Understanding Users and Use of Digital Visual Collections Cornell Institute for Digital Collections Gale Halpern May 5, 2000

How do Faculty and Students Use Digital collections? Topic of interest from beginning of the MESL program. Addressed by Howard Besser in his report ‘ The Cost of Digital Image Distribution’ (1998).

Barriers to Use of Digital Collections? Both actual and perceived constraints (Besser, 1998). How can we allocate time and resources to facilitate use of digital image collections? Are the current digital image software solutions viable?

Evaluation: Herbert F. Johnson Museum Digital Image database Fall Semester, Three undergraduate classes. Using Luna Insight software for image delivery. Report survey results (end of semester).

Variables  Characteristics of the ‘implemented’ system:  Success in use of hardware and connectivity.  Usability of software  Quality of the images  Quality of on-line collection  Accurate ‘hits’ while searching  Satisfactory instructional training/support  Meeting realistic and unrealistic expectations (for both instructors and students).

Evaluation Instruments  Student survey.  Population demographics:  Skill set  Training session  Hardware/connectivity  Factual questions about search terms, # of images used  General satisfaction ratings.  Open-ended comments.  Instructor feedback (informal discussion with TA and instructors).

Fall 2000 – Insight at Cornell Three undergraduate classes:  Revelry, Rivalry and Consumption: Nineteenth Century American Holidays and Civic Life (Freshman Writing Seminar for History students) – 16 students.  Mapping America (Art History survey – from colonial mercantilism through the Great Depression) – 30 students.  Friends of the Cold Season: Pine, Bamboo and Plum (Seminar to build an exhibition and catalogue of East Asian decorative arts at the Johnson Museum) – 8 students

Use of Johnson Museum Digital Images  Freshman Writing Seminar –  Primary source material for topical essays  On-line course reserves  Web browser from their on-campus dorm rooms to view the images.  Art History Survey –  One of several sources available for student-created virtual thematic exhibitions.  Other sources included David Rumsey Map Collection (using Insight), “Thinker” ImageBase, and the Library of Congress “American Memory” site.  Exhibition Seminar  Presentation tools and digitized images used to plan and design a live exhibit of East Asian decorative arts

Instructional Support:  Freshman Writing Seminar --  Instructor trained by CIDC and Museum staff  No help was offered to the students using the web browser.  Art History Survey –  two-hour hands-on Insight training session at the beginning of the semester.  Handouts including a Quick start Guide and other supporting documents, contact addresses  Demonstration of how to download the Java client at home  free to use it at any time in the library computer lab.  Exhibition Seminar  Same as Art History Survey plus demonstration of Insight Presentation tools

Results: Approximate number of images used by students:  Freshman writing seminar– 26 view-only images were used as on-line course reserves.  Art history survey -- 8 images out of a possible 130 were exported from Insight and featured in the virtual student assignments.  Exhibition class images (some duplicates) were combined into on-line student presentations.

Analysis – Available Content 1.There was not always a match between the class requirements and the collection content. Two classes successfully focused on themes well represented in the Museum collections  instructor-selected images or  an established sub-collection such as Asian Art. The Art History survey class proved least satisfied because the University collection is small and eclectic and does not contain a critical mass of well-known artworks to support a survey. Such images were found at the large “American Memory” and “Thinker” ImageBase sites.

Analysis – Access 2.All users expressed dissatisfaction with access (especially viewing images from home).  Software functionality was not the problem.  At-home, off-campus installations proved to be too slow.  On-campus library installations were fast enough.  Most satisfied were the Writing seminar freshmen who used the web browser from their on-campus dorm rooms.

Analysis – Data Quality 3.Inadequate search terms, a high percentage of missing images from the permanent collection and incomplete descriptive data were the top complaints.  the 15,000 image + Johnson Museum digital collection needs better cataloguing and metadata, and represents only 60% of the complete museum collection.  Lack of a thematic organization of the on-line collection made searching even more difficult.

Analysis – Resource Discovery 4.Serendipity – finding artworks that would have not been discovered in a non-digital environment was the most positive outcome in for all students.  Despite problems, students in the Asian Art exhibition seminar, unanimously felt that they were better off using the digital database as a research and discovery tool than not using it.

Observations:  Once students were unhappy with their at-home access or unsuccessful searches in the HFJ digital collection, they turned to other sources.  It would have been more effective to offer the hands-on instruction on use of the database when needed (not necessarily at the beginning of the semester).  Providing more extensive support on search strategies may have encouraged students to try a little harder to find images.

Recommendations for Future:  Extend our local collections by offering larger and broader collections using Insight as a portal.  Ensure that future collections are complete with high quality cataloguing and descriptive metadata.  Organize broad collections thematically to make searching easier.

Recommendations for Future:  Develop private collections, which serve the needs of specific instructors teaching from their personal slide collections.  Incorporate more efficient copyright constraints to improve off-campus access to large images.  Encourage development of web-based software for faster, more reliable user functionality from off-campus.

Finally, Currently available software, which offers end-user tools for manipulating images, such as Luna Insight, has been shown to actively encourage use of a Digital Image Collection by faculty and students.