Social georeferencing allows users to collaboratively add geographic relevance to information by geotagging or plotting items on maps. The author discusses how libraries could leverage this by having the public help georeference objects in local history collections. Examples provided include the British Library crowdsourcing map georeferencing, OurOntario which digitized local collections with public contributions, and how Flickr and LibraryThing enable social georeferencing of photos and books. While quality control and maintaining engagement are challenges, incentives and promotion could encourage participation to make more of libraries' collections discoverable based on location.

1. Social Georeferencing
A Model for Libraries
By Glen Farrelly
February 2014

2. About Me
• Doctoral candidate @ University of Toronto,
Faculty of Information
• 15+ years as digital media consultant and
web producer
• My dissertation examines how people’s use of
locative media affects their spatial relationships
• For further Glen info  glenfarrelly.com

3. Presentation Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introduction
Terminology
Importance
Social georeferencing
Examples
a. British Library
b. OurOntario
c. Flickr
d. LibraryThing
6. Caveats
7. Recommendations
Sample of a libraries local studies collection

4. Introduction
• Location-based services (LBS)
made geographically relevant
info more accessible & desired
• Current ways to georeference
are insufficient
• Online, crowdsourcing offers
potential solution

5. Terminology

6. Geographic Info Retrieval

7. Importance of Topic
• People value geographically relevant
information
• Long history of media used to
deliver geo. relevance
• LBS have increased demand
• Much info in libraries not
sufficiently georeferenced

8. Use of Location-Based Services
60
% of respondents
50
40
30
20
10
0
Find nearby Find nearby Find nearby
businesses
events
sites
View
pictures or
videos of
location
Read
Read history Read local
current info of location
news
of location
Read
reviews of
nearby
businesses
In a survey I did, 86% of respondents reported using their device to access at least one place-related
function in the past month. The results are dated now, so I expect these rates to be higher.
At the high end, 84% reported finding proximal businesses or services, reading local news
(74%), finding nearby sites (67%), and reading information about their location (66%).

9. Social Georeferencing
• Users create information for
georeferencing, via
o geotagging
o plotting on map
• Helps with toponym problems
• Collaborative and social
• Scalable

10. Examples…

11. British Library
• Asked public to georeference maps
• Used online tool (below) developed by Klokan
(klokantech.com/georeferencer)
• In 7 weeks, 2700
maps completed
• More details:
www.bl.uk/maps

12. OurOntario
• Collaborative project with libraries & museums
across Ontario
• Assisted in digitizing and online cataloguing of
local history collections
• Public contributed
objects and comments on
location & details of
existing online items
• More info:
http://ourontario.ca/

13. Flickr Map
• Easy to use and familiar online tool to georeference
location of photos via plotting on map
• Flickr also enables geotagging,
i.e. folksonomy tags
• Geotags may better capture
place-name info seeking
behaviour of people
• Visit map:
flickr.com/photos/glenfarrelly/map

14. LibraryThing
• LibraryThing is example of easy-to-use, social tool
people use to describe, tag, and share info
• Projects have successfully combined LibraryThing’s
user-generated content with library catalogues
• Model of way to
combine social
georeferencing
with library
catalogues
• librarything.com

15. Caveats
• Quality and accuracy of public’s work
• Malicious hijacking
• Exploitation of free labour
• Creating and managing an online, collaborative
system is time-consuming
• Maintaining public (and internal) interest in project

16. Encouraging Participation
• Offer incentives and prizes
• Reward “super users”
• Give credit for contributions
• Promote with social media
• Engaging user experience (incl. gamification)
Read: Holley, R. (2010). Crowdsourcing: How and why should libraries do it?
D-Lib Magazine, 16(3/4).

17. More Information
 delicious.com/glenfarrelly/HHLIB
 glenfarrelly.blogspot.ca