I Want to See It: A Usability Study of Digital Content Integrated into Finding Aids

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a usability study conducted on finding aids from the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives at UNC-Chapel Hill. The study focused on digital content from archival collections that is made available through these finding aids using CONTENTdm; sought to explore how users accessed and understood this digital content; and followed up on several aspects of a similar usability study conducted at the Southern Historical Collection in 2009. Findings indicated that the digital content integrated into finding aids was largely intuitive but that it could be made more consistently usable; advanced users and users with archival experience found the finding aids easy to use; novice users may need additional assistance to understand the finding aid and would prefer to access digital content through the CONTENTdm interface; and the search capabilities in CONTENTdm are very important to users but could be improved for usability.

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