Source-to-Output Repositories – Phase Two Summative Evaluation Final Report

Abstract

This document presents the final results of the phase two summative evaluation of the UKDA-StORe project’s portal repository system. After the completion of the regular funding phase of StORe under the JISC Digital Repositories programme in 2007 the project was granted an extension until mid-2008 to further refine the portal under the name UKDA-StORe. For the regular project a phase one summative evaluation assessed “the technical structure, functionality, design and quality of the demonstrator system, and the appropriateness of the ‘common model’ approach, using workshops to test the system with representative repository users”. It was agreed to conduct a phase two summative evaluation to further assess the development of UKDA-StORe and to complement the findings of the first evaluation phase. The phase two summative evaluation is based on a series of five expert user interviews to evaluate the StORe system in use. In the phase one evaluation it is stated, that “it is probable that a second complementary evaluation phase will be conducted in the future also based on the approach introduced here”. This endeavour could be realised in general, but under other specifications: As the UKDA-StORe extension did not consist of a user base for the evaluator to draw on the approach had to be modified – from user evaluation workshops to qualitative evaluation interviews with domain experts – with the task to evaluate the system in regard to barriers and facilitators to use and usability issues unchanged.