Enhancing a Virtual Distributed Library User Interface Via Server-Side User Profile Caching

Various Department of Defense (DoD) agencies archive terabytes of intelligence imagery and electrooptical signature data. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate (AFRL/SN), is tasked with creating and managing a virtual distributed library that facilitates secure, detailed queries across these distributed holdings using the internally developed Advanced Query Tool (AQT). In this research, a methodology is proposed to utilize user profiling techniques to augment a digital library. As part of this methodology, product-oriented usability analysis metrics are introduced that quantitatively verify the usability of an interface. The methodology is applied to the AFRL/SN's Virtual Distributed Laboratory AQT and subsequently analyzed using the suite of product-oriented usability metrics. The results of applying the methodology to the test case demonstrated significant, quantitatively verifiable improvements to the AQT interface. This research establishes that user profiling may be utilized to greatly improve the user interface of a digital library.