Establishing evaluation criteria for e-dictionaries
| Pages | 152-166 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-02-2017-0031 |
| Published date | 19 March 2018 |
| Date | 19 March 2018 |
| Author | Liezl H. Ball,Theo J.D. Bothma |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Establishing evaluation criteria
for e-dictionaries
Liezl H. Ball and Theo J.D. Bothma
Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to identify criteria according to which e-dictionaries can be evaluated.
Information technology can be used to enhance e-dictionaries, but if not done carefully, information tools that
completely overwhelm a user with irrelevant information can be developed. Criteria are necessary according
to which e-dictionaries can be developed and evaluated to ensure tools that only provide relevant information
on demand.
Design/methodology/approach –A literature review was conducted to identify trends in lexicography
and modern information technology. Previous usability studies were considered to identify key usability
issues. The information was synthesised to identify a set of criteria.
Findings –It was found the e-dictionaries should be evaluated according to their content, information
architecture, navigation, acce ss (searching and browsing), help, customisation and use of other
innovative technologies.
Originality/value –A comprehensive set of criteria has been identified that can be used to evaluate
e-dictionaries and to guide lexicographers in the development of e-dictionaries.
Keywords Evaluation criteria, Heuristic evaluation, e-dictionaries, Electronic dictionaries, Lexicography,
Usability evaluation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
With the vast amount of information available, more tools that can help a person to access
relevant information quickly are becoming increasingly important. An example of such an
information tool that can meet information needs of users is an e-dictionary. Dictionaries
contain selectedand prepared data which are easily and quickly accessible through different
access routes (Tarp, 2007, p. 173). The electronic medium is a different (and relatively new)
medium through which dictionaries are made available. Developments in information
technology allow for enhancements or additions to dictionaries that were not necessarily
possible before and have led to many dreams and discussions about an ideal dictionary that
can give access to only relevant information whilst withholding irrelevant information.
The next section will consider some of the technologies that can be applied to e-dictionaries.
1.2 Information technology for e-dictionaries
Information technology presents many exciting possibilities to the field of lexicography.
Through the use of technology much more data canbestoredandincludedinadictionary.For
example, e-dictionaries do not need to rely on abbreviations of words (De Schryver, 2003, p. 157)
or obscure symbols to identify items (Gouws, 2014a, p. 161). Furthermore, dictionaries can
include or link to more information, such as more example sentences, interesting facts
(De Schryver, 2003, p. 157) or multimedia (Lew, 2012, p. 344). Information technology also offers
many advantages in terms of access to information. In the first place, the speed with which
information can be retrieved with information technology is a considerable advantage
(Verlinde and Peeters, 2012, p. 147). e-dictionaries can also offer various search features to users
to allow for effective retrieval, for example, using wild card characters (Verlinde and Peeters,
2012, p. 147), Boolean operators (De Schryver, 2003, p. 175), the option to search for a phrase or
locating multi-word expressions (De Schryver, 2003, p. 175), help with lemma identification
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 36 No. 1, 2018
pp. 152-166
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-02-2017-0031
Received 2 February 2017
Revised 2 June 2017
Accepted 11 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
152
LHT
36,1
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