1. Dr. Swapan Deoghuria Scientist-II, Computer Centre Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Kolkata - 700032, INDIA Email ccsd@iacs.res.in. URL: www.iacs.res.in/icim.pptccsd@iacs.res.inwww.iacs.res.in/icim.ppt Digital Library of India A Study of Independent Access

2. What is DLI? http://www.dli.ernet.in Digital Library of India (DLI) portal is a major Government funded DL project in India It is a part of Universal Digital Library Project Almost 50,000 books are freely available It is a multinational project (India,China, USA) Partner centres in India are selected amongst academic, religious, cultural, government and research agencies

3. Objective  To study effectiveness of DLI  To study user interface of DLI portal  To study suitability of independent access  To study interface design of DLI

4. Usability Usability has been defined as “[a system’s] capability in human functional terms to be used easily and effectively by the specified range of users, given specified training and support, to fulfill a specified range of tasks, within the specified range of environmental scenarios”

5. Usability for Digital Libraries Too much digital information is available online Digital resources are being mounted online at an enormous rate There is no uniform and consistent way to find useful information existing over Net Usability is important for  Capacity planning  Systems design  User support  Strategic planning

6. Usage and Usability of DLs Accessibility – ease with which people can locate and access digital resources Compatibility – ease with which people can store, edit, print digital resources Integrability – how smoothly the DL system fits into a person’s work practices Reliability – Systems should provide easy recovery from common problems Affordability – Systems should be affordable Expertise – Minimum or no expertise is expected to use DLs »Generally use independently

7. Key components of usability study Contents  need to know user’s need and purpose Functionality  provide enough information to guide users, not enough to confuse them Simplify the query form Display non-redundant information only Interface  give users the ability to quickly review results to determine whether the search is on track

8. Methodology Hardware used  Intel P-III and P-IV computers  14, 17, 19 inches colour monitors Operating System used  MS Windows (95, 98, 2000, XP) Browser used  Netscape (4.7, 7.1) and Internet Explorer (5.0, 6.0) Also SGI Octane with 21 inches monitor and Netscape 4.7 Connectivity 512 Kbps Leased Line

9. Google – to search DLI

10. Yahoo – to search DLI

11. DLI Home Page

14. Titles of books beginning with ‘A’

15. Book not found

16. Titles beginning with ‘B’

17. Bengali Literature not found

18. Titles with ‘X’

19. Search result with xray as title

20. Xray content not found

21. Author’s last name beginning with ‘A’

22. Author names are jumbled always

23. Last name begin with ‘T’

24. Last name ‘T’ next page wrong

25. Last name ‘T’ does not match

26. Collection between 1850 - 1900

27. First item not found

28. Collection between 1901 - 1910

29. Collection between 1911-1920

30. Subject index of DLI

31. Subject - Astrophysics

32. Astrophysics – 1 st item found

33. Autobiography - duplicate

34. List of chemistry books

35. Chemistry book not found

36. No content under subject - Dance

37. Duplicate records: subject - health

38. First record with 121 pages

39. Second record with 513 pages

40. First page of second record

41. 2 nd page of second record

42. History – Title - Musund

43. History – Title - Musnud

44. Duplicate records: sub - poetry

45. First record found

46. Second record not found

47. Author - Rabindranath

48. Author - Tagore

49. Author - Rabindranathtagore

50. Author - Tagorerabindranath

51. Title – Crescent Moon

52. Crescent Moon – 207 pages

53. Crescent Moon ?

54. Crescent – not found

55. Author - Ravindranathtagore

56. Author - Einstein

57. Author - Alberteinstein

58. Author - Shakespeare

59. Author - Williamshakespeare

60. Language: Bengali - wrong

61. Science – list is not ordered

62. Literature – 2 nd page

63. Forbidden – permission denied

64. Subject - literature

65. A tale of two cities

66. Berkeley – Digital Library

67. Berkeley DL - Contents

68. Greenstone

69. Greenstone - subjects

70. Greenstone - list

71. The New York Public Library

72. SunSITE Digital Library

73. Universal Digital Library

74. Limitations DLI portal is browser dependent. Users are not informed about the software/hardware requirement and limitations of DLI Too many items in the home page to choose. Some information are available more than once Search/query form is complex Search results are not ordered Search results does not match with query parameters The databases of digital contents are not easy to use independently All items in a page are not appearing for small monitors The information appearing on screen are not easy to read All digital resources are not categorized according to subject and language Duplicate and wrong data exist There are items where hyperlinks are expected but not available There are hyperlinks for items but contents are not accessible Short notes for digital resources are not available Representation of all Indian languages and states are missing To download/print a complete book is difficult

75. Conclusions DLI has done a commendable job within a short period of time User interface should be more user friendly Data should be more organised Thorough usability study should be done for effective use of DLI in future

76. Thank you!