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Digital Visibility: A Workshop on Neglected Digital Resources

Organized and run by Claire Warwick and Mel Terras from the School of Library, Archive, and Information Studies at University College London.

The workshop was a jointly-funded event between LAIRAH and the Methods Network and took place at the Maughan Library, King’s College, London, on the 26th April 2006.

The LAIRAH project was funded by the AHRC ICT Strategy Scheme to conduct research into the use of digital resources in the humanities. The aims of the workshop were:

• To gather user feedback on a range of digital resources;
• Find out if users could distinguish between those that are repeatedly accessed by users of the AHDS and Humbul portal sites and those that appear to be neglected;
• Find out if users could suggest factors that might predispose a resource to be used or neglected.

The users were deliberately not told which resources were neglected as the hosts did not want them to assume that if a resource was not often accessed, it must be of poor quality. Participants were selected from a range of humanities disciplines, and included lecturers and digital humanities professionals.

Sample of eleven resources from various humanities domains were chosen, and participants were asked to spend about ten minutes exploring each resource. Discussion sessions were then held, during which participants discussed their views at more length.

The most surprising result was that the users not only correctly identified the neglected projects, but also thought that three of the used projects might also be neglected. Participants also offered thoughtful critiques of the resources and their quality both in terms of content and interface.