User Behavior and Evaluation of Multilingual Information Access in Digital Libraries

Abstract

While the importance of multilingual access to information systems is undoubted, few truly operational systems exist and can serve as examples. This dissertation addresses the issue of what the user expectations and the consequences for system development are in a multilingual information environment. It starts with a general overview over the aspects of multilingual access in digital libraries. Building on previous experiences, the study focuses on a combination of log file analysis and an usability test on user needs and desired features for multilingual access based on a functional digital library with multilingual requirements (Europeana). I present the Europeana Clickstream Logger, which logs and gathers extended information on user behavior, and show first examples of the data collection possibilities. The outcome of the analysis is a description of user requirements. The dissertation concludes with the development of a possible approach for the design of multilingual information systems.