AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

How do users experience items in protective enclosures? Are they confident about how to use them, or do they feel uncertain? The experiences that researchers have while using the collections affect whether they feel included, respected, and empowered. The processes for paging items, using reading rooms, and handling objects can be intimidating and hard to navigate. If we don’t provide instructions or make a process universally understandable, we limit who will use these valuable materials.

In the Enclosures Lab of Harvard Library Preservation Services, we strive to create enclosures for library materials that are intuitive to use. However, until recently, our ideas about what is intuitive were based only on our own speculation. Because of our deep familiarity with preservation enclosures, our experiences were likely to be different from those of our users.

As far as we know, no research has been done on the usability of preservation enclosures. In 2022 we partnered with the Harvard Library’s User Research Center to conduct a study of how library users engage with common enclosures used in the Harvard Library collections. We chose four structures to investigate: a three-flap phase box fastened with strings and washers, a corrugated clamshell box, a cloth-spine portfolio fastened with velcro, and a corrugated two-piece drop-front box. The eleven study participants included Harvard students and library staff members.

The participants were first asked to tell us about their level of experience using preservation enclosures. Then they were asked to open each enclosure, remove the item, replace it, and re-close it. We also asked for their feedback about the experience of using each enclosure. While observing the participants, we took notes that we later analyzed as a group for our final report.

The participants all expressed care for the library materials and the desire to handle them correctly. By design, the enclosure cued participants to handle the item with care, but many said they believed the item inside wasn't meant to be handled by them. Some pain points in using the enclosures included uncertainty about the order in which to close the flaps, not identifying or knowing how to use the drop front on the two-piece box, and uncertainty about the correct orientation of the box. Users expressed a desire for clearer instructions on handling the enclosure and the item inside.

We then queried the conservation community at Harvard and the AIC book and paper online community for examples of instructional labeling for library enclosures and used the results to improve upon our labeling. In October 2023 we completed a follow-up study in which users gave feedback on enclosures with improved labeling. Labels substantially decreased the confusion that we noted in the previous study. Users showed a preference for instructional diagrams and “friendly” language about care and handling.

Through this case study we hope to inspire our colleagues to become curious about the uncertainty their users bring to their interactions with preservation enclosures, and illuminate opportunities for creating enclosures that people can safely and confidently use in their research.