Metadata Interest Group Meeting Panel Program: Crowdsourcing Metadata
At the ALCTS Metadata Interest Group meeting during ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, on Sunday, January 27, 2019, there was a panel presentation on crowdsourcing metadata.
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.
Samuel T. Barber
Cataloging & Metadata Librarian
California State University, Fullerton
Wisdom of the Crowd
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.
Becky Skeen
Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
Utah State University
Andrea Payant
Metadata Librarian
Utah State University
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.