User Understanding of Dublin Core Metadata in Digital Image CollectionsKathleen FearJuly 9, 2009

IntroductionMethodologyFindingsDiscussion and Conclusions

Is the Dublin Core metadata provided in a digital collection perceived to be useful?

IntroductionMethodologyStudy populationMethods: survey, focus group and search testingFindingsDiscussion and Conclusions

Introduction

Methodology

Study population

Methods: survey, focus group and search testing

Findings

Discussion and Conclusions

Methodology: Study population78 subjects (72 undergraduates; 6 graduate students)41 unique majorsRecruited randomly in the undergraduate library; from SI110; and using Ex-Lab

How often do you use Google or another search engine? (n=78)“Almost every day” (72)

How often do you search for images using Google Images, Flickr or another service? (n=78)“A few times a week” (38)

In the past year, how often did you use an online library catalog?(n=78)“A few times a year” (37)

Search Expertise (n=78)“It is rarely hard for me to find what I’m looking for” (32)

Survey (n=50)What information do users think is useful? How do they express that information?

Methodology: SurveyTask 1: What information is useful?“Imagine you are searching for images to put in a PowerPoint for class…what information would be useful when deciding whether an image meets your criteria or not?”

Methodology: SurveyTask 2: Ranking DC elements

Focus Groups (n=18)What information do users think is useful and why? How do they interpret the DC elements?

Methodology: Focus groupTask 1: What information is useful?DiscussionTask 2: Rating DC elementsTask 3: Card sortingTask 4: Definitions

Search Testing (n=10)Do users behave in ways that align with what they say? What information do users find useful in an actual collection?

Methodology: Search testingEnvironment: Claremont Colleges Digital LibraryTraining task: Find a bullfighter and the date associated with the imageTask: Find 5 images relating to ‘pioneer life’ in California at the end of the 19th centuryReflection questions and exit interview

IntroductionMethodologyFindingsUser reported ‘useful’ elementsUser understanding of Dublin Core elementsDiscussion and Conclusions

Introduction

Methodology

Findings

User reported ‘useful’ elements

User understanding of Dublin Core elements

Discussion and Conclusions

Findings: User-reported ‘useful’ information

Categories of useful informationinformation about the imagegathered by looking at the image itself or a thumbnail

Information about the image gathered from the image itself

Categories of useful informationinformation about the file and using the filegathered by reading textual information accompanying the image or the website as a whole

Information about using the image gathered from text

Categories of useful informationinformation about the image gathered by reading accompanying textual information

Information about the image gathered from text

Categories of useful informationinformation about the image gathered from clues in the search or collection interfaces

Information about the image gathered from collection interface

Findings: User understanding of Dublin Core elements

Χ2=0.3 p =0.8607

IntroductionLiterature reviewMethodologyFindingsDiscussion and Conclusions

Introduction

Literature review

Methodology

Findings

Discussion and Conclusions

DescriptionListed by survey and focus group participants as potentially useful?Identified by search testing participants as useful?YESYES

SubjectDescriptionTypeFormatRelationSourceTitleLanguageCoverageRightsIdentifierDateContributorCreatorPublisherMore usefulLess useful

DescriptionAn account of the resource.FG1: The caption underneath the picture, a thorough and in-depth summary.FG2: What it looks like, what's going on there.

PublisherListed by survey and focus group participants as potentially useful?Identified by search testing participants as useful?YESNO

SubjectDescriptionTypeFormatRelationSourceTitleLanguageCoverageRightsIdentifierDateContributorCreatorPublisherMore usefulLess useful

PublisherAn entity responsible for making the resource available.FG1: The rights-holder (the creator or whoever bought the image from the creator).FG2: The name of the publisher if it was a professional picture and was in the newspaper, etc.

SourceListed by survey and focus group participants as potentially useful?Identified by search testing participants as useful?NONO

SubjectDescriptionTypeFormatRelationSourceTitleLanguageCoverageRightsIdentifierDateContributorCreatorPublisherMore usefulLess useful

SourceA related resource from which the described resource is derived.FG1: The website where the image came from.FG2: Where the image is from, the website.

Dublin Core Vocabulary“It's just like really generic words...they're nice words that everyone can just see and understand what's coming next.”

RelationListed by survey and focus group participants as potentially useful?Identified by search testing participants as useful?YESNO

SubjectDescriptionTypeFormatRelationSourceTitleLanguageCoverageRightsIdentifierDateContributorCreatorPublisherMore usefulLess useful

RelationA related resource.FG1: Relevance to your search terms.FG2: How the image is relevant.

But what about context?“And relation, like, that would seem like how it relates to my search, but that's nothing to do with it actually.” (U01)“… I don't really know what that means, I guess. Like, relation to what?” (U09). “I don't really know what relation means, at least in this context” (U07)“Relation, is that like related images? Because I was kind of looking for that.” (U05)

ConclusionsUsers are not blank slatesDublin Core provides useful informationDublin Core vocabulary can be misleading or incomprehensible

Thank you!Questions?This work was supported by a Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant.Thank you to Beth Yakel and Soo Young Rieh for their advice, feedback and support!Kathleen FearSchool of Information, University of MichiganKathleen.fear@gmail.comumich.edu/~kfear