Interfacing the Collection
Date
2012-03-26
Authors
Sondheim, Daniel
Rockwell, Geoffrey
Ilovan, Mihaela
Radzikowska, Milena
Ruecker, Stan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Scholarly and Research Communication
Abstract
The digital age has led to the advent of electronic collections with millions or even billions of items. This paper examines the types of interfaces that are emerging for large-scale collections, specifically addressing what a large collection looks like online, and how it can be managed by users. In examining these questions, we propose some features that we feel are universally desirable in interfaces to collections. Overall, there appear to be two sets of features that help users effectively use and sort online content: tools to view, organize and navigate collections; and tools to customize and manage user-created sub-collections.
Description
The INKE Research Group comprises over 35 researchers (and their research assistants and postdoctoral fellows) at more than 20 universities in Canada, England, the United States, and Ireland, and across 20 partners in the public and private sectors. INKE is a large-scale, long-term, interdisciplinary project to study the future of books and reading, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as contributions from participating universities and partners, and bringing together activities associated with book history and textual scholarship; user experience studies; interface design; and prototyping of digital reading environments.
Keywords
Electronic collections, Large-scale collections, Interface, User-managed collections, Editable collections, Electronic Textual Cultures Lab (ETCL), Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE)
Citation
Sondheim, Daniel, Rockwell, Geoffrey, Ilovan, Mihaela, Radzikowska, Milena, & Ruecker, Stan. (2012). Interfacing the Collection. Scholarly and Research Communication, 3(1): 010114, 19 pp.