Connecticut History Online A digital library? By Todd Vandenbark

CHO: Goals  “to create a digital resource center that is composed of a variety of research materials serving the needs of scholars, secondary school teachers and students, genealogists, and the general public.”

CHO: Goals  “Connecticut History Online will provide a comprehensive chronicle of events, people, and places documenting Connecticut, and American, social, business, political, educational, cultural, and civic life.”

But is it a digital library?  Selected on the basis of criteria  Located in a logical place, though they may be distributed  Organized, with most aspects of authority control present  Changed in a standardized way  Information resources (most of them)  Limited to specific classes of users

But is it a digital library?  Disappearance of objects is controlled  The only services are those performed by computer software  Human specialists can be found  Some classes of objects have associated user groups, and/or an intended audience.

Legal criteria “Is the material restricted because of privacy, content, or donor concerns? Is it copyright protected? If so, do you have the right to create and disseminate digital reproductions?” ("Digital Imaging Tutorial," 2003)

Why the answer is “Yes”  Period:  Categories:  Diversity  Livelihoods  Lifestyles  Environment  Infrastructure

Why the answer is “Yes”  Images of physical items  Digital media  Hosted on a single web site  Metadata:  Class of users  Human specialists & control

Legal considerations  Own all copyrights  OK for personal or educational use of content

Content Goals  2,000 broadsides  550 maps  450 artifacts  40 oral histories with audio clips  3,800 manuscript items  200 journals and minute books  2,000 photographic images

Formats  Images:  Scanning: 300 dpi TIFFs, 24-bit color  Presentation: JPEG or JPEG 2000, width 700 px  Audio:  Capture: WAV  Presentation: Real Audio

Navigation

Modes of Navigation  Search by key word and advanced keyword searches by subject, creator, date, place name, collection, institution, and title  GeoLocator  Journeys  Collection-level cataloging records

Strengths & Weaknesses

Educational resource  Journeys is “designed to help you explore a specific theme from Connecticut history. A selected group of images from the database will provide a brief introduction to the topic and to the types of related material that you will find in CHO.”

Educational resource  Classroom provides “basic information, lessons, activities and other resources to help teachers and students use Connecticut History Online as a window to the past and tool for discovery and understanding.”

Additional strengths  Detailed documentation  Copyright issues page  Good site map

Design issues

Common practice  IBM and design principles:  Interface must “positively support users’ endeavors and never intrude adversely.”  Design should reflect simplicity, support, familiarity, obviousness, encouragement, satisfaction, availability, safety, versatility, and affinity. IBM. (1999). Web design guidelines. Retrieved 6/23/2008, 2008, from

Navigation Browsing Navigation

Results Navigation

Other shortcomings  Uses HTML but no CSS  Fails Section 508 accessibility test  No personalization  Unusable features  GeoLocator ??