Presented by Travis Williams, LSU Law Center When your archival collection has a thousand photographs with no identifying information, what can you do? This presentation will address the pros and cons of using Flickr as a crowdsourcing platform while covering additional topics such as: digitization workflows, obtaining institutional buy-in, and promoting discovery. Examples will be drawn from a recent project undertaken by the LSU Law Library.

1. A Flickr of Metadata:
Tales from a Crowdsourcing Project
Travis H. Williams
Metadata Librarian & Archivist
Paul M. Hebert Law Center Library
travis.williams@law.lsu.edu

2. Outline
• The Back Story
• The Idea
• The Workflow
• Going Public
• Going Over Results
• Recommendations
• Questions
Richard Ieyoub and John Kennedy
Attorney General Candidates Forum
1991

3. The Archival Collections at LSU LAW
• Majority of collections are related to school history.
• Housed in a secure, climate-controlled room.
• Always a “side project” until 2012.
• Hired an archivist in 2013.
• Identification and Priorities
(Unidentified Subjects)
Civil Law Library
1980

4. Picture This Problem
• Good News/Bad News
• Photo Collection Info
• 1990s
• 4x6 and slides
• What to do?

5. Flickr
Photo-sharing site
• Free
• Allows comments
• Model based on similar archival projects
• Library of Congress
• Smithsonian
• Harry Ransom Center (book fragments)

6. Avoid A Trap
• Do not think this is a “passive” method of getting
work done. To be successful, this project must be
“active”.
Return of the Jedi

7. Laying the Groundwork
• Director(s) buy-in
• A “quick victory”
• Student Workers
• Establish a Workflow
Justice Thomas Visits
Circa 1994

8. The Workflow
• Step 1: Group the Physical Items (archivist)
• Step 2: Number and Scan Photos (student)
• Scanned Image Cleanup (and file name)
• Step 3: Upload Photos to Flickr (archivist)
• Adding available metadata
(Unidentified Subjects)
Barrister’s Ball
Circa 1990s

9. Site Arrangement
https://www.flickr.com/photos/101257831@N05/albums
• Albums
• Students
• Unknown Events
• Known Events (oldest first)
• Identified Photos
• (Note: no arrangement within albums)
Most “interesting” and
most “mysterious” albums
at the top

10. The Launch
• Over 1,000 photos
• 40 Groups
• The “Soft Launch”
• Internal
• Going Public
• Alumni Newsletter

11. Results
• ~ 60 comments
• ~ 95% still without comments
• Better results from internal sources than alumni.
• Handful of individuals make multiple comments.
• Activity “burst” at launch and quickly subsides.

12. To-Do List
• Have a presence at alumni events.
• Transfer the metadata.
• Process the photograph collection.
• The Slides
Justice Scalia and Chancellor Day
Circa 1995

13. Pros (Victories)
• Relatively easy to navigate/arrange.
• Builds a sense of community.
• Capture knowledge otherwise “lost”.
• Awareness of the archives/library.
Masters of the Universe

14. Cons (Defeats?)
• Needing a Flickr account in order to comment.
• Transferring data.
• Average response rate is low.*
*ours was slightly above average
• “Controversial” photos.
• The “was it worth it” question.
Masters of the Universe

15. What I’d Do Differently
• Write guidelines early on (manage expectations/legacy).
• Data migration plan.
• Waited until processing the photo collection?
• More aggressive marketing plan/timeframe.
• Using Flickr as part of social media campaign.

16. Questions?
Futurama

17. A Flickr of Metadata:
Tales from a Crowdsourcing Project
Travis H. Williams
Metadata Librarian & Archivist
Paul M. Hebert Law Center Library
travis.williams@law.lsu.edu