User participation in digital collections building

1. User participation in digital collections buildingAmy Rudersdorf, Digital Technologies Librarian Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

2. 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? amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

3. 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 amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

4. User participation in digital collections building • What sort of involvement? • General Identification & Description • Titles • Creators • Dates • Tagging/Folksonomies? • “Subject terms” • “Genre” • Others? amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

5. 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) amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

6. 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) amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

7. 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 amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

8. User participation in digital collections building • Why not? • Users may think theyhave 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. amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

9. 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 amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

10. User participation in digital collections building amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

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14. “Vaulter is Stuart Corn, and was taken in 1962” amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

15. 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 amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

16. User participation in digital collections building amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

17. User participation in digital collections building amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

18. 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 amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

19. 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. amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu

20. 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>. amy_rudersdorf@ncsu.edu