Abstract
Medical digital libraries are essentially life-critical applications providing timely access for professionals and the public to current medical knowledge and practice. This paper presents a new methodology for evaluating the impact of the knowledge within a medical digital library on users by testing their knowledge improvements and attitude changes. Using pre and post-use questionnaires we tested the impact of a small medical information website acting as an interface to the National electronic Library for Communicable Disease. The changes in user attitudes and the correlation with knowledge improvements observed indicate the potential for this methodology to be applied as a general evaluation technique of digital libraries and the impact of online information on user learning.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Health on the Net Foundation, Evolution of Internet Use for health purposes (March 2002), http://www.hon.ch/Survey/FebMar2001/survey.html
Nielsen, J.: Designing web usability: the practice of simplicity. New Riders, Indianapolis (1999)
Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H.: Interaction Design. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester (2002)
Adams, A., Blandford, A.: Acceptability of Medical Digital Libraries. Health Informatics Journal 8(2), 58–66 (2002)
Eysenbach, G., Kohler, C.: How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests and in-depth interviews. British Medical Journal 324(7337), 573–577 (2002)
Bauchner, H., Osganian, S., Smith, K., Triant, R.: Improving Parent Knowledge about Antibiotics: A Video Intervention. Pediatrics 108(4), 845–850 (2001)
Greenberg, R.S., Billet, C., Zahurak, M., Yaster, M.: Videotape increase parental knowledge about pediatric pain management. Anesthesia & Analgesia 89(4), 899–903 (1999)
Van House, N.A., Butler, M.H., Ogle, V., Schiff, L.: User centered iterative design for digital libraries: the Cypress experience. D-Lib Magazine (February 1996)
Weinberg, J.R., Mani-Saada, J., Smith, K.: The National electronic Library for Communicable Disease (NeLCD). In: Poster. FIS Conference, UK (2000)
Nicholas, D., Huntington, P., Williams, P., Jordan, M.: NHS Direct Online: its users and their concerns. Journal of Information Science 28(4), 305–319 (2002)
Simpson, J.A., Weiner, E.S.C. (eds.): knowledge, n.2 Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1989) OED Online. Oxford University Press. April 4 (2000), http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00127606
Eagly, A.H., Chaiken, S.: The Psychology of Attitudes, Fort Worth, Harcourt Brace (1993)
Burch, A.: Science Museum Audience Profile: A report on the first year’s data. Visitor Research Group, Science Museum London (March 2002)
Lancaster, K.: Patient Empowerment. Library & Information Update 2(3), 36–37 (2003)
Using NeLH, http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/new_users.asp
Sfakakis, M., Kapidakis, S.: User behavior tendencies on data collections in a digital library. In: Agosti, M., Thanos, C. (eds.) ECDL 2002. LNCS, vol. 2458, pp. 550–559. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Madle, G., Kostkova, P., Mani-Saada, J., Weinberg, J.R. (2003). Evaluating the Changes in Knowledge and Attitudes of Digital Library Users. In: Koch, T., Sølvberg, I.T. (eds) Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. ECDL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2769. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45175-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45175-4_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40726-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45175-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive