Using the Curran Index: Experiences, Search, and Improvements (Focus Group)
17 March 2022 from 6-7:30pm (GMT) /2-3:30pm (EDT)
Dr. Lara Atkin and Dr. Emily Bell, editors of the Curran Index, invite Victorianist researchers and teachers to attend this focus group to feed directly into planned changes to the search and navigation of the Index. The Curran Index is a treasure trove of information about who was writing the articles, reviews, stories, novels, and poems of the Victorian periodical press. This is an opportunity to discuss your experience and issues using the existing Index interface, and provide feedback on what would be most useful to you as a researcher moving forward.
Register to attend the focus group here. Registration is free and open to all.
We’d Like Your Input on Improving the Curran Index
The Curran Index features over 168,000 contributions to influential 19th-century British weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, and annuals. The current website was launched in 2017, and we are about to undertake some exciting work to improve the speed, layout and search function of the Index. We invite any Victorianist teacher or researcher, at any career stage, inside or outside of the academy, to come along and share their views.
In this session, we will show the current Curran Index interface and outline the proposed changes. Then, we will open up discussion around the following points:
- Have you used the Curran Index in your research? If so, what for (e.g. was it to look up a specific author, or periodical, or article)? If not, why not?
- How easy or difficult do you find it to navigate around the website? Please give a rating on a scale of 1-5 (where 1 is easy and 5 is difficult) and explain your answer.
- How easy was it to find the information you were looking for? Which facets did you use to narrow your search?
- What kind of information would you expect to see on the homepage? What are the most important search filters for your research?
- Would a Curran Index blog with research case studies of how the index has been used by other researchers be useful to you?
- What other information would you expect to find on the website?
- What additional features would be useful?
Have Ideas But Can’t Attend the Focus Group?
If you are unable to attend the event on 17 March but would like to pass on your thoughts on the questions above, or indeed anything to do with the Index more generally, we’d be very pleased to hear from you. Please email the editors directly with any feedback you might have. Thank you for your thoughts!