University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, School of Information)

The University of Maryland will create and evaluate two user-centered assessment toolkits designed to generate information and feedback on the use of digitized Native American ethnographic archives for each user community, Native Americans, and academic researchers. The project includes the identification of meaningful and measurable impacts gathered from a spectrum of cultural heritage workers, scholars, and different constituencies of Native American ethnographic archival collections; the creation of impact assessment tools for analyzing digitized archives that involve ethnographic collections; and recommendations for improvements based on the findings of the impact assessments. Each toolkit will include validated and tested questionnaires and instructions for their administration; guidelines for coding, analyzing, and interpreting questionnaire data; sample reports; and specific case uses that demonstrate how to implement or respond to insights learned from assessment.