Julia Barrett presents on increasing awareness of cultural heritage digital collections and the approach at UCD Library

1. An Leabharlann UCD
Julia Barrett
UCD James Joyce Library
Promoting Digital Cultural
Heritage Collections:
Challenges and
Opportunities

2. “There is an awareness gap
between the holdings of
digital libraries and the
communities they serve”
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/1
0.1300/J123v53n03_13

3. How Do We Know Who Our Communities Are?
• Audience analysis
– https://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp
/2009/02/05/download-
audience-analysis-toolkit/
• User-generated comments
and feedback
• Analytics
– Google, Twitter
• Log file analysis
• Via Academic champions
• Analysing Use
– TIDSR: Toolkit
for the Impact
of Digitised
Scholarly
Resources
– http://microsite
s.oii.ox.ac.uk/ti
dsr/

4. Build Personas
https://www.hathitrust.org/personas
• Stand-ins for real
users
• Group like-
minded users
• Write user stories
/ use cases
• Include specific,
granular tasks
• Include benefits

5. UCD Digital Library Publicity Channels
• Key University Contacts: users
and political dimension
• Commemorations Committee
• National & Regional Media
• Journals
• Online Platforms and Hubs
• Library Groups
• Local History Societies
• Schools; ScoilNet
• Irish Studies / Academic History
• Museums / Archives
• Mailing Lists
• Possible Funders
• Collection Specific
Links e.g. Maps
– Universities
– Publishers (e.g. RIA)
– Online (e.g.
OpenStreetMap)
– Mailing Lists
– Govt. Depts
– Journals
– Prof. Associations
(e.g. Architecture)

6. UCD Digital Library Publicity Methods
• Twitter
• Blog
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Internal
– E-zines
– Library website
and screens
– UCD channels
• Posters
• Press releases and media
interviews
• Flyers
– General
– Topic e.g. 1916
• Exhibitions
– Kevin Barry – travelling out
– Markievicz – travelling in
(Eithne Coyle O’Donnell)
• Launches

7. The Publicity Journey: Build Relationships
• Partnering with Archives & Academics
– Visits & ceremonies
– MOUs, temporary transfer agreements, etc.
– Increases publicity opportunities
– Build trust
• Champions
– Involve
– Contextual information
– Conferences
– Acknowledge
• Library staff
– College Liaison Librarians
• Think not only end-users but political dimension
– Impact and uniqueness
• UCD Strategic Objectives
– Funding opportunities

8. Be Part of the Conversation
• Post comments
on relevant blogs
• Follow others on
Twitter and
retweet valuable
content – give
and take
• Respond promptly
to any queries

9. Celebrate Anniversaries

10. Create an Impact

11. Make a Case
• Google Analytics
– Individual Digital Library collections
– Related guides / pages (e.g. Maps LibGuide)
• Geographical spread
• Keywords
• Spikes
• Wikipedia Page Views
– Page views for whole page (e.g. Kevin Barry)
– “Relevant Wikipedia entries are gold!”
Spec Kit 341, p.47
• Altmetrics
– Individual Digital Library collections
– Social media spread

12. Kevin Barry Wikipedia Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Barry
UCD
Library:
3/day
Kevin
Barry:
170/day
Easter
Rising:
4,665/day
(22,957/day
for March
2016)

13. UCD Digital Library Collections
• Past year
- 295,000 pageviews
- Ireland, UK, USA…
• Most popular
– 1916 Rising Postcards
(5156)
– School Manuscript
Collection (5044)
– OSi Historic Town
Plans (4967)
• Least popular
– Seán Lemass speeches
as Taoiseach (32)
– James Meenan papers
(43)

14. Challenges
• Maintaining momentum
• Roles and workloads
• Collections moving to services
• Services moving to expertise (technologies /
skills)
• Adding functionality
• Managing expectations

15. Maintaining Momentum: Enhancing
Discoverability
Kevin
Barry
UCD
catalogue
Wikipedia
VLE e.g.
BlackBoard
Search engine
optimisation
GCI and
online
narratives
Transcriptions
/ OCR / full-
text searching
Lesson plans
(e.g. Military
Archives)

16. Roles and Workloads
• Centralisation v. decentralisation
– Library Outreach team
– Digital Library team
– UCD Communications
• Multiplicity of channels requiring tailored approaches
(e.g. Twitter character limits and construction v.
blog post v. press release v. GCI narrative)
• New roles
– Google Cultural Institute
– Wider than just the Digital Library
– Need input from experts – both tool and topic
• Project v. workflow

17. Collections to Services
• How do I download?
• Can we use your images in an exhibition?
There is a small 'download' button (with an inverted green arrow) beside the thumbnails of the
photos.
When you click on it, it gives you several options regarding the size of the image you require.
Choose the largest if you wish to print it.
Please let me know if you run into difficulty.
I am currently researching images on behalf of a museum in Ireland who is opening an
exhibition next year which will focus on the Irish diaspora across the world. It aims to be a
celebration of the richness and diversity of Irish culture and the contributions that the Irish
community have made globally.
The curator would like to focus a small portion of the exhibition on Irish-born novelist, James
Joyce, who attended the University College Dublin in the early 20th century. Therefore, we
would like to include an image of the university from this time in an audio/visual display which
will span his entire life. Might you have some images of the University from around this time
that we may be able to license from you for the purpose of this exhibition please?

18. Expertise
• “I’d like to visualise my data on a map – how do I
do that?”
Iberian
Books
http://iberia
n.ucd.ie/

19. Adding Functionality
• Geospatial
• APIs
• Annotation
Services
• Transcription
tools
• Crowdsourcing Measuring the ANZACs
https://www.measuringtheanzacs.org/

20. Crowdsourcing
www.infotoday.com/cilmag/oct14/Zastrow--Crowdsourcing-Cultural-Heritage.shtml
• NLI’s photos on Flickr
– https://www.flickr.com/photo
s/nlireland/
• “Crowdsourcing is the
single greatest
advancement in getting
people using and
interacting with our
collections.”
– http://www.trevorowens.org/2012/0
3/crowdsourcing-cultural-heritage-
the-objectives-are-upside-down/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/22567080925/

21. Managing Expectations
• Fantastic map collection – are the Northern Irish
maps available?
• Now that you are signed up to Google Cultural
Institute will you be able to create an online
exhibition for my collection?

22. References
• SPEC Kit 341 (2014): Digital Collections Assessment
and Outreach (August 2014)
– http://publications.arl.org/Digital-Collections-
Assessment-Outreach-SPEC-Kit-341/59
• Schrier, R. A. (2007) Digital librarianship & social
media: The digital library as conversation
facilitator. D-Lib Magazine, 17(7/8).
doi:10.1045/july2011-schrier
• Buczynski, James (2007) Referral Marketing
Campaigns. The Serials Librarian, 53:3, 193-209,
doi:10.1300/J123v53n03_13
• TIDSR: Toolkit for the Impact of Digital Scholarly
Resources
– http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/