Resource enhancement: Reaching your target audience The First World War Poetry Digital Archive Kate Lindsay, Project Manager Oxford University

Overview Background The Goals of the First World War Poetry Digital Archive The Collections User Engagement - from start to finish Site Demo

Background 1996: JISC funded the Virtual Seminars Project Drew together primary materials on Wilfred Owen scattered across a range of archives and an array of contextual resources (WOMDA) Web based tutorials to advance the possibilities of traditional teaching One of the first multimedia collections designed specifically as a teaching resource -more than 1 million hits.

Goals of the First World War Poetry Digital Archive 1.To make primary source material available to researchers and students which would otherwise be difficult to access 2.To place the material in context thus widening the sites appeal to include history, military history, women studies, and media studies 3.To add value by providing tools for research and education 4.Proof of concept: The Great War Archive

The Archive Collections c digital images of primary source material (manuscripts, letters, service records) from Edward Thomas, Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg, Vera Brittain and Roland Leighton on launch. Online corpora of the full-texts of the poems. c. 500 Multimedia objects (photographs, audio and video) from the IWM. Publications of War (recruitment posters, trench papers etc.) c items submitted by the general public of items originating from the Great War.

User Engagement What we needed to know Who would be the archives key users? What are the requirements of a web archive for these user groups? How are the users likely to find out about the archive?

User Engagement Defining User Groups Researchers HE Lecturers Teachers The General Public UG Students (Who have stuff from WW1!!!) Military Historians School Students Parents Family Historians

User Engagement Building up dissemination networks Enlisted Friends of the Project who would disseminate our work To raise public awareness produced podcasts with key experts and public figures on the First World War and released these into itunes. Discussion groups, Facebook, mailing lists set up early on Spam wikipedia!

User Engagement The Steering Group Formed a steering group made up of researchers, lecturers and teachers, and technical experts. We gained an in depth knowledge of current research processes for the subject area. Act as brokers and champions for the target user groups

User Engagement Teaching WW1 Literature Workshop Run in November 2007, before development had commenced on the web interface or the production of educational resources. Focus was on literature not technology Collected scenarios of how First World War Literature is currently taught and from this emerged the foundations for the design of the archive and the types of resources that were to be developed. A user group we could maintain contact with

User Engagement User Testing Two extensive phases of user testing conducted throughout the development period Phase 1: Focused on researchers and looked at the more advanced search and viewing functionalities Implications for metadata Implications for system development Phase 2: Focused on teachers and students and looked at the browsing functionality and educational materials Implications for web site design and structure Implications for content, especially educational resources

User Engagement User Testing: Methodology Scenario-based online survey (in surveymonkey.com) guiding participants through a series of tasks in the archive. Participants went through the survey with two researchers and encouraged to talk-aloud Additional notes taken by the researcher Screen capture using Adobe Captivate All data collected and the resulting actions documented in a public wiki

Reaching the target audiences The Great War Archive Specific targets: military enthusiasts and collectors, genealogists, the elderly Staged marketing campaign Propaganda sent to all city and county libraries Newspaper and radio coverage Camps set up at strategic locations through voluntary enlistment - each camp responsible for local operations. Troops sent to camps to run recruitment events. Online targeting - Flickr, ebay, forums

User Engagement Outcomes and Lessons Users played a valuable part in the design of the archives interface. We didnt know enough about how the subject is taught in schools and at university. Staff need knowledge of the subject area Many users do not know how a technology can benefit them until they can see its possibilities firsthand (e.g. Web 2.0). A post-dissemination plan was needed They wanted more poets!

Continuing User Engagement Enriching the First World War Poetry Digital Archive Two workshops with teachers and lecturers in 2009 Alternative visualisations of metadata in the archive via the use of Web 2.0 technologies Google maps Timelines VUE Flickr Ask an expert facility Make the Great War Archive Submission Interface and the Path Creation Tool available as open source. Digitise Sassoon

Further Information Kate Lindsay, Project Manager