Using Contextual Design for Digital Library Field Studies

Recently, CD has been at least partially used in the study and design of digital library systems [2] [3] [4] [5]. However, CD has not been consistently applied, and few work models have been published. The question remains unexplored how helpful CD can be in the study and development of digital libraries. Might CD make it easier to design digital library systems that are broadly useful? Is it possible that CD models could be effective as a standard language for comparing digital library use contexts? Apart from its potential practical uses, might CD also be valuable as a methodology for descriptive research? The purpose of this paper is to introduce CD briefly, illustrate its use in two examples drawn from actual field studies of digital music libraries, and to assess its utility in field studies of digital library use.