Enhanced exploration of oral history archives through processed video and synchronized text transcripts

A digital video library of over 900 hours of video and 18000 stories from The HistoryMakers was used by 266 students, faculty, librarians, and life-long learners interacting with a system providing multiple search and viewing capabilities over a trial period of several months. User demographics and actions were logged with this multimedia collection, providing quantitative and qualitative metrics on system use. These transaction logs were complemented with heuristic evaluation, interviews, and contextual inquiry with representative users. Collectively, these mixed methods informed the development of the next generation web-based interface for the HistoryMakers video oral histories to improve access to and dissemination of this rich cultural resource. In particular, the feature of a synchronized text transcript in the video player for the narratives merited further investigation. Such an interface has not seen widespread use in digital video players available on the web, yet was valued...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: MM
• Authors: Michael G. Christel, Scott M. Stevens, Bryan Maher, Julieanna Richardson
• Keywords: MM 2010, Multimedia, Oral Histories, Video, Video Player