The PRET A Rapporter framework: Evaluating digital libraries from the perspective of information work

Blandford, A.; Adams, A.; Attfield, S.; Buchanan, G.; Gow, J.; Makri, S.; Rimmer, J.; Warwick, C.

doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2007.01.021

The PRET A Rapporter framework: Evaluating digital libraries from the perspective of information work

Blandford, A.; Adams, A.; Attfield, S.; Buchanan, G.; Gow, J.; Makri, S.; Rimmer, J.; Warwick, C.

Authors

A. Blandford

A. Adams

S. Attfield

G. Buchanan

J. Gow

S. Makri

J. Rimmer

Professor Claire Warwick c.l.h.warwick@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

The strongest tradition of IR systems evaluation has focused on system effectiveness; more recently, there has been a growing interest in evaluation of Interactive IR systems, balancing system and user-oriented evaluation criteria. In this paper we shift the focus to considering how IR systems, and particularly digital libraries, can be evaluated to assess (and improve) their fit with users’ broader work activities. Taking this focus, we answer a different set of evaluation questions that reveal more about the design of interfaces, user–system interactions and how systems may be deployed in the information working context. The planning and conduct of such evaluation studies share some features with the established methods for conducting IR evaluation studies, but come with a shift in emphasis; for example, a greater range of ethical considerations may be pertinent. We present the PRET A Rapporter framework for structuring user-centred evaluation studies and illustrate its application to three evaluation studies of digital library systems.

Citation

Blandford, A., Adams, A., Attfield, S., Buchanan, G., Gow, J., Makri, S., …Warwick, C. (2008). The PRET A Rapporter framework: Evaluating digital libraries from the perspective of information work. Information Processing and Management, 44(1), 4-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2007.01.021

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2008
Deposit Date	Sep 5, 2014
Publicly Available Date	Sep 22, 2014
Journal	Information Processing and Management
Print ISSN	0306-4573
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	44
Issue	1
Pages	4-21
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2007.01.021
Keywords	Digital library, Usability evaluation, HCI, Case study.
Related Public URLs	http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/5098/

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Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Information Processing and Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Information Processing and Management, 44, 1, 2008, 10.1016/j.ipm.2007.01.021.