Bonolo

The Bonolo Project set out to investigate the possibility of building a functional online digital repository management system centred around a simple file hierarchy as a storage structure. The Curator Interface is one of the key aspects of the Bonolo Project as it provides administrators with the tools necessary manage a collection online.

The Curator Interface was designed iteratively allowing for feedback and improvement throughout the design process. The core functionality required to provide curators with the tools to adequately manage collections online was identified and successfully implemented.

To evaluate the system, both user and performance evaluations took place. The results of which were used to answer the research questions surrounding the system:

• Will using a simple file hierarchy as a file store affect the overall usability of the Curator Interface?
• What is the impact of having a hierarchical file-based data store on the performance of the Curator Interface?
• Is the Bonolo Curator Interface comparable to those of other digital repository systems?

Using the results of the user evaluations it was concluded that the usability of the Curator Interface was not compromised through the use of a simple file hierarchy. Furthermore, it was shown from the user evaluation that the Curator Interface is comparable to other digital repository management systems. Finally, from the result of the performance evaluation, it was concluded that the performance of the Curator Interface was not compromised when using a well structured file hierarchy.