The Collection in a New Light – Towards Visual Exploration and Navigation of Academic Library Resources

Abstract

The current experience of using digital libraries is bereft of many of the distinct qualities of exploring and handling items in the physical library space. The main question addressed in this paper is how to bridge the gap between the highly visual experience of browsing physical libraries, and the comparatively impoverished digital library environments. Creating effective applications integrating digital content in physical library spaces requires careful strategies with respect to user experience, content selection, and connections to real-world collections and events. We show collection-centric, event-centric and integrative approaches to creating touch-based applications, and demonstrate how usage data from touch applications can be used for optimization, as well as for inspiration for new applications.