Finding Documents in a Digital Institutional Repository: DSpace and Eprints

Kim, Jihyun Finding Documents in a Digital Institutional Repository: DSpace and Eprints., 2005 . In 68th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), Charlotte (US), 28 October - 2 November 2005. [Conference paper]

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English abstract

Institutional repositories are “digital collections that capture and preserve the intellectual output of universities” (Crow, 2002). While still in their initial stages of development, much attention has been paid to the technical and administrative components. This paper examines the usability of the interfaces of two of the most commonly used institutional repository systems: DSpace and Eprints. By using heuristic evaluation and usability testing, eighteen undergraduate students were tested using a between subjects experimental design. Measures included time for completing tasks, the number of errors, and users’ satisfaction from post-test questionnaires. Results of the study indicated that DSpace users spent less time completing tasks and made fewer errors than Eprints users. Overall satisfaction of DSpace was also higher than Eprints. Based on this analysis of problem areas, the study suggests guidelines for institutional repository interfaces.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: institutional repositories ; IR ; Eprints ; DSpace ; user interface ; usability ; user satisfaction
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BI. User interfaces, usability.
H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HS. Repositories.
Depositing user: Norm Medeiros
Date deposited: 08 Feb 2006
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:02
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/6964

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