Design for Findability:

Metadata, Metrics & Collaboration on LOC.gov

Jill MacNeice . July 2013Web Services . jima@loc.gov @jmacneice . #UXPA2013

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About the Library of Congress

• World’s largest library

• World’s smallest book, “Old King Cole”

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About the Library of Congress

• 155 million items in all collections

• 35 million books and other print materials

• 838 miles of bookshelves

• Maps, recordings, photographs, sheet music, movies, artifacts

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About the Library of Congress

• 17.5 million items in the online catalog

• 2.2 million viewable items online

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Overview

• What is Findability?

• Findability Framework

• Findability Tools (It’s all about the Metadata)

• The Search for Twitter

• Findability as Contact Sport

• Findability on Congress.gov

What is Findability?

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What is Findability?Definition:

The ease with which information in a website can be found, from both outside the site (using search engines) and by users already on the site. -- Wikipedia

Peter Morville• Ambient Findability 2005• Information abundance, overload• Primary problem:

• how to find things• differentiate signal from noise

• Emotional aspects of getting lost.

Bottom Line: If you can’t find it – you can’t use it.

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How would you find this picture on LOC.gov?

Findability Framework

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Findability Framework

8 Pillars of FindabilityInternal

1. Can people find what they’re looking for quickly and easily?

2. From any object page, can people easily find other

related content and access the rest of the site?

3. Does the overall high level organization make sense to the typical user?

4. Can people with small screens find and use our content?

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Findability Framework

8 Pillars of FindabilityExternal

5. Can people find our content from a search engine? (Google, Bing, etc)

6. Can people save and share content easily?

7. Do we reach out to our audience and not just wait for them to come to us?

8. Can our content be accessed, downloaded in bulk, and repackaged?

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Findability Framework (Internal)

#1 Q: Can people find what they’re looking for quickly and easily?

A: Big Search / Search Centric

Too big to navigate: 17 million items in search results 2.2 million available online

- Big search box on every page- Faceted searching (metadata)- Descriptive search results (metadata)- Recommended Links

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From This…..(http://archive.org/web/web.php)

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And This…..

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….To This Big, bold search,

Front & center on every page

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….And This

Metadata driven,faceted search

Metadata driven,descriptive search results

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Findability Framework (Internal)#2 Q: From any object page, can users easily find

other related content and access the rest of the site?

A: Object page as Hub

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…To This

“Nice to Know,”Related content based on metadata

“Need to Know,”Bibliographic Record & metadata

Viewers, players& downloadable images

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…and This

…..What the world looked like in 1507

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#3 Q: Does the overall high level organization make sense to the typical user?

A: Global Header & Footer

Findability Framework (Internal)

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…to This

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…and This

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Findability Framework (Internal)

#4 Q: Can people using small screens easily find and access our content?

A: Responsive design

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…to This

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#5 Q: Can people find what they’re looking for from a search engine (Google, Bing, etc)?

A: Organic SEO

Findability Framework (External)

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…and This

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#6 Q: Can people save and share content easily?

A: Share tool

Findability Framework (External)

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….to This

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgibin/bdquery/D?d113:1:./temp/~bdw2lA:@@@L&summ2=m&|/home/LegislativeData.php|

http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/499

URL Design

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#7 Q: Do we reach out to our audience, and not just wait for them to go looking for us?

A: Social media outreach

Findability Framework (External)

Blogs

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#8 Q: Can users access and repackage our content? A: APIs – ID.loc.gov, Prints and Photographs, Bill

Summaries for GPO etc.

Findability Framework (External)

Open Government-- ID.loc.gov-- Prints and Photographs Catalog, -- Bill Summaries for GPO

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…to This

Any Questions?

Findability Tools(It's all about the metadata)

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System Metadata• Metrics

- Omniture, Foresee, - Share Tool Metrics

• Search Term downloads

Tools: It’s all about the metadata

Page and Object Metadata

• Metadata Standards- HTML, - DC (Dublin Core)- Others (Canonical, etc)

• URL Best Practices

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Tools: System Metadata

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Tools: Search Term Analytics6 months of searchesJuly-Dec 2012

2 million searches

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Tools: Search Term Analytics

6 months of searchesJuly-Dec 2012

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Tools: Metadata Standards

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Tools: Metatag Generator

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Tools: Metatag Generator

Output of the Metatag Generator

<title>Congress.gov | Library of Congress</title><meta property="description" content="U.S. Congress legislation, Congressional Record debates, Members of Congress, legislative process educational resources presented by the Library of Congress" /><meta property="dc.subject" content="Legislative Data" /><meta property="dc.identifier" content="http://beta.congress.gov/" /><meta rel="canonical" href="http://beta.congress.gov/" /><meta property="dc.type" content="Legislation" /><meta property="dc.type" content="Web page" /><meta property="dc.rights" content="Text is U.S. Government Work" /><link rel="dc.rights" title="Rights Restriction" href="http://www.loc.gov/text-us-government-work" />

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Tools: Metadata & Findability

Findablity Concept Model

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The Search for Twitter

A Findability Story with Metadata as the Hero

…….and a Happy Ending

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The Search for Twitter

One fine day in April 2010….

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The Search for Twitter

People wanted this……

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The Search for Twitter

But they got links to this….

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The Search for Twitter

Then one day

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The Search for Twitter

Title = TitleAuthor = ContributorSubject = DescriptionKeywords = Subject

We added metadata

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The Search for Twitter

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The Search for Twitter

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The Search for Twitter

Twitter report is a top download:

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Findability as a Contact Sport

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Findability as Contact Sport

QA Team

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Findability as a Contact Sport

Recommended Links Team

Requester/SMESends request to Recommended Links Team

Wranglerreviews request

Does it meet all requirements?

Recommended Links Team

- Evaluates, decides on request at regular meeting- Order of links based onPriority Scale

Recommendedlinks@loc.gov

Yes

Evaluation Criteria- Is it popular? (definition tbd)- Does it improve naivgation?- Are there already too many existing recommended links for that term? (# tbd)- Does link go directly to resource (specific detail page vs high level landing page)?- Other criteria?

Does it meet all the Evaluation Criteria?

If No, goes back to Requester

YesRequirements- All Metadata- On LOC servers- Publicly accessible- Accompanying image- Permanent link to item- Search term or terms to trigger link in search results- Other requirements?

WranglerConducts

additional research

Additional Research- What other term or terms trigger this result? (6 mo of searches)- Checkback with submitter or SME, as needed

WranglerCommunicates outcome to

Requester

Recommended Links Team sends all requests to Metasearch Team for inclusion in search results as a recommended link

WranglerChecks search results when live and communicates with Requester if necessary

Recommended Links Process – Requests from Library SMEs Draft 1.07-2-12

Priority Scale1. Timely2. Library focused3. Topic focused, general (metrics based)4. Topic focused, specific (metrics based)

Wrangler = Team representative from requesting division. If wrangler has too many requests, team will assign an alternate

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Findability as a Contact Sport

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Findability as a Contact Sport

Ben Shahn, 1937 US Farm Security Administration

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Findability as a Contact Sport

Ben Shahn, 1937 US Farm Security Administration

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Thank You

Jill MacNeice . July 2013Web Services . jima@loc.gov @jmacneice . #UXPA2013