ArchivesZ: Visualizing Archival Collections

May 10, 2007University of Maryland, College Park

CMSC 734 – Spring 2007

Jeanne Kramer-Smyth

Morimichi Nishigaki

Tim Anglade

A little about the problem.

Users of library catalogs know what to expect

Archives/Manuscripts are more mysterious

?One box?Ten boxes?

Need to drill down to full record to find out quantity of materials

Or examine the finding aid

Archival Collection Metadata• Subjects• Range of years• Size measured in linear feet

+ AggregateVisualizeSearch

ArchivesZ

Architecture

Data Translations

Visualization

Multi-value attributes datasetWe propose an innovative method for visualization and exploration of items associated with multi-value attributes

Item 1 A B

Ex) Multi-value attributes dataset

Item 2 A C E

Item 3 B

Item 4 D E

Items Multi-value attributes

Item 5 B D E F

In our application, items are collections, and multi-value attributes are subjects.

How to visualize this type of dataset?

Aggregation and Overlap

A

Item 1 A BItem 2 A C EItem 3 BItem 4 D EItem 5 B D E F

Item 1

Item 2 Item 3

Item 1

Item 2

Item 4

Item 5

Item 2

Item 4

Item 5 Item 5

B C D E F

# of

Ite

ms

• Intersection (overlap) carry relations between attribute values and help users to explore dataset

• Selected attribute values are in users’ interest.• Focusing on the overlap with selected items

A

Item 1

Item 2 Item 3

Item 1

Item 2

Item 4

Item 5

Item 2

Item 4

Item 5 Item 5

B C D E F

# of

Ite

ms

Selected

overlap with selected group

Dual-sided histogram

0 1 22 1

B

C

D

E

F

Ex) Selected: {A}Ex) Selected: {}

2 3 40 1

B

C

D

E

F

AThis histogram is called dual-sided histogram

A

Visualizing total amount on selected attribute values and overlaps at the same time.Giving users an idea for further adding selected attribute values for searching items.

In our application, sizes of collections are used instead of number of items.

overlap non-overlap

Demo!

Next Steps• Stage ArchivesZ online with small dataset and

invite the larger archives and historian community to give feedback

Thank you!• Special thank you to Jennie Levine, Curator of

Historical Manuscripts University of Maryland Libraries – provider of EAD encoded finding aids and answers to many questions

Questions?