ISURV: Developing a sustainability index using British History Online

ISURV demonstrates the importance of digital resources using a combination of measures, some of which have not been previously identified. From March 2012 to June 2013, British History Online (BHO), funded by the JISC under its 16/11 Digital Infrastructure Programme, carried out an investigation into digital resource sustainability looking to uncover sufficiently sensitive evaluation techniques which could help up a perception of sustainability. Beginning with a survey, it looked into what users of BHO thought about the approaches we could take, as well as the difference it currently makes to everyday lives in terms of time and associated cost saved. Using a combined qualitative and quantitative approach, we found several techniques which could all be built into an existing project with a moderate level of effort, and which were sensitive to the analysis of sustainability. Following work undertaken during the project, there were several other key findings, in areas such as volunteering / crowdsourcing, search behaviour, APIs and the System Usability Scale.