Digital Libraries for Humanities Scholars: An Empirical Study of Users' Information Behaviors

Abstract

While user-centered design has been emphasized, much of the discussion of digital libraries is concerned about choosing Web-based technology to create a digitized collection and establish related infrastructure. An investigation into the potential users of a community-based digital library suggests that some critical social, ecological and cultural aspects of information-related behavior of those users need to be taken into account for a digital library to accomplish its goals. This paper reports on an empirical study of scholarly communication among users of the Taiwan Historical Archives and how those scholars and researchers find and use information. Several design principles are suggested based on the findings of such user study. (Article content in Chinese with English abstract)

Keywords

• user studies
• digital libraries
• information needs
• information seeking
• scholarly communication