Classification Schemes for Collection Mediation: Work Centered Design and Cognitive Work Analysis

Work domain analysis and work centered design is a new approach to design of classification schemes. Classification schemes are symbolic artefacts that inscribe and mediate concepts and structures of domain semantics. In collection mediation, classification schemes are used to search and keep order in paper-based, electronic and digital collections. Research indicates that work centered design of classification schemes is difficult, and that solutions are often based on generic conventions for detailed design, which do not build on needs analysis of the work domains. This Ph.D. thesis deals with cognitive work analysis and work centered design of classification schemes to support mediation of collections. Cognitive work analysis is a methodology, which supports empirical analysis of work domains and work centered design of information systems. As foundation for overall design of schemes, cognitive work analysis focuses on understanding structures and concepts in work domains and actors' work activities. Research in classification schemes for work domains is also addressed by other perspectives, which either emphasise actors' concept formations in work domains or structures and concept formations within communities like professional disciplines or work collectives. The thesis addresses two themes within work centered design of classification schemes for collection mediation: classification schemes as sociological phenomena and cognitive work analysis, with an emphasis on analysis of collaborative work. The themes define two research questions that shape the present research. The two research questions are answered by five individual paper contributions. There exists no generally acknowledged conceptual framework for work centered design of classification schemes. The thesis applies the framework of cognitive work analysis as a methodology for analysing collection mediation work and as a starting point for characterising the use, contents and structures of classification schemes in the work domain. The five publications are placed within the means-ends model of cognitive work analysis in order to illustrate similarities and differences between the contributions. Four empirical sources contribute to the results. Field studies of three film archives and a public library address various collaborative activities in collection mediation. Primary methods applied in field studies are participant observation and interviews. In addition, participatory design of the empirical studies and empirical evaluation of design results have been used. Results from the field studies are discussed in the light of cognitive work analysis, as well as in the light of concepts developed within research in computer-supported collaborative work and sociological theory of communicative action. The studies of collection mediation in film archives focus on cognitive work analysis of collaboration. Their aim has been