Crowdsourcing for Libraries in 3 sentences: Crowdsourcing originated in the 19th century with projects like the Smithsonian Institution's meteorological project in 1848. Libraries can benefit from crowdsourcing by accomplishing tasks more efficiently than paid staff, engaging communities, and making collections more discoverable. Examples of library crowdsourcing include tagging images on Flickr, transcribing text, and identifying materials to enhance metadata.

1. Crowdsourcing for Libraries
- by Sarah J. McCarthy

2. Crowdsourcing Defined
 Webster’s dictionary defines
crowdsourcing as “the practice of
obtaining needs, services, ideas, or
content by soliciting contributions
from a large group of people and
especially from the online
community rather than from
traditional employees or suppliers”
(Crowdsourcing).

3. Library Crowdsourcing Origins
 Consider the Meteorological Project initiated in 1848
by the Smithsonian’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry.
 150 volunteers across the country submitted monthly
weather reports. The reports were published in an
1861 compilation of climatic data and storm
observations (Bruno, 2011).
 This project is considered the precursor to the National
Weather Bureau. (SIA RU000060, Smithsonian
Institution Meteorological Project, 2011).

4. Crowdsourcing Benefits
 Accomplish tasks the library doesn’t ways.
have staff, time, or finances to achieve.  Validate the worth of the library by
 Add value to/improve the quality of data. allowing for a high level of public
 Engage the community with the library/ involvement.
collection and make use of their  Encourage a sense of public ownership
expertise. and responsibility for the collections
(Holley, 2010).
 Allow data to be discoverable in new

5. Case Studies
Tag/Identif Build Upon/ Transcribe
y Materials Create Data Text

6. Tag / Identify Materials
Smithsonian
Institution
• Flickr Commons visitors can add keywords and tags to
images; these are then vetted.
• Select words are added to the metadata, enhancing the
search function and making images easier to find
(Oliver, 2011).
• Sometimes this leads to new collection materials-- For
example, Flickr photographs from the Scopes Monkey
Trial prompted a donation of 10 additional photos by
Henriatta S. Jenrette, daughter of a trial attendee
(Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 2011).

7. Build Upon / Create Data

8. Transcribe Text

9. Further Examples
Fast Code Design LibAnswers Pay-to-Scan

10. Challenges with Crowdsourcing
Error Design &
Maintainin Prevention Technolog Limited What to Do
g Interest / Data y Concerns Resources With the
Control Data

11. Maintaining Interest
Digitalkoot:
Mole Bridge and Mole
Hunt
“We want to compete against
others, we seek reward and
positive feedback…we want to
demonstrate we can solve tricky
problems and prove how clever
we are.”
--Claudia Pelzer, Crowdsourcing.com
founder

12. Error Prevention / Data Control
Australian Newspapers Digitization Program (ANDP)
 Newspaper quality was not good, and the OCR did not provide good
results
 Crowdsourcing was found to be a good option to re-key the text
 Vandalism and lack of familiarity with the project were their primary
concerns
 Vandalism- addressed by showing end-users the original
image, having a roll-back plan, and having mandatory login
 Lack of familiarity with the project- addressed by using familiar
terms, providing reference points, and offering technical help
 It was a huge success– by the end of the first 6 months, over 2 million
lines of text in more than 100,000 articles had already been corrected

13. Design and Technology
Concerns

14. Limited Resources
 Time and resources are often quite limited, but there are collaborative options that can help.
 Flickr Commons is one option– especially useful for image identifying or tagging.
 Clickworker.com is another-- libraries can price out projects to be undertaken by their community
of over 115,000 individuals. This might be good for time-sensitive projects.
 The George Eastman House currently has a Clickworker project to help catalog and tag over
400,000 of their images. (George Eastman House taps Clickworker for iconic global
crowdsourcing project).

15. What To Do With the Data
“In asking for the public's help in extracting the menus data, we are making an implicit
promise to do something interesting and useful with it… What it means fundamentally is
re-imagining the very roles of librarians and curators, positioning them not only as
custodians of physical collections, but as leaders of online communities.”
-Ben Vershbow, Director of NYPL Labs (Gan, 2011)

16. CONCLUSION
Note: for the full list of references, see my research paper on this topic.

17. ? And that concludes my
presentation…
Any Questions?

18. References, p. 1
 (2010). Retrieved November 5, 2011, from Dickens Journals Online: http://www.djo.org.uk/
 Capturing the power of the crowd and the challenge of community collections. (2010, July 27). Retrieved November 3, 2011, from JISC:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/programmerelated/2010/communitycollections.aspx
 Old Weather FAQ. (2010). Retrieved November 11, 2011, from OldWeather.com: http://www.oldweather.org/faq
 WWI ships to chart past climate. (2010, October 13). Retrieved November 5, 2011, from bbc.co.uk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-
11532534
 Leafsnap, a new mobile app that identifies plants by leaf shape, is launched by Smithsonian and collaborators. (2011, May 2). Retrieved October
23, 2011, from Smithsonian Science: http://smithsonianscience.org/2011/05/new-mobile-app-that-identifies-plants-by-leaf-shape-launched-by-
smithsonian-and-columbia-and-maryland-universities/
 SIA RU000060, Smithsonian Institution Meteorological Project. (2011). Retrieved December 9, 2011, from Smithsonian Institution Archives: were
analyzed by Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Lafayette College, James H. Coffi
 About us. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 23, from Transcribe Bentham, UCL: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham/about/
 Benetti, T. D. (2011, June 16). The secrets of Digitalkoot: Lessons learned crowdsourcing data entry to 50,000 people (for free). Retrieved November
4, 2011, from Microtask.com: http://blog.microtask.com/2011/06/the-secrets-of-digitalkoot-lessons-learned-crowdsourcing-data-entry-to-50000-people-
for-free/
 Boesveld, S. (2011, May 30). Can Wikipedia improve students’ work? Retrieved October 25, 2011, from NationalPost.com:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/30/can-wikipedia-improve-students-work/
 Bruno, E. (2011, April 14). Smithsonian crowdsourcing since 1847! Retrieved October 5, 2011, from Smithsonian Institution Archives:
http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/smithsonian-crowdsourcing-1847

19. References, p. 2
 Crowdsourcing. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2011, from M-W.com: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing?show=0&t=1319399161
 Davey, N. (2010, January 7). Ross Dawson: Six tools to kickstart your crowdsourcing strategy. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from mycustomer.com:
http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/customer-intelligence/ross-dawson-six-tools-start-your-crowdsourcing-strategy/109914#
 Deacon, H. (2010, April 10). Involving archive users in digitising archival collections . Retrieved October 12, 2011, from The Archival Platform:
http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/involve_users/
 Friedman, S. (2011, July 14). Finding the future: inside NYPL's all-night scavenger hunt. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from LibraryJournal.com:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/libraryculture/890973-271/finding_the_future_inside_nypls.html.csp
 Front page news and development. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2011, from Distributed Proofreaders: http://www.pgdp.net/c/
 Gan, V. (2011, September 16). All hands on deck: NYPL turns to the crowd to develop digital collections. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from
HuffingtonPost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-new-york-public-library/all-hands-on-deck-nypl-tu_b_966057.html
 Crowdsourcing. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2011, from M-W.com: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing?show=0&t=1319399161
 Davey, N. (2010, January 7). Ross Dawson: Six tools to kickstart your crowdsourcing strategy. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from mycustomer.com:
http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/customer-intelligence/ross-dawson-six-tools-start-your-crowdsourcing-strategy/109914#
 Deacon, H. (2010, April 10). Involving archive users in digitising archival collections . Retrieved October 12, 2011, from The Archival Platform:
http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/involve_users/
 Friedman, S. (2011, July 14). Finding the future: inside NYPL's all-night scavenger hunt. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from LibraryJournal.com:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/libraryculture/890973-271/finding_the_future_inside_nypls.html.csp

20. References, p. 3
 Front page news and development. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2011, from Distributed Proofreaders: http://www.pgdp.net/c/
 Gan, V. (2011, September 16). All hands on deck: NYPL turns to the crowd to develop digital collections. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from
HuffingtonPost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-new-york-public-library/all-hands-on-deck-nypl-tu_b_966057.html
 http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/using-new-tools-mapping-old-brooklyn/
 Oliver, B. (2011, January 28). Tag! You're it! And a survey... Retrieved October 10, 2011, from Smithsonian Libraries:
http://smithsonianlibraries.si.edu/smithsonianlibraries/2011/01/tag-youre-it.html
 Pelzer, C. (2011, September 3). How gamification drives crowdsourcing. Retrieved November 5, 2011, from Crowdsourcing.org:
http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/how-gamification-drives-crowdsourcing/6419
 Progress update, 15 to 21 October 2011. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2011, from Transcribe Bentham, UCL: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham/
 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. (2011, April 18). Field book project now on Flickr Commons. Retrieved October 10, 2011, from Field
book project: http://nmnh.typepad.com/fieldbooks/2011/04/flickr.html
 Sommer, L. (2011, August 16). Mapping project reveals pre-1906 quake San Francisco. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from KQED News:
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/08/16/mapping-project-reveals-pre-earthquake-san-francisco/
 Springer, M., Dulabahn, B., Michel, P., Natanson, B., Reser, D., Woodward, D., et al. (2008, October 30). For the common good: the Library of Congress
Flickr pilot project. Retrieved November 5, 2011, from LOC.gov: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_report_final.pdf
 Stein, B. (2011, April 12). Crowdsourcing science history: NIST digital archives seeks help in identifying mystery artifacts. Retrieved October
23, 2011, from NIST Tech Beat: http://www.nist.gov/director/archives-041211.cfm

21. References, p. 4
 The Great War Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2011, from The First World War poetry digital archive: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa
 The University of Iowa. (2011). Civil War diaries and letters transcription project. Retrieved November 5, 2011, from The University of Iowa Libraries:
http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cwd/transcripts.html
 Tischler, L. (n.d.). How Twitter And Facebook helped Bing Thom design a public library. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from FastCodeDesign.com:
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664711/how-twitter-and-facebook-helped-bing-thom-design-a-public-library
 University of Oxford Ancient Lives. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2011, from AncientLives.com: http://www.ancientlives.org/transcribe
 What is AquaBrowser Library? (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2011, from Serial Solutions Media Lab: http://www.medialab.nl/aquabrowser.html
 What's on the menu? (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2011, from NYPL.org: http://menus.nypl.org/about