Realist-ically Evaluating the Flora of North America Digital Library Project as an Activity Network: A Case Study

Abstract

It has become axiomatic that everything needs evaluation. In fact, evaluation has become a mantra of modernity. The primary goal of digital library evaluation is to research and learn from system design and use to modify and optimize the social and practical acceptability, usefulness, and usability of digital libraries. Considerations outlined and explored in this article implicate the need to go beyond mere descriptions of outcomes to explanations of why information systems and digital libraries are accepted and used. Evaluation research must move from the single-minded concern with what works and whether something works to an increasingly detailed understanding of why it works, for whom, and in which circumstances, which is the province and main concern of realist activity theory.