Struggling with digitized historical newspapers: Contextual barriers to information interaction in history research activities

On account of the complexities related to the use of digitized newspapers, researchers may encounter barriers when interacting with the collections' content. Overcoming barriers that could influence their information interaction should enhance the accessibility and utility of the newspapers. Hence, the study examined the barriers faced in history-research tasks involving interaction with digitized historical newspapers, with focus on the barriers' contexts and the related task-based activities. The analysis employed two datasets, from in-depth interviews and demonstrations of newspaper-use situations. Content analysis from these complementary data showed that barriers arose in multiple contexts, connected with the collection, task, tools, and socio-organizational setting. Most barriers were associated with collection context and occurred in information searching and selection activities and in working with information items. Barriers related to the task or to socio-organizational context arose most often in the planning and monitoring activities and in synthesizing and reporting. Such research-based insight into the barriers faced can aid in illuminating what is required for providing good support to researchers working with digital newspaper content.