2006SummerQ5.Response

Question #5
You have been asked to develop a multi-lingual, accessible Web-based information system for your information agency. You will be making the decisions about technology selection, information architecture, usability / accessibility, metadata design, and content management. Select an information environment of your choice and discuss the following questions:

A. How will you determine the technical and cognitive capabilities of your audience(s)? B. How will you approach issues of providing access to materials in multiple languages, multiple formats (e.g., large print; audio); and non-Roman alphabets? C. Which LIS theories and principles will guide your decision-making process? D. What role will information and communications standards and recommendations play in your development approach?

Question #5 (Set B)
You have been asked to develop a multi-lingual, accessible Web-based information system for your information agency. You will be making the decisions about technology selection, information architecture, usability / accessibility, metadata design, and content management. Select an information environment of your choice and discuss the following questions: 1) How will you determine the technical and cognitive capabilities of your audience(s)? 2) Which LIS theories and principles will guide your decision-making process?

Creating a Multi-Lingual, accessible Web-based information system

A. Determining the Technical and Cognitive Capabilities
 * Information Environment: School Library**
 * preassessment of technology skills
 * review of technology standards addressed in previous grades
 * review of test data to assess reading ability

B. Providing Access

C. LIS theories and principles that will guide decision making process
 * Theory on the Information Search Process Model by Kuhthau
 * students go through stages in information seeking
 * students have uncertainty at first especially with complex tasks
 * complex tasks add more value to the students' learning experiences
 * Stage One--intitation-thinks about task
 * Stage Two--Selection-selects a topic
 * Stage Three-Exploration--confusion at this point with information overload
 * Stage Four--Formulation--Revises search, collects relevant information
 * Stage Five--Collection--documents information
 * Stage Six--Presentation--shares learning with others
 * Stage Seven--Assessment--evaluates learning process

D. What role will information Ind communications standards and recommendations play in your development approach?

Wendy's answer: To create a multi-lingual IS, I would:
 * use demographic data to figure out which languages to cover
 * consult with stakeholders in the community
 * Find ways to translate the material: stakeholders? technological options?
 * test the system
 * launch
 * evaluate/ feedback from users

Jody: //A. How will you determine the technical and cognitive capabilities of your audience(s)?// Preassessment, clearly: gather a representative sample, interview and test them.

//B. How will you approach issues of providing access to materials in multiple languages, multiple formats (e.g., large print; audio); and non-Roman alphabets?// Necessary to first make sure the server and software used provide unicode support, and that for browsers which do not support the necessary character sets, that images for those unsupported characters are locally available and mappable to those characters, for display. Need to have access to excellent translators, to translate interfaces and materials. User interface needs to support resizable characters and screen readers; this may impact the formats for delivery, since, for example, PDFs do not normally support these things. Instead TEI transcriptions with XSL transformations would be preferable for text objects. For complex objects supporting multiple access points (example, a book with multiple resolutions of each page to enable closeup views for the visually impaired, and text for indexing for search support, and possibly linking in audio transcriptions for each page), METS would be necessary to simply keep track of all the files composing the object, and how they relate and are ordered. Software would need to support the necessary formats; a streaming server may be needed for large audio/video files, and an assessment of delivery options in this regard would have to be fine-tuned to the levels of access and need of the users. For example, streaming media needs to be available in different versions for dial-up access versus DSL or T1 access.

//C. Which LIS theories and principles will guide your decision-making process?// Ranganathan's laws: "Books are for use","Every reader his or her book", "Every book its reader", "Save the time of the reader," and "The Library is a growing organism." "__Books are for use"__: Support of the digital objects must include backup copies and scripts that check continually for corruption, as if the objects become corrupt, they cannot be used. "__Every reader his or her book"__: The site must contain resources that are appropriate for all the targeted users. In addition, we need open access, or at least accessibility by the targeted users: if the users will be using handheld devices, and we create a site usable only by full-screen computers, then our objects are not of use. "__Every book its reader__": To locate the targeted reader, it may be helpful to provide RSS/ATOM feeds for new content, OAI records for the content, and other methods of outreach to connect the material with the user who needs it. "__Save the time of the reader__": The website must be designed with usability in mind, and search and retrieval, and browse options must be functional and targeted to the user audience. "__The Library is a growing organism__": Provisions must be made for expansion, adaptation, and change. Existing formats of files and the delivery system itself, will need to be migrated time after time to remain current and accessible. Files may need revision and correction. Collections are likely to grow and/or be repurposed in different ways over time; audiences are likely to change, requiring adaptation in search, browse, and other discovery and display methods. Usability options will grow, and web agents will be able to provide possibilities for reuse of objects by users, that we will need to support. The ongoing support and maintenance of the system must be expected and planned for.

//D. What role will information and communications standards and recommendations play in your development approach?// Standards provide for interoperability, as well as best practices in both delivery and preservation. Current standards must be used, and XML/unicode support is the baseline undergirding for each of them. In addition, updates to standards over time will likely require migrations in order to continue to be interoperable and most useful to our audience. Best practices make the current standards most interoperable, and profiles chosen should be registered and publicly shared. SRU/SRW and Z39.50 (as well as OAI) support would also be highly recommended in support of "Every book its reader."