Digitized Special Collections and Multiple User Groups

Abstract

Many organizations have evolved since their early attempts to mount digital exhibits on the Web and are experimenting with ways to increase the scale of their digitized collections by utilizing archival finding aid description rather than resource-intensive collections and exhibits. This article examines usability research to predict how such systems might effectively be used and highlights a digital library and finding aid system that utilizes a single repository of digitized objects to fuel two types of user-discovery systems: a typical digital collections interface with item-level access and a finding aid that incorporates digitized items at the aggregate level.