(That title is a mouthful!)

This week I am conducting interviews with three of the four people I planned to interview for my UX Case Study on the Mormon Women’s Oral History Collection. The fourth interview is my interview with Morna Gerard that was conducted as a practice run three weeks ago. For those I am interviewing this week, I am going to detail each individual separately as well as list the questions I am going to ask them. Given the varying levels of engagement that the individuals I am interviewing have with the Collection, some adjustments to each interviewee’s interview questions was necessary to better understand how those with “insider” knowledge about the collection differs from those “outside” the collection.

Interview 1

Lynee Lewis Gaillet – Distinguished Professor at Georgia State University whose research interests include women’s rhetoric, religious women’s rhetoric, feminist rhetorics, archives and archival studies.

• Questions
  1. What is your research focus?
  2. What collections or kinds of collections do you use for your research?
  3. Where are they housed?
  4. How are they accessed?
  5. Have you ever heard of the Mormon Women Oral History Collection?
     • If yes, where did you hear about it?
     • If not, does the title of the collection sound like one that would fit with your research interests?
  6. Here is the link to the site: https://www.mormonwomenohp.org/
     • Spend 2 minutes browsing the site
  7. Based off your examination of the site, what is the collection about?
  8. Now that you have read a bit about it, would you be interested in using the collection as part of your research?
     • If yes, what about the collection do you find correlates with your research?
     • If no, would further information about the collection be helpful to change your interest level?
       • If yes, what kind of information would be helpful to know?
       • If no, what about the collection makes you not interested in using it for future research?

Interview 2

Caroline Kline – Assistant Director for Global Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University; Director of the Mormon Women’s Oral History Project and Collection

• Questions
  1. A deeper dive into your background
     • What led you to your profession?
     • Personal interests as a professor/ scholar?
     • What about the topics you study/emphasize do you find most interesting? Why?
  2. Questions about your initial involvement in the Mormon Women Oral history project?
     • How it has grown?
     • What dynamics of the collection do you see as its strengths? Weaknesses?
     • Where you would like to see it go?
     • What were the initial goals of the project?
     • Have the project goals evolved?
       • If so, how?
       • If not, are the intended goals being met? 
     • Was the intention of the project to always digitize the collection?
       • If so, for what purpose?
       • If not, has digitizing it changed its purpose?
  3. Questions about how it is currently being used as a collection?
     • Who typically uses the collection? How do they use it and/or research it?
     • Any numbers about citations?
     • Or use in publications, etc? 
  4. What limitations you see about the project in terms of usability and/or accessibility by users?
     • In other words, do you see any issues with people researching the collection?
       • If so, what?
       • If not, what is effective and working?
     • What would you like to see made more available or used differently regarding the collection?

Interview 3

Lisa Crane – Western Americana Manuscripts Librarian for Claremont Graduate University’s Special Collections Department, including the Mormon Women’s Oral History Collection head archivist

• Questions
  1. Background Questions
     • What is your education background and experience with working in the library and with archives?
     • How did you become interested in your profession?
     • How long have you worked at Claremont Graduate University?
  2. Work on the Mormon Women’s Oral History Collection
     • When did you become involved in working on the collection?
     • What was your initial role?
     • Has that role changed at all over time?
       • If so, how?
       • If not, how do you view your role going forward?
     • How is the collection housed?
       • Onsite?
       • Digitally?
     • Are there any issues or concerns for individuals to be aware of when working with the Collection?
       • Can you elaborate?
  3. Digitizing the Collection
     • What role do you play in digitizing the Collection?
     • Was the intention of the project to always digitize the collection?
       • If so, for what purpose?
       • If not, has digitizing it changed its purpose?
     • How is the digital collection organized?
     • Who is responsible for its organization on the Claremont Colleges Digital Libraries website?
     • Who determines what searching capabilities are enabled for people searching the collection?
  4. Improving Accessibility to the Collection
     • How do most users engage with or encounter the Collection? Digitally or Inhouse?
     • Do you see access to the Collection growing or changing over time?
       • How so?
     • Do you think the current arrangement of the collection (both digitally or inhouse) is easily accessible to interested individuals?
       • If yes, how so?
       • If no, how would you like accessibility increased?
  5. Any remaining thoughts?