Form Survey Instrument Survey Instrument IMLS Digital Collections and Content: An Assessment of O

IMLS Digital Collections and Content

Opening History Evaluation

 There are 18 questions in this survey, divided into 4 sections.

About Your Library and Service Community

1. What type of library do you represent?

Choose only one option:

Academic library

Public library

[If “Academic library”]

2. What size is your library, measured by full-time enrollment?

Choose only one option:

Small (serving full-time enrollment under 3k)

Medium (serving full-time enrollment between 3k and 9k)

Large (serving full-time enrollment 10k and above)

[If “Public library”]

2. What size is your library, measured by population served?

Choose only one option:

Small (serving population under 24k)

Medium (serving population 25k-99k)

Large (serving population 100k and above)

3. In what state is your library located? (Choose one.)

Choose only one option:

[dropdown list of states]

4. What groups in your service community are the most frequent users of historical materials?

Please rank order from 1 to 3, with 1 being the most frequent users:

• General adults

• History enthusiasts

• Genealogists

• Professionals

• Primary and middle school students

• High school students

• Undergraduate students

• Graduate students

• K-12 teachers or administrators

• College or university faculty

• Other (Please specify below)

5. If you chose “Other” above, please list the group(s) below.

Please write your answer here:

 

6. Please list 5-10 examples of historical topics of interest to your service community at large.

Please write your answer here:

7. Please list one or more digital history resources your library makes available to your service community.

Please write your answer here:

Introduction to Opening History

Opening History is an aggregation of digital U.S. history resources from libraries, museums and archives. Opening History currently provides access to more than 1,000 collections and more than one million items.

Please take a few minutes to review the Opening History main page and the “Browse Collections” options at http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/history/.

8. Compared to other digital history resources you make available, how well does Opening History cover the following areas?

Please choose a response for each area:

	Much Narrower	Narrower	About the Same	Broader	Much Broader	Don’t Know
Geographic regions
Range of subject areas
Range of types of materials (different kinds of texts, images, etc.)

COMMENT BOX

9. Compared to other digital history resources you make available, how would you describe the presentation quality of Opening History?

Please choose only one option:

Much higher quality

Somewhat higher quality

About the same quality

Somewhat lower quality

• Much lower quality

• Don’t know

COMMENT BOX

10. How well do you think the browsing categories provided on the main page match the history interests of your service community at large?
See http://imlsdcc.grainger.illinois.edu/history/.

Please choose only one option:

Very high match

High match

Medium match

Low match

No match

Don’t know

COMMENT BOX

Exploring Opening History

11. Please try a couple of searches on topics of interest to your users.
You may search for topics listed in your answer to question #6 above or try related or more specific search terms.

How well does Opening History cover these topic areas?

Please choose only one option:

Very good coverage

Good coverage

Uneven coverage

Basic coverage

Minimal coverage

• No coverage

• Don’t know

COMMENT BOX

Please take a minute to review this collection record:

  http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/history/collections/FullDisplay.asp?cid=2424.

12. The format of this collection record is:

Please choose only one option:

Too complex

Complex

Fine, neither complex nor simple

Simple

Too simple

Don’t know

13. The description of this collection is:

Please choose only one option:

Very clear

Clear

Adequate

Unclear

Very unclear

Don’t know

Please provide any additional comments on the quality or usefulness of the collection record here:

COMMENT BOX

Your General Assessment of Opening History

14. How useful do you think Opening History would be as a research resource for your service community at large?

Please choose only one option:

Extremely useful

Very useful

Useful

Somewhat useful

Not at all useful

Don’t know

COMMENT BOX

15. How valuable do you think Opening History would be to you in providing reference services?

Please choose only one option:

Extremely valuable

Very valuable

Valuable

Somewhat valuable

Not at all valuable

Don’t know

COMMENT BOX

16. What kind of materials could be added to make Opening History more valuable for your service community?

Please type your answer here:

 17. What kind of materials could be added to make Opening History more valuable for you in providing reference services?

Please type your answer here:

18. How could the presentation of Opening History be improved? Please feel free to comment on any aspect, including the interface design, organization of content, metadata records, etc.

Please type your answer here:

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