Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Archival Organization

Author ORCID Identifier

Paul Daybell https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9830-5870

Andrea Payant https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9873-1538

Liz Woolcott https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-1392

Becky Skeen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0215-6936

Publisher

Routledge

Publication Date

7-4-2022

First Page

1

Last Page

34

Abstract

As part of a multi-faceted research project examining user engagement with various types of descriptive metadata, Utah State University Libraries Cataloging and Metadata Services unit (CMS) investigated the discoverability of local Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids. The research team put two versions of the same finding aid online with one described at the file (box or folder) level and the other at the item level. Over a year later, the team pulled the analytics for each guide and assessed which descriptive level was most frequently accessed. The research team also looked at the type of search terms patrons utilized and where in the finding aid they were located. Usage data shows that personal names are the most common type of search term, search terms are most commonly found in the Collection Inventory, and that the availability of item-level description improves discovery by an average of 6,100% over file-level descriptions.

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Archival Organization on 04 Jul 2022, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15332748.2022.2089321.

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