User-centered Digital Library Evaluation Model And Empirical Research

After the resource-centered and integrated services-centered construction phases, the construction of digital libraries in China is developing quickly toward the user-centered direction. However, evaluation of digital library use was neglected due to the past great emphasis on building electronic resources and applying of new technologies, especially user-centered evaluation studies did not get enough attention. Existing digital library evaluation studies focus on establishing evaluation index systems, and empirical studies on user evaluation rules and patterns are scarce in the existing literature.As end users of digital libraries and direct beneficiary, only users can give the most fundamental value judgments, so they are the starting point for discovering and solving problems. It is an essential part in digital library construction to study the rules and patterns of user evaluation. Therefore, from the user point of view and based on the statistical analysis of a large survey sample, this article is to discover the patterns in user evaluation of digital librariesThis article put forward to a theoretical user-centered digital library evaluation model, and did an empirical test by using the statistical methods including factor analysis and structural equation model. Firstly, this article summarized four levels of measure variables on basis of Information Success Model, existing studies and the result of user interview, including quality evaluation(information quality, service quality, system quality, interface usability, social image), effectiveness evaluation(usability evaluation, easiness of use), satisfaction evaluation(total user satisfaction), loyalty evaluation(intention of reuse). Another three variables including influence of important person, self-efficacy of information retrieval, knowledge of domain were also included, research hypothesis on the relationships between these variables were promoted, and a theoretical digital library evaluation model was established. Secondly, a questionnaire as the research tool was developed. The initial questionnaire was modified after a small-scale interview, and the formal questionnaire was created after the pre-survey through exploratory factor analysis, reliability test and validity test. Then the theoretical model was validated and modified on basis of the data collected through a large-scale survey using the formal questionnaire, research methods including confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were carried out.Through the empirical test and analysis, this study found:(1)easiness of use evaluation(EE) was influenced directly by the variables of system quality (SQ), usability of interface(UOI), and social image(SI) in which UOI was the most important factor; usability evaluation(UE) was influenced directly by the variables of information quality(IQ), usability of interface(UOI), knowledge of domain(KOD), and indirectly influenced by easiness of use evaluation(EE). For usability evaluation(EE), information quality(IQ) was the most important direct factor; overall user satisfaction(ORS) was influenced directly by system quality(SQ), social image(SI), easiness of use evaluation(EE) and usefulness evaluation(UE); intension of reuse(IORU) was influenced directly by overall user satisfaction(ORS), usefulness evaluation(UE), self-efficacy of information retrieval(SEOIR) and impact of important persons(IOIP). Overall, the validation model was in line with the value chain of "perceived quality-perceived value-total customer satisfaction-customer loyalty" in economic field. Meanwhile, in addition of information quality(IQ), usability of interface showed an outstanding impact on effectiveness evaluation among the other objective factors, and should be taken as an important factor for digital library construction. In contrast, service quality(SQ) showed a lack of influence on other variables.Moderator variable analysis on gender, discipline, educational level and the length of time was carried out on the relationships between variables in the validation model to discover the differences between different user groups and their characteristics in evaluation. This article discovered that for female users, users with science and engineering background, undergraduate users and new users, usability of interface was the factor with the most significant effect on effectiveness evaluation; for male users, users with humanities and social science background, master and doctoral users, old users with over one year experience, system quality was the most important factor influencing the easiness of use; for the users with experience of one to three years, female users, master and doctoral users, their satisfaction toward digital libraries was easy to be influenced by the easiness of use; the satisfaction of undergraduate users and users with use experience of within one year or over three years was easily affected by the social image of digital libraries. In the general trend, the influence of total user satisfaction on intention of reuse would decrease as their use experience of digital libraries increase.Finally, taken the established user-centered digital library evaluation model as theoretical guidance, this study pointed out its reference value for establishing the user-centered digital library evaluation index system, and proposed some measures to promote the effective use of digital libraries:to pay more attention on the usability of interface, to improve service quality of digital library, to increase digital library advocacy, to promote the social image of digital libraries, to pay more attention to discipline information literacy education, and to apply personalized recommendation systems.