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- Kathleen, historian/writer
- Regularly researches in archives for material and images related to her books on local history
- Would like to be able to use the advanced search to limit results to collections only, not archival objects
- Finds the navigation terms confusing; would prefer natural language terms
Historical Society
- Terrence, History professor, 45 years old
- Wants to easily locate information
- prefers staff find it for him
- can’t read historical documents (English is not his first language) and would prefer to see transcriptions
- If he has to view it online, it needs to be one click or less from the search page
- Bob, History enthusiast, 62 years old
- Collects information about random historical events that he hopes to someday write about and publish
- Spends a lot of time in archives
- Wants photocopies of everything
- Will use online tools, but expects them to look like traditional paper finding aids
- Sally, Music Professor, 50 years old
- Desperately wants to access a collection described in the online catalog but cannot travel
- Will pay to fund digitization
- The collection includes bound volumes, which she would like to flip through in the same way as an e-book
- Wants to access digital images in the same place as the description, without having to click forward and back. She wants to see the finding aid, have the digital object open in a new window, and easily be able to close it to click on the next item from the finding aid.
- Madison, Middle school student, age 13
- Creating a film for history day focused on the Litchfield Female Academy
- Doesn’t know what a finding aid is, but has a basic understanding of primary sources
- Wants digital images to include in her project
- Has great difficulty reading anything that isn’t transcribed
- Octavia Rosecliff, Historical Fiction writer, 49
- Writing a bodice ripper based in Litchfield during the early republic
- Doesn’t want to look anything up herself
- Would like information about things like bathing in the 1800s to provide historical context for various scenes
- Needs to be able to search the collection by date
- Ryan, Television Producer, 34
- Producing a show about ghosts. Looking to find any documentation about haunting
- Doesn’t want to do any research
- Would like images of any homes that will be featured
- Wants all information about image permissions and fees to be included in anything he looks at
- Wants to be able to pay fees online
- Gertie, Author and Public Speaker, 65
- Researching her ancestor, an enslaved African-American, for a project
- Would like access to archives and artifacts (cataloged in CollectionSpace)
- Would like digital images available
- Shares contextual information and research the repository can use to enhance the finding aid
- Beulah, 72, Genealogist
- She doesn’t have an e-mail address and is not happy at the idea of conducting her own search online
- She wants to find vital records
- She’s hoping to join the DAR and needs to have verification of her ancestor’s service