Page History

Participant

Author

Subject

Comments

1

Clicked on name link. Didn’t see info button. 

Were told to click on info button + view full record directly

Didn’t see alternate forms. Initially, participant tried to answer questions looking at the item record page as well as the full record page.  Said they did not find any alternate names when looking at the heading directly.  We began telling participants that they should try to answer the question on the full record page itself.

Found other information easily

For influence, first went to record page to look up editor information

For related topics, did not use broader/narrower. Used browse call numbers.  For related count question, did use broader/narrower listing. 

Didn’t see display all subjects and had to be told

Thought there would be a scroll button for catalog results (easier to navigate) but top three pretty good as well

Confusion around timeline.  Considered good way to visualize info along with broader/narrower.

Current practice: Look for research papers using subjects and not time periods.  Author suggestions and specific agricultural practices. 

Useful features: Would use related concepts.  Authors who wrote on same subject.  Influences.  Which works written first on timeline.

Digital collection: Had used Johnson Museum collection.

Repositories: Were not sure which repository they would use

2

Found info button and full record link right away

Thought alternate names would be included with other fields. Saw alternate forms and assumed label matched task. 

Directly found influences tab. 

Commented on scrolliness of timeline.  Was able to parse timeline accurately. 

Didn’t know what repositories meant but found the tab

Related topics: Considered or clicked on broader and narrower, call numbers.  Considered clicking on the book to see subjects there. 

Saw “works about” under broader topic (for related concept number of works)  

For timeline: tried to scroll to see other subjects, eventually found “display all subjects”, saw the subject for the page lost in lineup.  Wondered if catalog results would change. 

Current practice: More likely to look for subject related searches rather than author, because looking for topic (and topic within that) for my paper.  Wouldn’t use timeline or time period info.  Maybe location. Catalog results. 

Useful features: Other names (as in alternate names)- find more stuff in other search engines. Publication timeline and works seem most useful. Not sure what influences does 

Vaguely understood digital collections. Never heard of repositories. 

The scrolliness of histropedia seems very slippery.  Info button vs link: unclear.  “Full record” doesn’t just indicate what resulting page functionality. 

3

Did not know info button was clickable. Clicked on name link as first intuition to do so (and used to that).  Didn’t see full record until told. 

Alternate forms: Found tab for task but unclear what was meant by phrase. A different name? A pen name?

Related event: Looked at broader first and then narrower event. Unsure what “>” was for. 

Time periods: Clicked on narrower subject. Unclear on what to do.  Did not occur to click on display all subjects.  Suggested moving checkbox nearer to the timeline since distance between the checkbox and the timeline.

Narrower/broader: Thought of this as a tree hierarchy. Recommended showing more of the hierarchy and/or having “Russo-Japanese war” in the middle of the horizontal broader/narrower section. 

Current practice: look at author, what did they write about, subject matter, impressions.  Doesn’t usually use library catalog.  Relies on resources provided by class. JStor and encyclopedia.

Tasks they wouldn’t do: Broader/narrower or timeline.

Useful features: Narrower events (but not broader). Alternate forms (especially if author is not English/Western)

Knew about digital collection:had seen them as an option before

Not familiar with repositories

Features helpful but how to use not intuitive: info button, display all subject

4

Clicked on author link. Then clicked on info button, but looked at various elements in the panel first.  Had to be prompted to click on view full record. They said they saw the link but did not relate it to a link that would show them the information. 

Found date of birth but expected date of birth to be in the same set of fields as place of birth. 

Used alternate forms tab but may not have assumed label meant names they went by

Used map times for time period question. Saw location in the top panel

Didn’t see digital collections tab at first and went to call number browse, then click tab. 

Related topics: call numbers.

Broader/narrower on prompting

Found display all subjects

Current practice: Broader/narrower info.  Use Google (not library catalog). Usually have something in mind.  If not enough info, would like at all related info to see if any correlation would help.

Anticipated some kind of visual resources for digital collections. 

Not sure what a repository is. 

Didn’t think “barcode” (wikidata link?) was clickable.  

View full record: color same as info button and background same as large page, so not clear if looking at page behind it. 

5

Clicked on author link.  Thought info button just described the link as having information.  Clicked on view full record. 

Alternate forms: Eventually saw but wondered if these were names at different points in time or other spellings

Timeline: Zoom in works well

Works about: Saw library catalog results section

Related: broader and narrower

Timeline: unclear what is being summarized.  Eventually found display all subjects.  Wondered if all events related to Russia (on the map)?

Current practice: Look for author information such as birth.names.  Mostly only interested in books and articles and not categories/music. 

 Subject: look at Google for related subjects and catalog for specific books. May look for related authors and subjects if in catalog.

 Use Google or lecture references if looking at authors/subjects for class.

Useful features: Timeline for both author and subjects was helpful, even though didn’t understand whether timeline was related to subject. Helpful to contextualize. If subject involved many regions, map is useful. 

Digital collection: not sure how different from library resources

Repositories: Didn’t know what this was.