Abstract
Digitizing ancient books, especially those related to the humanities, is practiced in many countries. The number of full-text databases in the humanities is increasing. Studies have shown that ancient books are important resources for humanities scholars and researchers. However, comparatively little research has been done concerning the use of those databases. Thirty graduate students majoring in Chinese Literature or History were interviewed in this study. This study attempts to answer the following questions: How do interviewees use the databases? Do they encounter any problems? What do they have to say concerning ancient books in digital or paper form? The results show that humanities graduate students use ancient books databases to locate information concerning their research interests. Most of them are satisfied with the search functions and feel that the databases are convenient to use. However, they comment that the coverage, quality, and search interface could be improved upon. As well, a few graduate students suggest that links to related resources should be added. They state that they do not totally rely upon the databases and continue to use paper sources.
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.
References
Barrett, A.: The Information-seeking Habits of Graduate Student Researchers in the Humanities. Journal of Academic Librarianship 31, 324–331 (2005)
Bates, M.J.: The Getty End-User Online Searching Project in the Humanities: Report No. 6: Overview and Conclusions. College and Research Libraries 57(6), 514–523 (1996)
Chen, T.C.: A Case Study on Human-Machine Interaction for the Handy Text Retrieval System. Journal of Library and Information Science 24(2), 65–85 (1998)
Delgadillo, R., Lynch, B.P.: Future Historians: Their Quest for Information. College & Research Libraries 60, 245–259 (1999)
Electronic Text Center: Electronic Text Center Collections, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/
Hoogcarspel, A.: The Rutgers Inventory of Machine Readable Text in the Humanities: Cataloging and Access. Information Technology and Libraries 13, 27–34 (1994)
Hsieh, C.C., Lin, H.: A Survey of Full-text Data Bases and Related Techniques for Chinese Ancient Documents in Academia Sinica, http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~tdbproj/handy1/
Katzen, M.: Application of Computers in the Humanities. Information Processing and Management 22, 259–267 (1986)
Massey-Burzio, V.: The Rush to Technology: A View from the Humanists. Library Trends 47, 620–639 (1999)
National Central Library: Guide to Rare Books Image System, http://rarebook.ncl.edu.tw/rbook.cgi/store/frameset.htm
National Digital Archives Program, Taiwan: Outcomes of the Program: Rare Books, http://www.ndap.org.tw/2_catalog/visit_folder.php?id=386
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation: Online Book Catalog: Top 100, http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top
Reynolds, J.: A Brave New World: User Studies in the Humanities Enter the Electronic Age. Reference Librarian 49(50), 61–81 (1995)
Stone, S.: Humanities Scholars: Information Needs and Uses. Journal of Documentation 38, 292–313 (1982)
Talja, S.: Information Sharing in Academic Communities: Types and Levels of Collaboration in Information Seeking and Use. New Review of Information Behavior Research 3, 143–160 (2002)
Talja, S., Maula, H.: Reasons for the Use and Non-use of Electronic Journals and Databases: A Domain Analytic Study in Four Scholarly and Disciplines. Journal of Documentation 59, 673–691 (2003)
Watson-Boone, R.: The Information Needs and Habits of Humanities Scholars. RQ 34, 203–216 (1994)
Wu, M.D., Huang, W.C., Chen, S.C.: Humanities Scholars and Chinese Ancient Books Databases. Journal of Library and Information Studies 4 (2006 in press)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wu, Md., Chen, Sc. (2007). Humanities Graduate Students’ Use Behavior on Full-Text Databases for Ancient Chinese Books. In: Goh, D.HL., Cao, T.H., Sølvberg, I.T., Rasmussen, E. (eds) Asian Digital Libraries. Looking Back 10 Years and Forging New Frontiers. ICADL 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4822. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77094-7_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77094-7_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77093-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-77094-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)