All the Ducks in a Row: Metadata Collection and Creation as part of the Digital Asset Life Cycle Andrea Medina-Smith Twitter: @dinadina619 August 13, 2009 Red Duck Line Up by Maxey via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxbisschop/118903742/

Digital Content Life Cycle, from Make It Digital, Digital New Zealand. http://makeit.digitalnz.org/guidelines Tweetable: Dig Content Life Cycle isn’t just for admins and end users. Many can add to description.

Why crowdsourcing description? "With so many records and so few resources to provide on-demand access to them, the problem seems intractable. More money alone is not the answer...Instead, archivists must fundamentally shift the way they think about their roles and develop alternative means and methods for doing archival work ." - Max J. Evans in "Archives of the People, by the People, for the People," American Archivist Vol. 70 (Fall/Winter 2007).

Why creator-sourcing description? Tweetable: Tap into the creators and interested amateurs for description. Not only helps archives, but will democratize your collection

Online Collecting at the Jewish Women's Archive Katrina's Jewish Voices Jewish American Women & World War II American Red Cross Canteen Corps, Newport News, Virginia, 1942, Collection of Peninsula Jewish Historical Society. http://jwa.org/node/1295 Ruined Diary of Anne Frank by Jane Guberman http://katrina.jwa.org/file/204

Katrina's Jewish Voices

Jewish American Women & World War II

Descriptive Metadata Collected Creator Name Email Object Name Location Subject/Keywords /Tags Description Tweetable: When collecting directly from creators online remember KISS for the upload form. Can be more in depth for interested amateurs.

Creator Name

Email

Object Name

Location

Subject/Keywords /Tags

Description

Other Metadata Collected binary easter egg by Rakka from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/rakka/123380632/

Pros: Gets to the heart of what these objects mean to individuals who created them Democratization of archival collections Allows archivists to apply the Greene & Meissner rules of more product, less process Systems can be created to provide for iterative description Green-Winged Teal Duck Decoy by Dr.DeNo from Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/denatale/3488126620/

Gets to the heart of what these objects mean to individuals who created them

Democratization of archival collections

Allows archivists to apply the Greene & Meissner rules of more product, less process

Systems can be created to provide for iterative description

Pros: "While providers may optimize the content, amount, and quality of metadata based on the available resources and their intended use, studies have indicated that the metadata provided may not necessarily be the same as that needed by end-users . For instance, the Jörgensens’ research suggests end-users describe many more attributes than are commonly provided for in standard controlled vocabularies and metadata structures." -Stvilia, B., Jörgensen, C. (2009). "User-generated collection level metadata in an online photo-sharing system." Library & Information Science Research . 31(1), 54-65.

"While providers may optimize the content, amount, and quality of metadata based on the available resources and their intended use, studies have indicated that the metadata provided may not necessarily be the same as that needed by end-users . For instance, the Jörgensens’ research suggests end-users describe many more attributes than are commonly provided for in standard controlled vocabularies and metadata structures."

-Stvilia, B., Jörgensen, C. (2009). "User-generated collection level metadata in an online photo-sharing system." Library & Information Science Research . 31(1), 54-65.

Cons: Lack of consistency in description Radical change in roles Online collecting raises questions of provenance and authenticity Dependent on systems that can do full text searching for most efficiency in search results. Difficult by sea turlte from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-turtle/198445204/

Lack of consistency in description

Radical change in roles

Online collecting raises questions of provenance and authenticity

Dependent on systems that can do full text searching for most efficiency in search results.

Herding Ducks Duck Soup! by Chris Gin via Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_gin/2218786323/sizes/l/ Tweetable: Change is hard, adaptation is survival, users are our best allies.

References: Evans, Max J., (2007) "Archives of the People, by the People, for the People." American Archivist Vol. 70 (Fall/Winter 2007). Kramer-Smyth, Jeanne. (2009). “DH2009: Digital Curiosities and Amateur Collections.” Spellbound Blog . http://www.spellboundblog.com/2009/06/29/dh2009-digital-curiosities/ (Accessed June 30, 2009) Stvilia, B., Jörgensen, C. (2009). "User-generated collection level metadata in an online photo-sharing system." Library & Information Science Research . 31(1), 54-65.

Evans, Max J., (2007) "Archives of the People, by the People, for the People." American Archivist Vol. 70 (Fall/Winter 2007).

Kramer-Smyth, Jeanne. (2009). “DH2009: Digital Curiosities and Amateur Collections.” Spellbound Blog . http://www.spellboundblog.com/2009/06/29/dh2009-digital-curiosities/ (Accessed June 30, 2009)

Stvilia, B., Jörgensen, C. (2009). "User-generated collection level metadata in an online photo-sharing system." Library & Information Science Research . 31(1), 54-65.

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