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The KB, the national library of the Netherlands, provides access to historical text collections such as digitised newspapers and books through its online services. The KB identified a gap between user-friendly search services like Delpher and DBNL, and the service Dataservices for advanced digital research. Dataservices is inaccessible to many users because it requires storing requested data themselves and programming algorithms. At the same time, the KB sees increasing possibilities for digital research on its text collections. Against this backdrop, the KB commissioned Dialogic to explore whether there is a need among its users for an analysis platform where multiple collections (from the KB as well as external sources) can be integrated and analysed in a so-called "text suite."
To understand how a text suite can support users in their research on (historical) text collections, we have developed a schema of the different research phases and associated needs based on literature research. This schema is illustrated in the figure below. Through interviews and a survey of 873 users of KB services, various potential functional needs were assessed to determine how a text suite can add value.
We conclude that there is no clear demand for advanced features for the Analyse phase. Although this was the starting point of the exploration, interviewees and respondents from the online survey indicate less need for this and lower usage if it were offered. Three main arguments are central to this. Firstly, due to the great heterogeneity of source material from the KB and elsewhere, researchers prefer to consolidate everything on their own computer for analysis. Importing sources into a text suite could raise questions about the sustainable preservation of compiled collections. Secondly, rapid developments in quantitative analysis tools, in particular, pose a risk according to interviewees, that the KB may offer tools that quickly become outdated, especially if they are not heavily used to justify continuous development efforts. Finally, we note that where analysis functionality is provided in existing platforms (e.g. the n-gram viewer in DBNL or frequency analysis in Nederlab), this does not appear to lead significantly to recognition and wide application for new research questions, indicating limited latent demand for such features.
On the other hand, we find a clear need for more advanced capabilities in the Discover and Select phases. Our recommendation to the KB is to position a text suite as a user-friendly tool for users and researchers to independently select data for export and analysis using their own tools.
You can download the full report via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6591571. Based on our findings, the KB has decided to develop a service to support advanced capabilities for discovery and selection.
Interested in this research? Contact Max Kemman for more information.