Greetings!

Below is the announcement for a workshop on issues and methods in user
needs assessment and evaluation for digital libraries. The workshop will
be held Saturday, March 23, 1996, 9:30 to 3:30, as part of Digital Libraries
96: 1st ACM International Conference on Digital Libraries.

As one of the workshop organizers, I'm trying to spread the word that
anyone interested in this topic is invited to apply for participation.
(I've posted this announcement to PACS-L and DIGLIB; please excuse the
duplication). Please feel free to forward this invitation to others whom
you think might be interested.

Since space is limited, participation may be limited, but there are no
requirements for attendees -- anyone with an interest in digital library
evaluation is welcome. The fee for the workshop is $50.

But TIME IS RUNNING SHORT! If you would like to attend, please submit a
statement of your experience and interests to Nancy Van House
(vanho...@info.sims.berkeley.edu) BY TUESDAY, JANUARY 30th. That way we will
be able to respond to all requests by February 5th, which is the deadline
for early conference registration.

More information about DL '96 is available at http://fox.cs.vt.edu/DL96/
or from Linda Hill (lh...@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)

Hope you can join us.

Ann Bishop

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Ann P. Bishop, Assistant Professor                        (217) 244-3299 (V)
Graduate School of Library and Information Science        (217) 244-3302 (F)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign                  abis...@uiuc.edu
501 East Daniel St., Champaign, IL  61820
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 06:08:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Nancy Van House <vanho...@info.sims.berkeley.edu>
Subject: DL96 workshop

DL96 Workshop
User Needs Assessment and Evaluation: Issues and Methods

Evaluation of digital libraries (DLs) begins, ideally, before design:
effective design is based on the needs of users.

DL needs assessment and evaluation requires a panoply of complementary
methods. DLs are similar to, but distinct from, traditional libraries and
of other kinds of computer-based systems.  Their evaluation requires
the adaptation of existing methods and development of new ones.
Choice of method is driven by research goals and the conceptual and practical
context of DLs.

The goals of this workshop are for participants to acquire a better
understanding of existing DL methods and needed developments, and of the
underlying conceptual bases for needs assessment and evaluation; and to
engage in a discussion about methods and a research agenda.   The
workshop will begin and end with a discussion of DL research goals and
their relationship to methods.  Several major data collection methods
will be addressed in depth, including:

     Ethnographic methods
     Interviews, focus groups, and surveys
     System monitoring and user feedback

Each session will consist of a presentation by a researcher with
expertise in the method, followed by substantial discussion of the
information derived using the method;  practicalities of using it; its
strengths and weaknesses; and the conditions under which it is appropriate.

Organizers:

Prof. Nancy Van House
School of Information Management and Systems
University of California, Berkeley

Prof. Ann Bishop
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illimois at Urbana-Champaign

Prof. Barbara Buttenfield
Geography Department
University of Colorado, Boulder

Dr. David Levy
XEROX Palo Alto Research Center

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Nancy Van House, Professor
School of Information Management and Systems
102 South Hall #4600
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4600
voice 510-642-0855    fax 510-642-5814
email vanho...@info.sims.berkeley.edu
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