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This research is funded by the
The Problem
As more archival finding aids are provided online, and their
descriptions become more detailed and extensive, users are presented
with the problem of not only where to look for information, but
how to navigate it. This problem is not unique to archival finding
aids, but they present a particular problem as they are often
discrete, hierarchical and frequently represent very deep structures.
Whilst an archive's physical space, catalogue arrangement and
archivist’s assistance all help to guide users' navigation
in the analogue world, this paradigm does not easily translate
to the electronic. Hub sites such as the Archives
Hub, A2A, AIM25,
ANW and SCAN
are evidence of the need to search across collections and repositories.
However, traditional means of browsing or displaying search results,
such as lists and directories, severely restrict users’
ability to see where they are, how they got there and where they
can go next. Providing ‘cross-walks’ such as subject
keywords, functional descriptions, person, place and corporate
names can only go so far in addressing this problem. Points at
which these cross-walks intersect can not easily be displayed
and users wishing to move from one to another need to repeat searches
or navigate up and down the hierarchy. This problem increases
exponentially where related material is held in different series,
collections or repositories. In these circumstances trying to
follow a particular person, function or responsibility is extremely
difficult if not impossible. In following one path, users lose
sight of others, where they cross and what their relationship
is.
A Solution?
One potential solution to this problem is to provide a visual
representation of this multidimensional information. For example,
repository, collection, date and function could each be a separate dimension, rather like
lines on a London Underground map. Unlike a conventional map however,
we are not limited to two dimensions, which would restrict the
representation of the multiple connections that can exist in archival
finding aids.
As well as horizontal and vertical dimensions we
can add a backward and forward dimension and as many other dimensions
we might need in between. Therefore, a user viewing the person
name dimension (or line) would see each individual represented
in a finding aid as a cell. This person may appear in different
parts of a collection, separate collections at the same repository
and at other repositories, quite possibility related to different
organisations, functions or roles. For example, Prof. Smith might
appear as a Dean on three committees in the collection of University
A, held by repository X. Prof. Smith may then appear as a Vice
Chancellor on five committees in the collection of University
B, held by repository Y. Whilst well developed finding aids can
make these links, it is very difficult for users to see and navigate
them. If we use two dimensions (people and committee) for display
and view the committee dimension we could see Prof. Smith and
the committees he served on. By moving up and down the committee
view we could move seamlessly between those at University A/repository
X and those at University B/repository Y. Changing the view to
people would show others who served on the same committees as
Prof. Smith. We could then navigate to a third, functional dimension,
which would alter the users view to show which committees related
to which functions and show other committees that had the same
function as those Prof. Smith served on.
This system of inter-connected multidimensions is what Ted Nelson
has called ZigZag™.
In other words, a piece of information can exist in different
places at the same time and have many connections to other information
that may also exist in more than one place. The beauty of the
ZigZag system is that the user can bring multiple instances of
the same information into one view and by changing the dimensions can instantaneously see how the related
bits of information are connected. Thus the user is always presented
with a locally relevant view of the information, irrespective
of how complex the structure is, and without losing the ability
to navigate and view all the interconnections. The possibility
to represent archival information in this way may provide both
functionality and usability that reflects the deep interlinked
structures of today's online finding aids. If viable, these additional
dimensions could be used to provide a whole range of context specific
information, such as related bibliographies, digital surrogates,
user comments and help files. This would allow online finding
aids to move from an access tool to an expert system.
Research by Andersen, Anderson, Cherry, Craig, Duff and Johnson,
amongst others, has all emphasised the importance of context in
the information seeking behaviour of users and the need for orientation
for in even the most experienced user.3 The potential
of this system to provide an accessible interface and present
the context of finding aids could provide a solution to this problem.
The advent of XML encoded finding aids, particularly EAD,
and the wide scale implementation of descriptive standards such
as ISAD(G)2
make this an ideal time to test the viability of a ZigZag visualisation.
Several experiments have already been conducted using Perl, C,
Python and Java to run on Windows, Linux and Mac.
Initially the most promising of these for our application was the combination
of XML, XSLT and JavaScript, demonstrated by Les Carr at the University
of Southampton (http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lac/zigzag/).
That XML data is independent of its means of presentation is a
major advantage and means this project can test the viability
of the visualisation on existing XML encoded finding aids. However, initial tests using JavaScript indicated that it was unlikely to scale well enough for the amount of data we had or provide sufficient complexity for the visualisation. After further research we have developed our interface using Macromedia/Adobe Flash based on an original idea by Moritz Stefaner http://der-mo.net/
The number and extent of dimensions it is possible to represent, does of course, depend upon the qulaity and extent of the underlying data. For
this project two finding aids, GASHE and NAHSTE, provided by
the University of Glasgow
Archive Services will be used. Both finding aids provide the
project with the opportunity to test the concept against EAD,
ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CFP) with GASHE providing a further test as it includes function and activity 'cross walks' within it. Both finding aids cross both multiple
collections and repositories.
3. Andersen, D.L. ‘Academic Historians, Electronic
Information Access Technologies, and the World Wide Web: A Longitudinal
Study of Factors Affecting Use and Barriers to that Use’,
The Journal of the Association for History and Computing 1, June
1998. Anderson, I. ‘Are you being served? Historians and
the Search for Primary Sources’, Archivaria, 58, Fall 2004.
Duff, W. Carig, B. Cherry, J. ‘Historians Use of Archival
Sources: Promises and Pitfalls of the Digital Age,’ The
Public Historian 26, no 2, Spring 2004. Duff, W. and Johnson,
C. ‘Accidentally Found on Purpose: Information Seeking Behaviour
of Historians in Archives,’ Library Quarterly 72, no. 4,
2002. Tibbo, H. ‘Primarily History: How US Historians Search
for Primary Sources at the Dawn of the Digital Age,’ American
Archivist 66, no 1. Spring/Summer 2003.
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