1. Digital Library Quality and User Expectation:Investigating Assumptions About What Is "Good Enough" Aaron Brenner Digital Projects Librarian, University of Pittsburgh abrenner@pitt.edu Computers in Libraries – April 17, 2007

2. An Old Cliché pick two: Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

3. Plenty of Guidance on Standards Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

4. Implementation Quality Issues • Incompleteness of selection at collection level • Incompleteness of digital capture • Inappropriate or insufficient descriptive standard • Mistakes in transcription or uncorrected OCR • Hastily researched or inappropriate metadata • Insufficient user support Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

5. A Gentle Example: Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

6. An Uglier Example: Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

7. Even the Resource-Rich Make Compromises: Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

8. Current User Equation Appreciation for free and unique digital library content Dissatisfaction with lapses in quality > The Good News: Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

9. Users get most upset when • it’s an incorrect fact • it's personal • no one takes responsibility “There is a listing for seven individuals living in a household in the 2nd Ward of Allegheny City all with the surname "GREEN" [...] I know conclusively that the spelling of the name should be "GREER" and that the transcriber read the last letter as "N" rather than "R".  SARAH GREER is my great-grandmother and she is living with her siblings (both parents were deceased). [...] You would do a service to the GRIER descendants to make the necessary change to your database.” Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

10. Users also don’t like a lack of completeness: “I have found the census information available on your site to be invaluable. Will census information past 1880 be available any time soon?” “The atlases are also extremely useful to me. I would like to see one for the South Side around 1890 or 1900 (if one is available), as you now only cover 1872 and then there is a gap to 1916.” Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

11. Principle:Avoid presenting users one-off, incomplete, or unsupporteddigital collections Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

12. Principle:Make it easy for users to give feedback on quality issues Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

13. Principle:Give extra care to quality when you data is not visible Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

14. Principle:Quality problems linger in inverse proportion to an item’s popularity Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

15. Courtesy of Mark Phillips, University of North Texas Libraries Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007

16. Other Quality Strategies Involving Users • Run logged user queries • against a known sub-set of your data • against your complete data, review those returning no results • Look for patterns in user complaints • In collaborations, encourage “ownership” of quality with partners/users Digital Library Quality and User Expectation Aaron Brenner, University of Pittsburgh – Computers In Libraries, April 17, 2007