Peer-Produced Archives, Peer-Designed Solutions

Shadow Libraries are digital media repositories whose primary goal is to disseminate content inaccessible to users otherwise. As a case study we will delve into Portuguese-Student Shadow Libraries which focus on disseminating study materials and producing new resources that serve as primary aid for peers to study and to be prepared for tests, exams and overall assessment moments. This study aims to contribute to designing and developing a framework to preserve and distribute the sensitive collections assembled by/for informal communities where access is enabled by demanded peer production. We intend to work closely with our target audience to achieve this goal, involving community members across various design processes and decision-making moments. We actively question what characteristics make Portuguese-Student Shadow Library relevant to their public and what speculative features present users envision. This paper summarises the findings from a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. We sought to present a representative overview of participants’ perspectives, demonstrating that unique disciplines, students, and contexts have different requirements. Presented results collect theoretical approaches to improve Portuguese-Student Shadow Libraries, making them more valuable to their users and reimagining innovative processes to publish and access disseminated study resources. Integrating diverse community members from the preliminary design stage resulted in meaningful contributions and provided knowledgeable insights that will inform the design of our framework.