ArcLight Discovery: Phase 2

This phase of the design process has been completed.

Our goal for Phase 2 of the ArcLight discovery process is to better understand the intended users of ArcLight by conducting user interviews. Specifically, we aim to better understand two general classes of users – archivists and end-users of archives – and the context in which they work with finding aids and other archival materials. By interviewing a small set of people who act in theses two roles we can gather information that, along with the other information collected in Phase 1 of the design process, will guide the activities in the next phase of design (user needs specification, the development of user personas, and requirements prioritization).

Stanford University Libraries has plans to interview six archivists and (we hope) up to three researchers. However, to ensure that we gather information that is as representative of the broader community of potential ArcLight users as possible, it would be great to have a few other ArcLight design collaborators conduct an interview or two at their institution.

To make it easier for others to conduct interviews and to ensure we're collecting similar types of information, we've posted two interview protocols:

• Interview protocol for archivists - How do these users currently create, edit, and manage finding aids? What is the institutional and technological context in which they work with finding aids?

• Interview protocol for end-users (researchers) - What kind of research do they do and what archives do they commonly use? How do they work with, or would like to work with, finding aids and online archival materials in their research?

If you are able to contribute an interview or two, update the potential interviewees spreadsheet (link is in the collaborative design Box folder)  with your plans and/or let us know on the arclight-design@lists.stanford.edu mailing list. Ideally, you would audio-record the interview but if you are able to take detailed notes that would also work.

When all planned interviews are completed, those of us conducting interviews will work together to collate and summarize the results.