This website is no longer being maintained as of June 2010.
For current DLF information please go to: www.diglib.org
random library quotation Link: Publications Forum Link: About DLF Link: News
Link: Digital Collections Link: Digital Production Link: Digital Preservation Link: Use, users, and user support Link: Build: Digital Library Architectures, Systems, and Tools
photo of books

DLF PARTNERS

  1. Bibliotheca Alexandrina
  2. British Library
  3. California Digital Library
  4. Carnegie Mellon University
  5. Columbia University
  6. Cornell University
  7. Council on Library and Information Resources
  8. Dartmouth College
  9. Emory University
  10. Harvard University
  11. Indiana University
  12. Johns Hopkins University
  13. Library of Congress
  14. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  15. New York Public Library
  16. New York University
  17. North Carolina State University
  18. Oxford University
  19. Pennsylvania State University
  20. Princeton University
  21. Rice University
  22. Stanford University
  23. University of California, Berkeley
  24. University of California, Los Angeles
  25. University of Chicago
  26. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  27. University of Michigan
  28. University of Minnesota
  29. University of Pennsylvania
  30. University of Southern California
  31. University of Tennessee
  32. University of Texas at Austin
  33. University of Virginia
  34. University of Washington
  35. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
  36. U.S. National Library of Medicine
  37. Yale University
""

DLF ALLIES

  1. Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
  2. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
  3. Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
  4. Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library
  5. OCLC Online Computer Library Center
""

Comments

Please send the DLF Director your comments or suggestions.

Usage and Usability Assessment:

Library Practices and Concerns



by Denise Troll Covey



January 2002



logo



Digital Library Federation
Council on Library and Information Resources
Washington, D.C.

View PDF version (5.55MB) | View HTML version | Return to CLIR and DLF publications

To buy a printed version click here!

Abstract


This report offers a survey of the methods deployed at leading digital libraries to assess the use and usability of their online collections and services. Focusing on 24 Digital Library Federation member libraries, the study's author, DLF 2002 Distinguished Fellow Denise Troll Covey, conducted numerous interviews with library professionals engaged in assessment.

The report describes the application, strengths, and weaknesses of assessment techniques that include surveys, focus groups, user protocols, and transaction log analysis. Troll Covey's work is also an essential methodological guidebook. For each method that she covers, she is careful to supply a definition, explain why and how libraries use the method, what they do with the results, and what problems they encounter. The report includes an extensive bibliography on more detailed methodological information, and descriptions of assessment instruments that have proved particularly effective.

return to top >>

 

Copyright © 2006 Digital Library Federation. All rights reserved.

Last updated: Tuesday, July 19, 2022