DAIAD Annual Report (2001-2002)

DAIAD spent its first few months doing an informal but extensive needs assessment in the Libraries to determine what sorts of digital services are needed.

We articulated a mission statement:

To enhance the usability of digital library services and collections by exploring, creating, maintaining, and improving frameworks for the University of Notre Dame community

Along with this statement three goals were articulated: 1) to improve the usability of the Libraries' website, 2) to maintain existing digital library services and collections, and 3) to be good communicators.

The Department followed the internal assessment by conducting nine focus group interviews of the University community. Based on the internal needs assessment and external focus group interviews, the Department articulated four projects for itself: 1) create, implement, and maintain a database-driven website, 2) re-create the Libraries Web Team, 3) put into practice the principles of user-centered design, and 4) create, implement, and maintain a current awareness service.

Library goals and projects

Without a doubt, the Department is able to say it has contributed to the goals of the Libraries by developing collections, making desktop access to electronic information a primary mode of delivery, and extending our ability to provide access to information via cooperative endeavors. For example, the Electronic Theses and Dissertations and the Acme Digital Books projects develop collections. The OSSNLibraries Portal was a cooperative endeavor. All of the projects reinforce networked access to computers. Each of the items below briefly describe these activities:

• OSSNLibraries Portal - a directory of open source software
• EJournal Locator - a system for finding full-text versions of articles
• Acme Digital Books - an exploration into providing access to books in PDF format
• Information Architecture Summit - attendance and participation in a professional conference
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations - implementation of a system for making available graduate student materials
• Clavius Project - an exploration into making available the content of a historically significant mathematician
• Gateway creation - a process for creating lists of licenced materials based on the content of bibliographic records
• Content management - investigations into the feasibility of using a content management system for creating Web pages
• ClioWeb - an application allowing patrons to determine the status of their interlibrary loan requests

Discussion

The balance of this text describes the activities of the Department in greater detail.

The Digital Access and Information Architecture Department is a new department of the Information Systems and Digital Access division of the Libraries. It was formed in the Summer of 2001.

The number of people in the Department has been in flux since its inception. In the Summer of 2001, the Department was formed, staffed by three people: Donna Stevenson (Head), Elaine Savely (Web Developer), and Tom Lehman (Digital Access Librarian). In early September Eric Lease Morgan became the Head of the Department and Donna Stevenson became a Digital Access Librarian. In January the Department traded Stevenson's position for a vacant half-time position with the Library Systems Department, thus creating a vacant full-time position in DAIAD. This full-time vacant position has been reclassified as a programmer position, and the Department is now in the process of recruiting applicants for this vacancy.

The Department has accomplished a number of tasks since its inception, and it is well on its way to providing useful services for the Libraries and University community. These task are listed below in chronological order:

• Internal needs assessment (September through December) - The Department spent much of its time in 2001 doing an internal needs assessment of the Libraries. By systematically visiting as many individuals and departments across the Libraries as possible and by asking people what they thought the Department should be doing, the Department was able to articulate four needs/desires of the Libraries personnel. They are listed no apparent order below:
  1. Statistics - Personnel wanted to get a better idea of what Internet-based resources where being used and by whom.
  2. Web pages - Personnel expressed frustration with the ways Web pages where created and maintained, and they wanted the Department to assist in a process to make things easier.
  3. Office automation - Personnel believed the Department could help increase productivity by creating and maintaining various office automation applications.
  4. What's new? - Personnel expressed an interest in learning about new technologies, but not every one under the Sun. Instead, they desired the Department to explore these new technologies and communicate these findings to the Libraries.
• OSSNLibraries Portal (October through January) - Working with the Digital Library Federation, the Department helped created a Web-based application implementing a webliography as well as directory of open source software in libraries. The project was always intended to be prototypical in nature and it provided a means for the Department to learn about the processes of creating database-driven Web services.
• Serials Solutions (November through May) - Working with a number of other library staff, the Department implemented a system for identifying aggregators and/or journal packages where specific article citations could be found. This system was based on data bought from Serials Solutions and it has been named the e-Journal Locator.
• Mapping policy and Gateway creation (November through May) - Relying heavily on the effort of the Digital Access Librarian, this ongoing project first articulated a policy for cataloging electronic resources in bibliographic records and then automating the creation of the Libraries Electronic Resource Gateway from those records. This process requires the cooperation of many library departments and their concentrated efforts in order to make the process as seamless as possible.
• Mission statement (December) - Based on the results of the needs assessment, the Department articulated a mission statement, specifically, "To enhance the usability of digital library services and collections by exploring, creating, maintaining, and improving frameworks for the University of Notre Dame community." Along with this statement were three goals: 1) to improve the usability of the Libraries' website, 2) to maintain existing digital library services and collections, and 3) to be good communicators.
• Focus group interviews (January through April) - In order to gain a better understanding of the digital library needs and desires of the University community (students, faculty, and staff), the Department conducted a set of focus group interviews. Nine interviews were conducted allowing the Department to hear the ideas of about seventy people. Through these interviews the Department was able to list the most pressing digital access issues faced by the library's users:
  1. Digital information is hard to find in the Libraries - Patrons expressed frustration because there were too many search engines to select from, each one was different, they require special knowledge in order to be used correctly, and the interfaces were confusing.
  2. Access to information hard to obtain - Once items of interest were identified, patrons found it difficult to actually get the items. There were too many impediments including multiple indexes to consult, print-only versions of the document, and/or physical limitations.
  3. Communication can be improved - Patrons wanted to know things like the status of their interlibrary loan requests and books they had checked out. They wanted to know the name of a specialist to whom they could ask questions. They also expressed a desire for services the Libraries already supplies. All of these issues were classified as communication issues.

  Based on this input, the Department has articulated a plan to address these issues as well as the issues brought to bear by the needs assessment:

  1. Create and maintain a database-driven website with an optional customizable front-end - A solution such as this one will minimize the amount of knowledge of HTML needed by librarians in order to communicate via the Web. It will also provide the means for enhanced statistics gathering. This solution will also provide a means for patrons to limit and focus the information displayed to them from the library's website.
  2. Practice user-centered design - By putting into practice the principles of user-centered design and information architecture, the Libraries will be better able to hear and learn about the future digital library needs/desires of the University community.
  3. Re-establish the Web Team - In the past the Libraries Web Team helped set the direction of the library's website. By re-creating the Web Team but enhancing it to include at least 51% students, faculty, and staff, and no more than 49% library personnel, the Department will be better able to provide Web-based services for the library's primary audience.
  4. Implement current awareness service - By creating a current awareness service for the University community, the Libraries will make items in its collection easier to find, more accessible, and facilitate communication between the Libraries and its patrons.
• Acme Digital Books (January through May) - Working with the Preservation Librarian, the Department hosted a number of digitized books in Portable Document Format on its Web server. The bibliographic records describing these items are then being supplemented with Universal Resource Locators by the Cataloging Department in an effort to determine whether or not digitized books in this format can become more accessible as well as useful.
• Information Architecture Summit (February) - The Department attended the 3rd Annual Information Architecture Summit in Baltimore, MD in an effort to learn more about the definition and best practices of information architecture. The Summit confirmed and re-enforced many of the things the Department already knew, but it also pointed to things the Department should explore in greater detail.
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (February through May) - Working closely with the Cataloging Department and the University's Graduate School, the Department has all but completed implementing the Electronic Theses and Dissertations system promoted by Virginia Tech. This system allows graduate students to make their theses and dissertations available in digital form thus increasing visibility and access.
• Clavius Project (February through May) - Led by the Mathematics Department Librarian, this small project is an effort to make more available and accessible the collected works of Clavius -- a historically significant mathematics scholar.
• Content management (April through May) - Working with the Web Management department of the University, the Department is exploring the feasibility of using a content management system for the creation of Web pages. In exchange for the ability to "get in on the ground floor", the Libraries is offering its knowledge of meta data (classification) techniques to Web Management.
• ClioWeb - (April through May) - ClioWeb is a Web-based application allowing patrons to view the status of their interlibrary loan requests. The Department is working with the Document Delivery Department to host the hardware and software necessary to provided this service. This entails the purchase of new hardware that will be available 24/7 as well as personnel who will be on call in the event of technical problems after normal business hours.

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Date created: 2002-07-03
Date updated: 2002-07-03
URL: http://www.library.nd.edu/daiad/annual-report-2001/