A Tale of Two Levels: Analyzing the Discoverability and Impact of Item-Level Description in EAD Finding Aids

Daybell, Paul; Payant, Andrea; Woolcott, Liz; Skeen, Becky; Arnljots, Anna-Marie; Meyer, Kurt H.

doi:10.1080/15332748.2022.2089321

Cited by 2 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Keyword searching is common among both scholars and archivists, this resonates with earlier findings of archival search strategies (Elena et al, 2010;Allison-Bunnell et al, 2011;Chassanoff, 2018). In line with previous research the use of names of persons (Choi and Rasmussen, 2003;Hamburger, 2004;Duff and Johnson, 2003;Elena et al, 2010;Daybell et al, 2021;Late and Kumpulainen, 2021) and places (Choi and Rasmussen, 2003;Elena et al, 2010;Late and Kumpulainen, 2021) as search terms are common. This is due to partly their knowledge about what strategies work best for searching the collections and partly to their actual information needs.…”

Section: Interview Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Findings include that users prefer keyword searching over browsing, they wish for online access to material and functionality to resemble their on-site experience, and they want more descriptive metadata to select items in the collection, in particular metadata on geography, scope/content, subject, date, copyright and type/genre (Allison-Bunnell et al, 2011). Daybell et al (2021) analysed search terms used to query five different archives' finding aids to investigate how the level of item description influenced findability. The analysis revealed that "terms used by patrons were primarily personal names" (Daybell et al, 2021, p. 113).…”

Section: Who Are the Users Of Cultural Heritage Archives?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With respect to search strategies used in archives, the preference of users to use personal and organizational name as search terms is found in many studies (Duff and Johnson, 2003;Hamburger, 2004;Daybell et al, 2021). Daniels and Yakel (2010) conducted an experimental study giving participants search tasks designed to assess the effect of different types of archival knowledge, tasks aiming for either recall or precision, and performed in two different archival databases.…”

Section: Who Are the Users Of Cultural Heritage Archives?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As seen in our review of previous research names of places and persons (e.g. Elena et al, 2010;Daybell et al, 2021;Late and Kumpulainen, 2021) as well as time periods (Choi and Rasmussen, 2003;Elena et al, 2010;Late and Kumpulainen, 2021) are often sought after in archives. Our respondents' information needs thus can be used to exemplify typical information needs of academic archive users.…”

Section: Information Searchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daybell et al. (2021) analysed search terms used to query five different archives’ finding aids to investigate how the level of item description influenced findability.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information searching in cultural heritage archives: a user study

Borlund,

Pharo,

Liu

2024

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PurposeThe PICCH research project contributes to opening a dialogue between cultural heritage archives and users. Hence, the users are identified and their information needs, the search strategies they apply and the search challenges they experience are uncovered.Design/methodology/approachA combination of questionnaires and interviews is used for collection of data. Questionnaire data were collected from users of three different audiovisual archives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two user groups: (1) scholars searching information for research projects and (2) archivists who perform their own scholarly work and search information on behalf of others.FindingsThe questionnaire results show that the archive users mainly have an academic background. Hence, scholars and archivists constitute the target group for in-depth interviews. The interviews reveal that their information needs are multi-faceted and match the information need typology by Ingwersen. The scholars mainly apply collection-specific search strategies but have in common primarily doing keyword searching, which they typically plan in advance. The archivists do less planning owing to their knowledge of the collections. All interviewees demonstrate domain knowledge, archival intelligence and artefactual literacy in their use and mastering of the archives. The search challenges they experience can be characterised as search system complexity challenges, material challenges and metadata challenges.Originality/valueThe paper provides a rare insight into the complexity of the search situation of cultural heritage archives, and the users’ multi-facetted information needs and hence contributes to the dialogue between the archives and the users.

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Section: Interview Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Who Are the Users Of Cultural Heritage Archives?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Who Are the Users Of Cultural Heritage Archives?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Information Searchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daybell et al. (2021) analysed search terms used to query five different archives’ finding aids to investigate how the level of item description influenced findability.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations