Re-Imagining Archival Display: Creating User-Friendly Finding Aids

Daines, J. Gordon; Nimer, Cory

doi:10.1080/15332748.2011.574019

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…The comments of some participants revealed that they view the FA as the product of a distinct and unfamiliar archival world view, echoing the "dual inheritance" issue articulated by Daines and Nimer (2011) and the user-centered design gap articulated by Meissner (1997) and Lack (2007). Although this conceptual and functional gap represents a challenge for nonarchivists using FAs, they have mostly managed to adapt and habituate themselves, as with use of other digital technologies (Smith & Kantor, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…As in Prom's (2004) study, many participants first sought out contextual information in the Fonds description, which challenges Daines and Nimer's (2011) claim, based on a review of previous work, that most archives' users want to get straight to the detail. However, our results support a number of user-centered limitations of FAs identified in previous works, including the need for more detail at the item level (Anderson, 2004), the confusion between series and files (Daines & Nimer, 2011), and the lack of consistency in labeling and description at the various levels (Chapman, 2010;Lack, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Much of the work is descriptive, based on small-scale user studies, interviews, and focus groups, with the aim of identifying the difficulties that users face in using these information objects, rather than the common patterns of interaction and use. The key findings of prior work are summarized below; see Daines and Nimer (2011) for a more extensive review of this work.…”

Section: Studies Of Fa Usementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Because archival descriptive standards stipulate nonrepetition of information at the various levels, fonds, series, files, and so on, lower-level descriptions tend to be sparse, causing difficulties for users who navigate there directly rather than moving through the levels (Meissner, 1997). From their analysis of the past work, Daines and Nimer (2011) argue that item level search and retrieval is the preferred mode of access for most users rather than scanning hierarchical lists looking for something of relevance; they note that new formats are needed to represent FAs online.…”

Section: Studies Of Fa Usementioning

confidence: 99%

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Interacting with archival finding aids

Freund

Toms

2015

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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This research aimed to gain a detailed understanding of how genealogists and historians interact with, and make use of, finding aids in print and digital form. The study uses the lens of human information interaction to investigate finding aid use. Data were collected through a lab-based study of 32 experienced archives' users who completed two tasks with each of two finding aids. Participants were able to carry out the tasks, but they were somewhat challenged by the structure of the finding aid and employed various techniques to cope. Their patterns of interaction differed by task type and they reported higher rates of satisfaction, ease of use, and clarity for the assessment task than the known-item task. Four common patterns of interaction were identified: top-down, bottom-up, interrogative, and opportunistic. Results show how users interact with findings aids and identify features that support and hinder use. This research examines process and performance in addition to outcomes. Results contribute to the archival science literature and also suggest ways to extend models of human information interaction. IntroductionDecades of research in information science and related fields have focused on interaction with widely used and familiar information access tools such as online public access catalogs, bibliographic databases, and Internet search engines. In this study we examine human information interaction (HII) in the context of archival description, focusing on the use of print and digital finding aids (FA). These serve as core tools for accessing archival collections, yet they have rarely been examined in the context of interactivity and use (Coats, 2004;Cox, 2008;Duff & Haworth, 1997;Trace & Dillon, 2012). Reaching a deeper understanding of FA use is important as this genre moves from existing primarily as a printed document used in situ within an archive, to a virtual object often used in isolation from the records it describes. Unlike other types of information collections, historical archival collections remain primarily nondigital, despite the intense efforts globally to digitize centuries of manuscripts, images, and textual records. As a consequence, the FA, in both print and digital form, is and will continue to be an essential tool of access to archival collections (Anderson, 2004).What is a FA? In the broadest sense, "any type of descriptive tool that provides intellectual access to the materials held in an archival or manuscript repository" (Chung, 2010, p. 147) can be considered a FA. However, considerable standardization in the creation of FAs has been achieved through reliance on standards informed by archival theory, which places great importance on the contextualization of records. This is expressed in the principle of respect des fonds, which specifies that records be grouped organically, according to their provenance and in their original order (Bureau of Canadian Archivists, 2008) and through the practice of including information about the creation, handling, and use of records when descr...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Studies Of Fa Usementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Studies Of Fa Usementioning

confidence: 99%

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Interacting with archival finding aids

Freund

Toms

2015

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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“…» (2010, p. 540). L'instrument de recherche (finding aid [FA]), le moyen de diffusion traditionnel des fonds, présente aussi des lacunes : « […] user-centered limitations of FAs identified in previous works, including the need for more detail at the item level (Anderson, 2004), the confusion between series and files (Daines & Nimer, 2011), and the lack of consistency in labeling and description at the various levels (Chapman, 2010;Lack, 2007). » (Freund et Toms, 2016, p. 1006 15 « The challenge is to achieve more democratic, inclusive, holistic archives, collectively, listening much more to l'accès aux archives pour le plus grand nombre n'est envisageable que dans la mesure où l'on tient compte du contexte numérique, des usages et des utilisateurs des archives.…”

Section: Contexte De La Rechercheunclassified

La contribution actuelle de la recherche doctorale en archivistique à l’Université de Montréal

et al. 2021

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Si l’archivistique était auparavant, plus encore qu’aujourd’hui, associée à une pratique professionnelle, cette discipline s’est considérablement développée au Québec à travers la recherche universitaire. En témoigne le programme de doctorat à l’École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information (EBSI), créé en 1998, dont la première thèse portant sur un sujet relatif à l’archivistique a été octroyée en 2005 et la plus récente, fin 2019. Les projets en archivistique des actuels doctorants de l’EBSI reflètent le dynamisme de cette discipline et la multiplicité des avenues de recherche qui en découlent. C’est dans cette perspective globale que sont abordées chacune de ces recherches doctorales qui témoignent des évolutions de la contribution québécoise à l’archivistique actuelle.

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