user participation in digital collections building

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13 April 2007 [email protected] User participation in digital collections building Amy Rudersdorf, Digital Technologies Librarian Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries

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User participation in digital collections building Amy Rudersdorf, Digital Technologies Librarian Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries. User participation in digital collections building. Outline What sort of involvement? Why user participation? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections buildingAmy Rudersdorf, Digital Technologies Librarian Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries

Page 2: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• Outline– What sort of involvement?– Why user participation?– Why not user participation?– How does NCSU Special Collections

involve users in digital collections building?

Page 3: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• NCSU Special Collections digital collections– University archives photograph collection

• NCSU history, athletics, student life

– Specialized collections• Botany• 4-H/Agriculture• Architecture• Entomology

Page 4: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• What sort of involvement?– General Identification & Description

• Titles• Creators• Dates

– Tagging/Folksonomies?• “Subject terms”• “Genre”• Others?

Page 5: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• Why get users involved?– “…[C]ollections remain relatively

inaccessible even when 'made available' through searchable on-line databases. Museum documentation seldom satisfies the on-line access needs of the broad public, both because it is written using professional terminology and because it may not address what is important to – or remembered by – the museum visitor.” (Bearman, 2005)

Page 6: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• Why get users involved?– Users may have more knowledge about

the images than the people creating the metadata

• NCSU campus facilities• NCSU athletics

– “The primary benefit of free tagging is that we know the classification makes sense to users...” (Merholz, 2004)

Page 7: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• Why not?– “With no one controlling the vocabulary,

users develop multiple terms for identical concepts. For example, if you want to find all references to New York City on Del.icio.us, you’ll have to look through ‘nyc,’ ‘newyork,’ and ‘newyorkcity.’” (Merholz, 2004)

– Flickr: NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center, NCSU, NCSU SCRC, NC State

Page 8: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• Why not?– Users may think they have more

knowledge about the images than library metadata creators

– Users may not understand controlled vocabularies

– Users may not have reference resources at hand to properly describe images

• Real or “proper” names of buildings, departments, persons, etc.

Page 9: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• User involvement– University Archives image ID blog

• Email contact: 1-2 per month• Generally, responses come from current or

emeritus faculty or staff and alumni• Requires one-on-one interaction• Requires some research to confirm

information• No social tagging. Records are updated by

Libraries staff• Linked from Library Memories initiative to

gather library user stories and recollections

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

“Vaulter is Stuart Corn, and was taken in 1962”

Page 15: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• User involvement– NCSU Special Collections Flickr site

(http://flickr.com/photos/ncsu_scrc/)• Upload 5-10 images per month• Generally, responses come from current

students, alumni, or NC residents• May require one-on-one interaction; definitely

requires “lurking”• Requires some research to confirm user

information• Social tagging allowed, but title and

descriptions are updated by Libraries staff

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

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13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• What we’ve learned*– Flickr

• Athletics photographs are the most popular– 38 photographs on Flickr, 9 are athletics related (24%)– 527 views of 1024 are of athletics images (52%)

• Increased traffic to Libraries since Flickr site went live has been small, but growing!

– 1024 Flickr views, 109 clicks from Flickr to Libraries – (11% of Flickr views lead to a click-through to Libraries

site)

• No one has tagged the photographs but us!

*As of April 13, 2007

Page 19: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

User participation in digital collections building

• What we’ve learned– Photo blogs

• Users have great memories and are willing to share if you can communicate with them!

• Need to research the information users provide

– Not always correct, or only partially correct

• Users are interested identifying locations and people in images and correcting data in title, description, date, geographical location

• No user has ever mentioned subject terms or genres.

Page 20: User participation in digital collections building

13 April 2007 [email protected]

Resources

Bearman, David and Jennifer Trant. "Social Terminology Enhancement through Vernacular Engagement." D-Lib Magazine 11(9). Retrieved February 12, 2007 from <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/bearman/09bearman.html>.

Green, David. “Using Digital Images in Teaching and Learning: Perspectives from Liberal Arts Institutions.” October 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2007 from <http://www.academiccommons.org/files/image-report.pdf>.

Merholz, P. “Metadata for the masses.” October 19, 2007. Retrieved on February 12, 2007 from <http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000361.php>

Peterson, Elaine. “Beneath the Metadata: Some Philosophical Problems with Folksonomy.” D-Lib Magazine 12(11). Retrieved February 12, 2007 from <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november06/peterson/11peterson.html>.