Online Finding Aids (OFA) portals are essential for providing access to archival records. However, many existing systems suffer from fragmented interfaces that separate content from catalogue access, leading to poor usability and user dissatisfaction. This study aims to design site navigation and wireframes for an integrated OFA portal that enhances user experience, accessibility, and usability through a unified, single-window approach. The research combines content analysis and design thinking to address this challenge. First, 10 prominent archival websites were evaluated to identify patterns and issues in navigation and content presentation. These findings informed a structured design thinking process comprising empathy mapping, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing conducted through collaborative workshops with archivists, researchers, and designers. Wireframes were developed using Figma to visually represent an integrated platform that unifies content management and archival catalogues within a streamlined interface. Unlike traditional archival systems, which require users to switch between separate websites for institutional content and finding aids, the proposed wireframe consolidates both into a single, user-tested platform. Usability testing with 10 participants using the System Usability Scale (SUS) yielded an average score of 84, indicating excellent usability and user satisfaction. The resulting wireframe introduces intuitive navigation and integrated content management features that eliminate the need for separate systems. This study contributes a replicable and evidence-based framework for improving the usability of archival websites and sets a practical foundation for developing user-centred online finding aids.
Journal
Open Access
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture (PDT&C)
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Editor-in-Chief:
Bogdan Trifunović
Language:
English
First published:
March 26, 2013
Publication Frequency:
4 issues per year
About this journal
Starting 2024, Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture will be transferred to Open Access on a year-by-year basis. All articles will thus immediately appear under the Creative Commons license CC-BY. There will be no publication costs for the authors. The Open Access transformation is based on Subscribe-to-Open, an alternative model that enables the full Open Access transformation of journals through the continuation of existing subscriptions. The prerequisite for successful transformation is that subscriptions are continued to the same extent as before. The editors of PDT&C and the publisher De Gruyter would therefore like to thank all subscribers for their support, which has made the transformation to Open Access possible.
Objective
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture (PDT&C) is an international refereed journal of high scholarly standing which focuses on preserving digital content from a wide variety of perspectives, including technological, social, economic, political, and user. Its scope is global, covering projects and practices from key international players in the field.
The intended audiences for PDT&C are librarians, archivists, museum and other cultural heritage professionals, and educators. The goal of the journal is to provide a timely forum for refereed articles, news, and field notes from around the world.
In addition to the featured refereed articles, there is a section called Currents which contains news and commentary. Further contributions include invited articles, editorials, reviews, and position papers. High quality color illustrations will add to the informative value of the content.
All articles undergo a double-blind peer review process with at least external two peer reviewers.
Topics
- Digital content preservation
- Culture
- Information science
- Library science
- Communication science
Article formats
articles, editorials, reviews, commentaries, and position papers
History
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture (PDT&C) was formerly published as Microform & Digitization Review. The journal's backfiles can be found here
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Issue 3-4
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Issue 2Special Issue: The Tenth Annual Archival Education and Research Institute / Guest Editor: Tonia Sutherland
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Issue 1Special Issue: Personal Digital Archiving Conference 2018: Selected Papers / Guest Editor: Melody Condron
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Issue 3-4Special Issue: A Reflection of the Day: Essays in Honour of Joseph Neparrŋa Gumbula / Guest Editors: Aaron Corn, Jessica De Largy Healy, Lyndon Ormond-Parker
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Issue 2
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Issue 1
| CiteScore | 1.5 | 2024, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2025) |
| SCImago Journal Rank | 0.237 | 2024, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2025; Data Source: Scopus) |
| Source Normalized Impact per Paper | 0.645 | 2024, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2025; Data Source: Scopus) |
Call for Papers
Preservation, Digital Technology and Culture seeks original, scholarly articles that engage theoretical and practical perspectives on preservation, access, and use of digital content including technological, social, economic, political, and user perspective. We welcome a variety of analytic frameworks and methodologies, including empirical, critical, and case study approaches.
We are particularly interested in articles that touch upon the following areas, but the list is not exhaustive:
- Big/smart data approaches to preservation;
- Cultural heritage informatics, including digital archives and libraries, and digital humanities;
- Community archiving and preservation of digital heritage;
- Use of digital technologies and cultural collections to empower Indigenous knowledge, decolonisation and identity;
- Convergence of libraries, archives, and museums through information technologies such as digitization and linked data;
- Creation, design, evaluation, and use of collections, records, data/metadata, and digital asset management systems for cultural heritage resources;
- Digital preservation and curation;
- Sustainability of preservation projects and programs;
- Environmental impacts of preservation work;
- Cultural perspectives of human-computer interaction;
- Personal archiving of digital records and objects;
- Uses/reuses and users of cultural heritage materials, including creation of exhibits, digital storytelling, and narratives.
We also welcome reports on current digital preservation projects, conferences and symposia, and research in progress, as well as reviews of relevant books and other resources.
Submission
Online Submission of Manuscripts
Your benefits of publishing with us
- Instant golden OA (CC-BY) in S2O without APCs (authors retain rights)
- Wide indexing and abstracting
- Insightful reviews
- High quality manuscript processing through ScholarOne Manuscripts
- Every article easily discoverable because of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and comprehensive abstracting and indexing services
- Secure archiving by De Gruyter and the independent archiving service Portico
- Professional sales and marketing activities
- Please submit your manuscript online via our Online Submission Tool following the StyleSheet and Instructions for Authors
- Online ahead of print publication for all papers accepted after peer reviewing procedure. All contributions go through a double-blind peer review with at least two external reviewers. Please note that your manuscript may be checked for plagiarism via Crossref Similarity Check.
- PDTC follows Tier 2 of our Data Sharing Policy. Authors are encouraged to provide a data availability statement. Please refer to the Data Sharing Policy for guidance on how to write a data availability statement.
- Contributions submitted to this journal must be written in clear and concise English
- Before submitting a paper please get familiar with our Ethical Guidelines and Copyright Transfer Agreement
- If you have any general questions please visit our FAQ for authors
We look forward to receiving your manuscript!
Editor-in-Chief
Bogdan Trifunović
Čačak Public Library, Čačak, Serbia
Book Reviews Editor
Tillmann Tegeler
Head of Department Library and Electronic Research Infrastructure, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany
tegeler@ios-regensburg.de
Editorial Board
Edward Benoit, III
School of Library and Information Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
ebenoit@lsu.edu
Huanwen Cheng
School of Information Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
cheng@mail.sysu.edu.cn huanwen@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Adrian Cunningham
Archives Consultant, Australia
adriancunningham8@gmail.com
Milena Dragićević Šešić
UNESCO Chair in cultural policy and management, University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
milena.dragicevic.sesic@fdu.bg.ac.rs
Jeanne Drewes
Cultural Heritage Consultant, USA
jdrewes3@gmail.com
Karen F. Gracy
Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
kgracy@kent.edu
Anthea Josias
School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA ajosias@gmail.com
Dinesh Katre
Department of Human-Centred Design and Computing Group at Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, India
dineshkatre2009@gmail.com
Alenka Kavčić-Čolić
National and University Library Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
alenka.kavcic@nuk.uni-lj.si
Vlatka Lemić
Head of Archival Office, University of Zagreb, Croatia
vlemic@unizg.hr
Nancy McGovern
MIT Libraries, Cambridge, MA, USA
nancymcg@mit.edu
Antonello Migliozzi
Museum Centre of Agricultural Sciences - MUSA, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy
antonello.migliozzi@unina.it
Irina Podgorny
National Scientific and Technical Research Council, National University of La Plata and Natural Science Facility and Museum of the National University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina
Podgorny@retina.ar
Daisy Selematsela
Library and Information Services, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
daisy.selematsela@wits.ac.za
Tonia Sutherland
Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
sutherland@gseis.ucla.edu
Zuza Wiorogórska
Department of Information Studies, Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies & The Library, University of Warsaw, Poland
z.d.wiorogorska@uw.edu.pl
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture (PDT&C) is covered by the following services:
- Baidu Scholar
- Cabells Journalytics
- CNKI Scholar (China National Knowledge Infrastructure)
- CNPIEC - cnpLINKer
- Dimensions
- EBSCO (relevant databases)
- EBSCO Discovery Service
- Google Scholar
- IBR (International Bibliography of Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences)
- IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences)
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
- J-Gate
- JournalGuide
- Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (EBSCO)
- Naver Academic
- Naviga (Softweco)
- Primo Central (ExLibris)
- ProQuest (relevant databases)
- Publons
- QOAM (Quality Open Access Market)
- ReadCube
- Reaxys
- ScienceON (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information)
- Scilit
- SCImago (SJR)
- SCOPUS
- Semantic Scholar
- Sherpa/RoMEO
- Summon (ProQuest)
- TDNet
- Ulrich's Periodicals Directory/ulrichsweb
- WanFang Data
- WorldCat (OCLC)
- X-MOL
- Yewno Discover
Topics
Journal information
Additional information
eISSN:
2195-2965
ISSN:
2195-2957
Language:
English
Publisher:
De Gruyter Saur
Additional information
First published:
March 26, 2013
Publication Frequency:
4 issues per year
eISSN:
2195-2965
ISSN:
2195-2957
Audience(s) for this journal
Librarians, archivists, museum and other cultural heritage professionals, and educators
Safety & product resources
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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
Creative Commons
BY 4.0
