Augmenting Digital Catalogue Functionality with Support for Customization

Digital catalogue systems are a very important and useful tool for locating and accessing information in digital libraries. The information provided in a digital catalogue is normally intended for a wide user base. This breadth of applicability often reduces the degree of support and usability of the digital catalogue at the individual user level. To improve this situation a strategy is required which supports the ability to personalize digital catalogue information on the one side while maintaining the original information on the other side. The benefits are many-fold: Firstly, digital catalogues can be used more effectively as information finding and gathering tools, secondly, customization according to personal needs of the users adds value to digital catalogues, and thirdly, digital catalogues can be utilized in new ways such as for information and knowledge management purposes. Against this background, this paper presents a strategy to enhance the usability of digital catalogues through customization. In addition, it also describes how this strategy has been used to support customization within an existing digital catalogue system.