Join the ALCTS Metadata Interest Group during ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle for a panel presentation on crowdsourcing metadata on Sunday, January 27, 2019, 8:30-10:00AM, Washington State Convention Center, Room 3A during our regular scheduled meeting. Speakers Samuel T. Barber, from California State University, Fullerton, and Becky Skeen & Andrea Payant, from Utah State University, will present on approaches to crowdsourcing metadata, followed by Q&A. Looking forward to seeing you all in Seattle. Be sure to add this event to your ALA Conference Scheduler.
Presenters and abstracts:
Samuel T. Barber
Cataloging & Metadata Librarian
California State University, Fullerton
Bio: Following a semi-successful semi-professional career as a musician, recording artist and sound engineer, Samuel T. Barber emigrated from the UK to the USA in 2013 with a newly-acquired MILS from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and a renewed desire to contribute to the advancement of librarianship and information science. Past cataloging and metadata work at Glasgow University, the Autry National Center and Cal State Fullerton has included exposing hidden collections formerly owned by luminaries ranging from the Scots psychiatrist R.D. Laing to Los Angeles author, ethnographer, historian and ‘celebrity librarian’ Charles Fletcher Lummis. His main research interest is the crowdsourcing of descriptive metadata and related interfaces, which he believes merit the term ‘revolutionary cataloging interfaces’. Samuel’s favorite book is ‘What’s going on’ by Marvin Gaye, and yes, he’s fully aware that this is a record and not a book.
Crowdsourcing metadata: the revolutionary cataloging interface and how it can help your library expose and promote hidden collections
This presentation draws on recently completed original research (in press, to be published in the Journal of Library Metadata, vol. 18, issue 2) to analyze and explain the automated quality control features of Zooniverse’s crowdsourcing metadata platform. The results, it is argued, are truly revolutionary. Case studies are cited to demonstrate successful use of the platform by major institutions including the University of Oxford, the Folger, the Imperial War Museum and the Huntington. Similar initiatives based on proprietary platforms designed by the Smithsonian and the National Archives are also noted. Clearly, therefore, crowdsourcing of metadata to expose and promote hidden collections is a significant and rapidly growing development in libraries, archives and museums. We conclude with a description of an experimental project at Cal State Fullerton designed to ascertain whether such developments can succeed at a local institutional level. Finally, an invitation is extended for attendees to consider whether such initiatives may also be implemented for the benefit of their own respective institutions and users.
Andrea Payant
Metadata Librarian
Utah State University
Bio: Andrea Payant is the Metadata Librarian at USU’s Merrill-Cazier Library. She has been working for USU Libraries for over ten years. She received her MLIS from San Jose State University. Her research interests include metadata quality benchmarks, research data management, crowdsourcing metadata, and technical services outreach.
Becky Skeen
Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
Utah State University
Bio: Becky Skeen is the Special Collections Cataloging Librarian at Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library. She coordinates a majority of Special Collections cataloging projects for her library and helps with the creation of metadata for special collections’ digitized materials.
Wisdom of the Crowd: Successful ways to engage the public in metadata creation
Utah State University Libraries’ Cataloging and Metadata Unit has successfully used several methods to engage the public in metadata creation for USU’s Digital History Collections. Most, if not all the techniques we have tested, have yielded positive results and have improved the relevancy and accuracy of our descriptive metadata. During this presentation we will discuss different tools and techniques we have used to foster communication between our metadata specialists and the communities they serve, as well as approaches that were tried and did not yield the results we were hoping for. Attendees will be able to see what has been done at Utah State University and take those ideas and create new innovative approaches to collect crowdsourcing metadata at their own institutions.
About the Metadata Interest Group
The ALCTS Metadata Interest Group provides a broad framework for information exchange on current research developments, tools, and activities affecting networked information resources and metadata; coordinates and actively participate in the development and review of standards concerning networked resources and metadata in conjunction with the divisions’ committees and sections, other units within ALA, and relevant outside agencies; and develops programs and fosters and sponsors education and training opportunities that contribute to and enhance an understanding of networked resources and metadata, their identity, content, technology, access, control, and use; and to plan and monitor activities using the association’s strategic and tactical plan as a framework.
