Evaluation of hypertext software to create a public browsing system in a museum
| Date | 01 April 1991 |
| Published date | 01 April 1991 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045070 |
| Pages | 217-234 |
| Author | Anne Morrall |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
Evaluation of hypertext
software to create a public
browsing system in a
museum
Anne Morrall
Division
for
Information
Services,
South African
Medical
Research
Council,
PO Box
19070,
7505
Tygerberg,
South Africa
Abstract:
This study evaluated four different packages
containing the hypertext facility for use in a browsing
system at a museum. The browsing system envisaged would
be on a medical or health topic and would be placed
in
the
permanent exhibition area of
the
South African Medical
Research Council at the South African Museum in Cape
Town.
The packages evaluated were Hyperties, Guide,
KnowledgePro and
CoNET.
They all run on
IBM-compatible microcomputers.
The
Hyperties package
was found to be the most suitable of the four for the
application
required.
The comparative ease and speed with
which a database can be created and
the
ease of use of a
browsing system created with this package were the primary
reasons for preferring this program. The experience gained
in the study showed that the time which would be required to
create the browsing system envisaged using Hyperties
would not be excessive. Since the cost of the hardware
required for
the
basic system is also not high, the proposed
browsing system could
be
implemented cost effectively. The
implementation of the browsing system did not form part of
the study.
1.
Introduction
The Division for Information Services of the South African
Medical Research Council (SAMRC) acquired three micro-
computer packages with hypertext capabilities over a period
of a year. A hypertext system is a computer-based system
which allows immediate non-sequential access to linked
items of information. I decided to explore the possibility of
creating a hypertext browsing system on a medical or health
topic for
my
practical project for
my
Honours Degree in Infor-
mation Systems at the University of South Africa. Such a sys-
tem could be placed in the Exploratorium which is a
permanent exhibition area created for the SAMRC at the
South African Museum in Cape Town.
A
video show and ex-
hibits have already been created for this area but these will
need to be added to and changed in the future. None of the
three hypertext microcomputer packages which the division
had bought
was
obviously more suitable than any
other.
It was
thus necessary to evaluate these packages first, before ac-
tually creating the browsing system
on
the most suitable pack-
age.
It quickly became obvious that to do a reasonably
comprehensive evaluation of each package and
to
create
a
full
scale browsing system in the available time was not possible
so the emphasis of the study was placed on the evaluation
stage.
2.
Objectives of
the
proposed browsing system
The objectives of
the
browsing system would be as follows:
(1) to provide information on a topic in such a way that a
user could obtain an overview of the subject and/or
pursue a particular
line
of thought and in so doing learn;
(2) to stimulate interest in health and medical topics as well
as medical research and the Medical Research Council
amongst the general public — in particular school
children;
(3) to stimulate interest in computers as a medium for
conveying information.
3.
Choice of packages to be evaluated
The hypertext packages which the Division of Information
Services already had were: Hyperties (version 2.35)*; Guide
(version 2)†; and KnowledgePro (version
1.44)‡.
The first
two of these programs have hypertext as their major feature
and KnowledgePro combines expert systems with hypertext.
These three packages were chosen for evaluation. The fourth
program chosen was CoNET (version
2.2)§.
This is a locally-
written program which has hypertext as one of its major fea-
tures and was made available free of charge for evaluation
*Cognetics Corporation, 55 Princeton-Hightstown
Road,
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550, USA.
†OWL International, Inc., 14218 NE 21st St., Bellevue, WA
98007,
USA.
‡Knowledge Garden, Inc., 473A Maiden Bridge
Road,
Nas-
sau, NY 12123, USA.
§CoNET Systems, P.O. Box 28105, Sunnyside, 0132, South
Africa.
The Electronic Library, Vol. 9, No. 4/5, Aug./Oct. 1991 217
purposes. It was decided not to evaluate any further programs
so HyperDoc, which began to be marketed in South Africa
shortly before the start of the project and which seemed poten-
tially useful, was not considered. HyperCard was not bought
because it only runs on Apple Macintosh microcomputers.
4.
Preparation for evaluation of packages
4.1.
Topic
covered
To evaluate the differences between the packages it was
necessary
to
create a sample browsing system however incom-
plete for each
package.
Thus it seemed logical and economical
to use the topic which would be used in the final product, to
evaluate the
packages.
The topic of 'Smoking' was chosen.
4.2. Sources of information
Information used in the example database was obtained from
the publication Smoking and Health
in
South Africa:
the
Need
for Action (Yach & Townshend 1988), as well as pamphlets
published by the Council On Smoking and Health of South
Africa and the Heart Foundation of South Africa. The library
at the Heart Foundation offices in Cape Town was consulted
and a discussion was held with the Western Cape Director of
the Council on Smoking and Health concerning what topics
might be appropriate.
4.3.
Requirements
The requirements of the proposed completed browsing sys-
tem and the way it can be created were first considered. The
requirement that the contents must be suitable for
the
range of
people who might use it does not depend in any way on the
package. All the other requirements were used directly as
criteria for comparing the packages. The requirements which
were determined to be important are listed below under three
headings: browser/user, author and technical. Where more
than one heading is relevant the requirement is listed under
the most applicable heading.
4.3.1.
Browser/user
4.3.1.1.
Ease of use and contents. Once created the
system must be simple enough for a non-computer-literate
adult or a scholar over 12 years old to use with no need for
personal or written instructions other than how to start the
system; the contents of the database should be suitable for the
range of people who might use it.
4.3.1.2. Instructions at start. The system should in-
clude instructions for
its
use at the beginning.
4.3.1.3. Help key. There should be some kind of help
key available for the user throughout the use of the system.
4.3.1.4. Linking methods help understanding. The
available kinds of links and the way they work must be such
that the browser's interest can be held and he can clearly un-
derstand the connection between the linked parts.
4.3.1.5. Access methods. The system should provide
the browser with a choice of ways of accessing the available
information, including a choice of how much of it, and in what
order he wants to see it.
4.3.1.
6. Prevent browser getting lost in the database.
The final system must be able to be presented in such a way
that the browser does not get confused as to where he is in the
database, for example, what he has already seen, and what
line of thought he was pursuing.
4.3.1.
7. Visual appeal. The system must have visual
appeal.
4.3.2. Author
4.3.2.1.
Ease and speed of creation of browsing system.
The method of creating the database must be fairly straight-
forward so that the author can learn how to do this without too
much effort. It must also not be too time-consuming.
4.3.2.2. Ease of
inputting
text. It must be possible to
import text in ASCII format. This will allow text to be keyed
in a word processing package rather than having to input all
text directly into the specific program. Thus an author can
avoid the need to rekey text already available on computer. A
scanner and associated software could
be
used
to
input
text,
or
a typist could key in the text.
4.3.3. Technical
4.3.3.1.
How user-proof? Once a system is created it
must be
user-proof.
The browser must not be able to change
the system in any way. However, the author must be able to
make any changes required.
4.3.3.2. Distribution of read-only copies of system.
Once created it should be possible for the browsing system to
be copied legally so that it can be used in read-only mode on
at least one other computer and preferably more.
4.3.3.3. Hardware
required.
The software used must
be able to run on standard microcomputers and any specific
hardware requirements must be carefully considered.
4.3.3.4. Graphics capabilities. The system must be
able to display graphics and these graphics must be of a stand-
ard format so that they can be created easily in another pack-
age or so that they can be scanned in. The capability of crea-
ting links from different parts of a graphic is desirable but this
is not a necessity.
4.3.3.5. Capacity of the system. The system must be
able to handle the total amount of data that has to be input and
the longest unit that has to be input.
4.3.3. 6. Time for screen displays. The time taken be-
tween screen displays must not be too long.
218 The Electronic Library, Vol. 9, No. 4/5, Aug./Oct. 1991
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