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Let me tell you about my grandpa: a content analysis of user annotations to online archival collections

by jmsedgwick on Aug 17, 2009

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Examining the characteristics of user engagement with online archival collections via 2.0 tools (specifically, through commenting functions). Also compares results/variances across digital collections ...

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Let me tell you about my grandpa: a content analysis of user annotations to online archival collections Presentation Transcript

Let me tell you about my grandpa:

jessica sedgwick

archivist for women in medicine harvard medical school 13 august 2009 A content analysis of user annotations to online archival collections Image from Beyond Brown Paper, courtesy Plymouth State University

Archivists are very busy! … and other limits on archival description

Meanwhile…

Archivists are experimenting with “2.0” approaches

Concerns about user-engagement:

What is the value?

Cost of implementation and maintenance

Loosening our grip on authority control

Image from Library of Congress, “1930s-40s in Color” set on Flickr

Study design

Content analysis

Collected publicly-contributed user comments from online archival collections

Analyzed comments against a set of categories

Counted each comment toward as many categories as it represented

Online collections examined

Keweenaw Digital Archives

Beyond Brown Paper

Polar Bear Expedition

Digital Collections

Data set

Total comments collected: 568

Breakdown for each site:

Codebook

Results overall

#1 Subject identification Image from Beyond Brown Paper, courtesy Plymouth State University

#2 Providing further information Image courtesy Michigan Tech Archives

#3 Linking to further resources Image courtesy Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

#4 Establishing personal connection Image from Beyond Brown Paper, courtesy Plymouth State University

#6 Correction Image courtesy Michigan Tech Archives

Results compared across sites

Implications

Users are willing to contribute, how willing are archivists to let them?

Considerations:

Encouraging and managing comments

Maintaining clear spaces of authority

Making user comments searchable

Incorporating user comments into archival description

Encouraging your user community Image and screenshot from Joyner Library Digital Collections, Eastern Carolina University

Authority control Image courtesy Michigan Tech Archives

Searching across comments Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

Incorporating user-contributed content Image from Beyond Brown Paper, courtesy Plymouth State University

Incorporating user-contributed content Image courtesy Michigan Tech Archives

Final thoughts and questions

How is user engagement affected by:

format of materials (textual vs. photographic)

amount of metadata provided

Implications for finding aids?

How to verify accuracy (and why bother?)

How to encourage and shape user engagement?

Thank you!

Complete study available online:

http://etd.ils.unc.edu/dspace/handle/1901/561

Image from Beyond Brown Paper, courtesy Plymouth State University email: jmsedg@gmail.com twitter: jm_sedgwick Special thanks to The Donald Peterson Student Award Committee