Report: Use and Users of Digital Resources

The following was disseminated through SIGDL-L last week.

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Use and Users of Digital Resources: A Focus on Undergraduate Education in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Copies of the report are available at:
http://cshe.berkeley.edu/research/digitalresourcestudy/report/

Generous funding for this multi-year project was provided by the A.W. Mellon Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Additional support was provided by CITRIS, Hewlett-Packard, CDL, and UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor of Research.

Authors: Diane Harley, Ph.D., Principal Investigator; Jonathan Henke, Shannon Lawrence, Ian Miller, Irene Perciali, Ph.D., and David Nasatir, Ph.D.

The purpose of our research was to:

1. map the universe of digital resources available to a subset of undergraduate educators in the humanities and social sciences, and
   
2. to investigate how and if available digital resources are actually being used in undergraduate teaching environments.

We employed multiple methods, including surveys and focus groups. Our definition of digital resources is intentionally broad and includes rich media objects (e.g., maps, video, images, etc.) as well as text.

Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Introduction and Rationale for the Project
• Understanding the Humanities/Social Science Digital Resource Landscape and Where Users Fit Into It
• How Are Digital Resources Being Used Among Diverse Communities?
• Faculty Discussion Groups and Faculty Survey
• Transaction Log Analysis and Website Surveys
• Why Study Users?
• Interviews with Digital Resource Providers
• Site Owners and User Researchers Meeting
• Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Appendices