10/14/99besser--methodology1.5 1 using digital images on campus: lessons from the museum educational...

10/14/99Besser--methodology1.51

Using Digital Images on Campus: Lessons from the Museum

Educational Site Licensing Project and its descendants

Howard Besser

Associate Professor

UCLA School of Education & Information

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~howard/

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon


The Museum Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL)

• distribution of museum images and metadata to university community

• nearly 10,000 image set from 7 museums

• identical data set mounted locally at each of 7 universities

• voluntary participation, each institution paying own way, Getty paying for coordination and meetings


Study Design Issues

• Conflicting Agendas

• Getting compliance from participants

• Cost problems

• Benchmarking

• User Study issues


Conflicting Agendas

• Granting Agency wanted to study Costs

• I wanted to study Use


Conflicting AgendasOur Solution

• Granting Agency wanted to study Costs

• I wanted to study Use

• Express Use issues as Missed Costs

• Put up with periodic conflicts with Granting Agency


General Problems

• Voluntary project

• Voluntary compliance with study

• Experimental project– not how they’d run a production-level project– didn’t hire new staff


Relationships with MESL Participants

• Mutiny against MESL Project Manager– external funding hadn’t materialized

– participants (already overworked) felt they were being ordered to conform to unrealistic schedules without even a “thank you”

• Our first grant project manager alienated project participants


Relationships with MESL ParticipantsOur Solution

• Mutiny against MESL Project Manager– external funding hadn’t materialized

– participants (already overworked) felt they were being ordered to conform to unrealistic schedules without even a “thank you”

• Our first grant project manager alienated project participants

• Replace our Project Manager• Become sensitive/indulgent of participant needs


Cost Problems

• Fear that administrators will find out how much was spent on this project

• Salary levels differed radically from institution to institution

• Even within same institution, the same functions might be handled sometimes by a highly-paid staff and sometimes by low- paid student help


Cost ProblemsOur Solution

• Fear that administrators will find out how much was spent on this project

• Salary levels differed radically from institution to institution

• Even within same institution, the same functions might be handled sometimes by a highly-paid staff and sometimes by low- paid student help

• Express Costs in hours not money

• Concept of Cost Centers

• Only report aggregated amounts within any given Cost Center


Benchmarking Problems

• Where might cost savings lie?

• No cross-institutional studies of slide library costs


Benchmarking ProblemsOur Solution

• Where might cost savings lie?

• No cross-institutional studies of slide library costs

• We designed our own Study of Slide Libraries


Resistance from Subject Community

• Slide Librarians resistant to having their full set of costs exposed


Resistance from Subject CommunityOur Solution

• Slide Librarians resistant to having their full set of costs exposed

• Gain respect from Slide Librarians– Clarify our motives and support– Study Costs plus Services– Advisory Committee


Traditional User Study

• Tells us little about nuances and problems

• Doesn’t deal with non-users

• Fails to address impediments and important issues of adoption


Traditional User StudyOur Solution

• Tells us little about nuances and problems

• Doesn’t deal with non-users

• Fails to address impediments and important issues of adoption

• Focus groups of early adopters including both users and non-users


Problem: How to get Focus Groups Together?


Problem: How to get Focus Groups Together?

Our Solution• Target attendees at Professional Conference• Identify key players (both users and non-users)• Have MESL activists pressure faculty at their

institutions• Rent pleasant convenient room• Arrange low-conflict time• Offers incentives to Focus Group participants


The UCB Mellon Grant Studying MESL

• Introduction & Background• The Studies

– (Comparing User Interfaces)

– (Comparing Search Discrepancies)

– (Assessing Museum Costs)

– University Delivery Study

– Slide Library Costs

– Slide Circulation Patterns

– Faculty User Study

• Summary & Conclusions


UCB Mellon Grant Research Team

• Howard Besser, UCB Faculty

• Bob Yamashita, CSU Faculty

• Rosalie Lack, SIMS graduate student

• Joanne Miller, SIMS graduate student

• Lena Stebley, SJSU graduate student


UCB Mellon Grant Consultants

• Christie Stephenson, NYU Librarian for Digital Initiatives

• Beth Sandore, UIUC Library Digital Initiatives Coordinator

• Christine Sundt, UO Slide Curator

• ...assistance from MESL participants and staff


UCB Mellon Grant Advisory Board

• Gary Marchionini, Professor of Information Science, Univ of Maryland

• Marvin Sirbu, Professor of Economics, Carnegie-Mellon Univ

• Malcolm Getz, Professor of Economics, Vanderbilt

• Margaret Radin, Professor of Law, Stanford University

• Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information


The UCB Mellon Grant-

• (Comparing MESL User Interfaces)

• (Comparing MESL Search Discrepancies)

• (Assessing Museum Costs)

• Assessing University Costs

• Assessing Costs of Slide Libraries

• Examining Faculty & Student Use & Usefullness


Comparing User Interfaces

• Presentation and layout

• Search options

• Image display and labeling


Cost Assessment Methodology

• MESL Technical Report Questionnaire– primarily voluntary self-reporting

• Clarifications and follow-up questions from Berkeley researchers

• Data Analysis by Berkeley researchers


Museum Cost Centers

• Content Selection

• Image Preparation

• Image Transmission

• Text/Data Preparation

• Text/Data Transmission


University Digital Distribution Cost Centers

• Image Preparation

• Structured Data

• Unstructured Data

• Functionality

• Security

• Log Files • Outreach • Usage Training • Technical

Development


Slide Library Cost Centers

• Acquisition

• Capture (equipment)

• Data (gathering information)

• Mounting (data on slide, catalog record)

• Delivery (controlling access and reshelving)

• Maintenance


Examining Faculty & Student Use & Usefulness

• What Faculty Do with Digital Images

• Major Issues for Faculty

• Faculty Concerns about teaching with Digital Images

• Faculty Concerns about Image Quality and Metadata


More Information

• http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon– UC Berkeley Mellon Grant

– Howard Besser

– School of Information Mgmt & Systems

– UC Berkeley, CA 94720-4600

10/14/99besser--methodology1.5 1 using digital images on campus: lessons from the museum educational...

Documents

project participants

use slide

study experimental project

grant project manager

granting agency slide

mesl participants

project salary levels

given cost center slide