In April 2012, a private university located in the northeast region of the Unites States installed the Microsoft
SUR40 tabletop (SUR40 henceforth) in three of its libraries, featuring the open source software “Library
Explorer” (LE henceforth)
developed by the Brown Graphics Group in collaboration with the university
library. The LE software enables users to view collections of large format 2D artwork on a large touch
screen table. LE also allows librarians to “prepare content and appropriate m
etadata and related ass
ets to
be viewed” by patrons
(
LADS User
’
s Guide
,
2011,
p.1
)
. For an overview and video demonstration of features
and functions of LE, readers are referred to follo
w the hyperlinks under item
(Harvard Library UX, 2012
-
13)
in the “Refe
rences” section. Shortly after the installation of the SUR40 and LE, a multi
-
phased usability
research study was conducted with Phase I involving 29 participants completing tasks individually
and
Phase II featuring two participants working collaboratively
on tasks during a test session. This paper reports
the results that pertain specifically to the impact of diversity attributes on collaboration characteristics and
performance outcomes as participants work together to learn a new library tool on an interac
tive tabletop