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Navigation, findability and the usage of cultural heritage on the web: an exploratory study Fransson, Jonas 2014 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Fransson, J. (2014). Navigation, findability and the usage of cultural heritage on the web: an exploratory study. Royal School of Library and Information Science, University of Copenhagen. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Navigation, findability and the usage of cultural heritage on the web: an exploratory study JONAS FRANSSON A B Navigation, findability and the usage of cultural heritage on the web: an exploratory study JONAS FRANSSON PhD thesis from Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark C CIP – Cataloguing in Publication Fransson, Jonas Navigation, findability and the usage of cultural heritage on the web: an exploratory study / Jonas Fransson. – Copenhagen: Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen University, 2014. 284 p. Available online: http://forskning.ku.dk/search/publicationdetail/?id=190156da- e8cc-4a10-a75b-10b2da2807e6 ISBN 978-87-7415-325-2 ISBN 978-87-7415-325-2 © Copyright Jonas Fransson 2014 All rights reserved D Navigation, hittbarhet och användningen av kulturarv på webben: en explorativ studie Jonas Fransson Ph.d.-afhandling fra Det Informationsvidenskabelige Akademi E Acknowledgments The process leading to this thesis started during my studies in Library and Information Science at Lund University, in 2002. I got hold of a copy of “The laws of the web” written by Bernando A. Huberman (2001). His patterns of behaviour on an aggregate level fascinated me, and it still does. Later in 2009 at the Royal School of Library and Information Science (RSLIS), University of Copenhagen, I was happy to be able to proceed with a doctoral project on users’ web behaviour and findability in a cultural context. First of all I want to thank my supervisors Niels Ole Pors (1949-2013), Birger Larsen and Peter Ingwersen. Thank you for “sheparding” me through the whole process. I have felt safe, but never controlled or directed. Sadly Niels Ole Pors suddenly passed away last year. His thoughts continue to inspire me. Thank you for everything! Secondly I want to send my gratitude to the staff at the Royal School of Library and Information Science who has supported me in numerous ways during these years. My gratitude also goes to teachers and fellow students at PhD courses, seniors and participants at doctoral forums as well as in informal sessions and discussions. In addition, especially to my “buddy” Lennart Björneborn who introduced me to the life at RSLIS. Thirdly I want to thank the LIS departments at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Lund University for letting me being a part of their research environments. I have also received important support from the cultural heritage institutions owning the studied resources, especially from Kristine Hoff Meyer at the Danish Agency for Culture, and Jakob Moesgaard and Sigfrid Lundberg at the Royal Library. Thank you for the cooperation. A special thanks to Franciso Javier Gómez Caballero for the translation of the survey into Spanish. Last I want to thank my family for their support and patience when I have been occupied nights and weekends. Without them, I would never have been able to accomplish this dissertation. Lund, March 11, 2014 I Abstract The present thesis investigates the usage of cultural heritage resources on the web. In recent years cultural heritage objects has been digitalized and made available on the web for the general public to use. The thesis addresses to what extent the digitalized material is used, and how findable it is on the web. On the web resources needs to be findable in order to be visited and used. The study is done at the intersection of several research areas in Library and Information Science; Information Seeking/Human Information Behaviour, Interactive Information Retrieval, and Webometrics. The two thesis research questions focus on different aspects of the study: (1) findability on the web; and (2) the usage and the users. The usage of the cultural heritage is analysed with Savolainen’s Everyday Life Information Seeking (ELIS) framework. The IS&R framework by Ingwersen and Järvelin is the main theoretical foundation, and a conceptual framework is developed so the examined aspects could be related to each other more clearly. An important distinction in the framework is between object and resource. An object is a single document, file or html page, whereas a resource is a collection of objects, e.g. a cultural heritage web site. Three webometric levels are used to both combine and distinguish the data types: usage, content, and structure. The interaction between the system and its users’ information search process was divided into query dependent and query independent aspects. The query dependent aspects contain the information need on the user side and the topic of the content on the system side. The query independent aspects are the structural findability on the system side and the users search skills on the user side. The conceptual framework is summarised in the User-Resource Interaction (URI) model. The research design is a methodological triangulation, in the form of a mixed methods approach in order to obtain measures and indicators of the resources and the usage from different angels. Four methods are used: site structure analysis; log analysis; web survey; and findability analysis. The research design is both sequential and parallel, the site structure analysis preceded the log analysis and the findability analysis, and the web survey was employed independent of the other methods. Three Danish resources are studied: Arkiv for Dansk Litteratur (ADL), a collection of literary texts written by authors; Kunst Index Danmark (KID), an index of the holdings in the Danish art museums; and Guaman Poma Inch Chronicle (Poma), a digitalized manuscript on the UNESCO list of World cultural heritage. The studied log covers all usage during the period October to December 2010. The site structure is analysed so the resources can be described as different levels, based on function and content. The results from the site structure analysis are used both in the log analysis and the findability analysis, as well as a way to describe the resources. In the log analysis navigation strategies and navigation patterns are studied. Navigation through a web search engine III is the most common way to reach the resources, but both direct navigation and link navigation are also used in all three resources. Most users arrive in the middle level in ADL and KID, at information on authors and artists. On average cultural heritage objects are viewed in half of the session. In the analysis of the web survey answers two groups of users’ are distinguished, the professional user in a work context and users in a hobby or leisure context. School or study as a context is prominent in Guaman Poma, the Inca Chronicle. Generally are pages about the cultural heritage more frequently visited than the digitized cultural heritage objects. In the findability framework six aspects are identified as central for the findability of an object on the web: attributes of the object, accessibility, internal navigation, internal search, reachability and web prestige. The six aspects are evaluated through seven indicators. All studied objects are findable in the analysis using the findability framework. A findability issue in KID is the use of the secure https protocol instead of http, which leads to the objects in KID having no PageRank value in Google and thereby a lower ranking in comparison to similar objects with a PageRank value. The internal findability is reduced for the objects in top of all three resources, e.g. the first page, due to the focus of the internal search engine on the cultural heritage objects. Several possible adjustment or developments of the findability frameworks is discussed, such as changing the weightning between the aspects measured, alternative scores and automated measuring. In conclusion, the investigation adds to our knowledge about how resources with digitalized cultural heritage are accessed and used, as well as how findable they are. The thesis provides both theoretical and conceptual contributions to research. The IS&R framework has been adapted to the web, the information search process was split into query dependent and query independent aspects, and a whole findability framework has been developed. Both the empirical findings and the theoretical advancements support the development of better access to web resources. IV Abstract in Swedish Avhandlingen undersöker användningen av kulturarvsresurser på webben. Under senare år har kulturhistoriska objekt digitaliserats och gjorts tillgängliga på webben för allmänheten. I vilken utsträckning det digitaliserade materialet används och hur lätt det är hitta på webben studeras i avhandlingen. Webbresurser måste vara hittbara för att de ska besökas och användas. Studien görs i skärningspunkten mellan flera forskningsområden inom Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap: Information Seeking/Human Information Behaviour, Interactive Information Retrieval och Webometrics.