IMLS DCC Research Plan

Carole Palmer, Michael Twidale, Ellen Knutson
14 February 2003

Over a three year time period we will be working with NLG projects to answer the following questions:

Primary Research Question

How can resource developers best represent collections and items to meet the needs of service providers and end users?

Specific Research Questions

BASELINE:
What are the different kinds of institutions, collections, metadata schemes and interoperability represented in the IMLS projects?
How do the resource developers anticipate their digital collections will be used?

METADATA:
What metadata scheme(s) is being applied for item description?
Why was the scheme selected?
What are its strengths and weaknesses?
How well does it (seem to) support various functions such as, administration, authentication, discovery, use?
How well does it support the inevitable evolution of needs, technologies and opportunities which the organization wishes to exploit?

USERS:
Who are the end user communities for these institutions (known and potential)?
What are the institutions' perceptions of the value and level of use of the collections by these communities?
How do those perceptions change over time?

SINGLE COLLECTION USE BY COMMUNITIES:
How well do the collections and their metadata support the needs and practices of these communities?
Can they search for an find materials in ways that make sense to them?

REPOSITORY APPLICATIONS:
How do institutions hope to provide aggregate collections or services for their users?
Does the registry and repository offer adequate support?
Can they locate and aggregate materials that re meaningful for their constituencies?
What are additional applications for the repository?

INTEROPERABILITY:
What are the challenges in supporting interoperability?
What are the problems in harmonizing metadata standards?
What are the design challenges in developing interoperability technologies?
What are the usability challenges for systems supporting interoperability?