1. Mapping the use of digital sourcesamongst Humanities scholars in the Netherlands Max Kemman MSc, Martijn Kleppe MA,dr. Stef Scagliola, Renske JongbloedMA, prof. dr. Henri Beunders @MaxJ_K www.axes-project.eu

2. State of affairs www.axes-project.eu 3. The more, the merrier?PhD student, History, 24 www.axes-project.eu 4. The more, the merrier?If there is an easier way, I willdo it another way. So I wontgo on the Internet to search.Theres so much, there is somuch information. So you canbetter call someone whoknows than search it foryourself. www.axes-project.eu 5. State of affairs In the past decade we have seen an explosionof available online databases and tools In development of databases for digitalhumanities, questions are How do academics currently use databases? What do academics wish from future databases? How should we educate academics to becomedigital humanity scholars? www.axes-project.eu 6. Research questions1. To what extent are online databases used?2. Which subdisciplines use digital sources more and which less?3. Which search techniques are applied? www.axes-project.eu 7. Academic user research Interviews Survey Netherlands and Belgium Online N=294 15-20 minutes Lots of data (250 variables in SPSS) www.axes-project.eu 8. Who did the survey? Position Largest group: PhD student But good distribution over other positions Age Largest group: 25-34 But good distribution over other age groups Discipline Largest group: History Other disciplines: Social Studies, Mass Communications, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy www.axes-project.eu 9. Research questions1. To what extent are online databases used?2. Which subdisciplines use digital sources more and which less?3. Which search techniques are applied? www.axes-project.eu 10. Which of the following digital data doyou use professionally?Very oftenOftenText (books, news, etc.) Scholarly publications RegularlyStatistical dataSometimes Numerical Digitized objects ImagesNever AudioVideo data www.axes-project.eu 11. Differences between disciplinesTraditional digital data Modern digital dataImages: Literature, HistoryVideo: Mass CommunicationsDigitized objects: Literature, History,Audio: LinguisticsPhilosophy Numerical data: Social Studies, Linguistics Statistical data: Social Studies, Mass Communications, LinguisticsOverall: Literature, History, Philosophy Overall: Mass Communications, Linguistics, Social Studies www.axes-project.eu 12. Dont Sometimes Very often Often Regularly Neverknow itGoogleGoogle ImagesGoogle ScholarYouTubeJSTOR Uitzending Gemist KB Flickr EBSCO Nationaal Archief Web of Knowledge Yahoo! Bing Academia.nl or databases do you use? Europeana ScopusMicrosoft Academic SearchWhich of the following search enginesEUscreenwww.axes-project.euArkyves 13. When do you trust a search engine ordatabase? 250Number of participants 200 150 10050 0 Experienced Expertise High quality Understand Heard about Broad range Read aboutit behind itselectionits inneritof resultsit online workingswww.axes-project.eu 14. Research questions1. To what extent are online databases used? Mostly text-based data usage, followed by images Google dominant in every way Trust is based mostly on experience2. Which subdisciplines use digital sources more and which less? Traditional digital data (Images, Digitized objects): Literature, History and Philosophy Modern digital data (Video, Audio, Statistical and Numerical data) Social studies, Mass Communications, Linguistics3. Which search techniques are applied? www.axes-project.eu 15. Search techniques 1. Keywords 4,75 2. Advanced search 3,36 3. Related terms 2,52 4. Boolean 2,42 5. Browsing subjectcategories 2,29 6. Filters 2,19 7. Thesaurus 1,87 8. Visualization 1,22www.axes-project.eu 16. (Audiovisual) search behaviour Academics are surfers with a non-specificgoal in mind Academics are positively confident in theirability to use search tools Respondents below 45 years are more confidentthan those above 45 years www.axes-project.eu 17. Research questions1. To what extent are online databases used?2. Which subdisciplines use digital sources more and which less?3. Which search techniques are applied? Most important are ease and speed Search behaviour: younger academics (below 45years) are more confident in their use of(audiovisual) search toolswww.axes-project.eu 18. Conclusion We see that Text is the dominant medium Google is the dominant search system Google dominates search techniques Trust in a search engine or database is basedprimarily on experiencewww.axes-project.eu 19. State of affairs?www.axes-project.eu 20. Consequences Unknown, unloved, undesired? How to make the Digital Humanitiesknown, loved and desired? www.axes-project.eu 21. Loved?PhD student, History, 34 www.axes-project.eu 22. Influence of usabilityI think its veryimportant to have a goodand workable interfacefor these objects. Thatswhy I used a papercatalogue, because theinterface and the way tosearch these objects isnot idealwww.axes-project.eu 23. Consequences Unknown, unloved, undesired? How to make the Digital Humanitiesknown, loved and desired? What does this mean for Digital Humanities? Development should be user driven www.axes-project.eu 24. Known?Professor, History, 56 www.axes-project.eu 25. Google in the curriculum?Now I would say they need to learnthe logical structures, the basicideas about how search-programmes are made, how thedata are kept at computers. How itspossible that something like Googleexists. You can think well, youreborn with Google, so you dontknow there was a world withoutGoogle. And how it is possible thatthere is a search machine that canhandle all those. www.axes-project.eu 26. Consequences Unknown, unloved, undesired? How to make the Digital Humanitiesknown, loved and desired? What does this mean for Digital Humanities? Development should be user driven Digital Humanities should be part of educationwww.axes-project.eu 27. Thank you for you attention!Max Kemman Erasmus University Rotterdam kemman@eshcc.eur.nl@MaxJ_Kwww.axes-project.eu