If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract RLG has used METS for a particular application, that is as a wrapper for structural metadata. When RLG cultural materials was launched, there was no single way to deal with`c omplex digital objects''. METS provides a standard means of encoding metadata regarding the digital objects represented in RCM, and METS has now been fully integrated into the workflow for this service.

This article documents a lifecycle approach to employing user-centered design, covering both qualitative and quantitative data gathering methods in support of using this approach for product design, usability testing, and market research. The author provides specific case studies of usability studies, focus groups, interviews, ethnographic studies, and web log analysis. The article supplies practical advice and tools for those interested in exploring user-centered design concepts for web-based tools and services in archives, libraries, and museums.

In the ongoIng transItIon from institution-centered collections to a user-centered world of networked information, the role of the research library has changed dramatically. "Rather than focusing on acquiring the products of scholarship," a recent ARL issue brief noted, "the library is now an engaged agent supporting and embedded within the processes of scholarship."1 Successful collection management in this new environment has become a juggling act requiring careful consideration of a number of factors including the proliferation of shared print repositories, the shift to patron-driven acquisitions, the role of digital surrogates in discovery and use, and the importance of redirecting effort from bringing the "outside in" (acquiring local inventory) to pushing the "inside out" (surfacing distinctive collections).2 Accompanying this transformation is a recurring theme in which the role of special collections is increasingly prominent.3 If research libraries are successful in realigning general print collections, and if indeed their focus is now more oriented to building and exposing collections of rare and unique materials and collections of "local" importance-those that support the teaching, learning, and research mission of the institution-then research libraries must assess their existing special collections with the goal of reducing cataloging and processing backlogs, effectively disclosing existing collections, and strategically acquiring new ones.

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