated into the design of the New Zealand Digital Library Music
Collection developed at Waikato University. This work is being done partially
at Middlesex and partially at UCLIC.
he focus of this project is to investigate
fundamental design and usability issues underlying digital libraries.
A prototype digital library collection on international children's stories
and poems will be built to understand design issues faced by designers.
Insights gained will be used to draw up a framework for an application
development model to help designers to build user-centred digital libraries.
Yin Leng Theng's project involves collaboration with Noel
Cassidy and his students (St.Albans' School), David
Bainbridge (Waikato), Childnet
International and Edward Fox (Virginia
Tech.).
This project is funded by EPSRC (GR/M72098).
his project, working closely with Middlesex
library and the Archway Healthcare Library, is focusing on change management;
in particular, we are studying the ways in which technological developments
influence social structures, roles and working practices and supporting
technologists in identifying and accommodating user needs.
This project is funded by Middlesex University.
he focus of this project is on extending
and testing an Interaction Framework (IF) that defines requirements on
the interaction between users and computers in an interactive system.
IF provides a way of describing and reasoning about processes within a
multi-agent interaction. It explicitly aims to take a high-level view,
and to draw on more focused approaches (that will yield predictions about,
for example, network performance or user perception) as needed. In this
way, it is designed to integrate user, device and domain considerations.
The aims of the work are to achieve a better understanding of the design
of digital libraries from a usability perspective, to develop IF from
the existing prototype method, and to apply IF in the design of the interface
to a digital library so that its utility can be assessed.
This project is funded by EPSRC (GR/M81748).
his project focuses on an ontological
modelling approach for the meta-data level design of Digital Libraries
of Educational Materials. This is a one-year project bringing together
existing research in the area of pedagogical knolwedge represention, and
working towards the development of an ontology, a prototype Educational
Digital Libray whose meta-level design is based on the ontology, and an
evaluation of the library with both contributors (i.e. curriculum authors
and designers) and users with information retrieval and learning goals
(i.e students).
This project is funded by Middlesex University.
his six month, internally funded project
produced a broad-scoped review of the BT Laboratories digital library
system. The review addressed a range of issues: analysing management expectations
of the library, how those expectations are realised by the design team,
and how the library impacts on the work of its users.
This project is funded by Middlesex University.
Workshops
 e have organised a series of workshops
to provide a forum for meeting and exchanging ideas on the wide spectrum
of digital libraries research and interests. The Middlesex University
one day
workshop on Digital Libraries (July 2000) had the objective of aiding
in establishing inter-departmental links and collaboration between those
with similar digital library interests. We also organised a workshop on
Usability for Digital Libraries at JCDL'02
and a further Middlesex University Digital
Libraries Workshop, 28th June 2002.
Last updated 21st November 2002
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Middlesex University
