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Research : Activities : Sharing and Aggregating Social Metadata

Sharing and Aggregating Social Metadata

One of the activities related to metadata management and support, this activity focuses on the user contributions that would enrich the descriptive metadata created by libraries, archives, and museums. These contributions could come from curators, subject librarians, experts, or enthusiasts. The metadata contributed may be in a range of formats, including images, commentaries, reviews, tags, or links to related sources. To be truly effective, we need to share and aggregate contributions added by users in many diverse environments.

An RLG Partner working group is identifying the issues that need to be resolved to communicate and share user contributions on the network level. The working group is reviewing dozens of social media sites and analyzing success metrics, content, policy, and vocabulary issues.

Background

RLG Partners participating in discussions about metadata management identified network-level integrating and sharing of metadata contributions from users as an area that would benefit from collective action. An open call to the RLG partnership for volunteers for a working group in December 2008 got an enthusiastic response from RLG Partner institutions in five countries.

Impact

The working group recommendations will help libraries, archives, and museums determine how best to invest resources to take full advantage of user contributions and the factors that lead to successful outreach to targeted communities.

Details

A Social Metadata Working Group has been reviewing dozens of social media sites and analyzing issues that will need to be resolved to take full advantage of the array of potential user contributions by communicating and sharing them on the network level. A survey to social metadata site managers will be conducted in the latter half of 2009. The group will issue a report of our recommendations in early 2010.

Among the questions the working group is addressing:

  • What are the objectives for social metadata and how do we measure success?
  • What user contributions would most enrich existing metadata created by libraries, archives, and museums?
  • What are examples of successful social media sites and what factors contribute to their success?
  • What best practices currently exist, or need to be developed, that can guide institutions in managing user contributions and various related issues?
  • To what extent is moderation necessary or desirable?
  • How are cultural institutions integrating social metadata into formal taxonomies?

Outputs

Outputs will include at minimum a published report and Webinars.

Events

An overview of the Social Metadata Working Group’s progress was given at the 2009 RLG Partners Annual Meeting (Update session 3): http://www.oclc.org/research/events/2009-06-01a.htm

Leveraging Social Metadata. Presentation given by Karen Smith-Yoshimura at the September 16-17 2009 OCLC Digital West Forum, “Convergence: Where Metadata and Access Meet for Digital Discovery and Delivery”. (http://www.oclc.org/western/digitalforum/default.htm)

More Information

For the list of social metadata sites the working group is reviewing, see:
http://oclcresearch.webjunction.org/social_metadata

Team Members

Social Metadata Working Group Roster

Name Institution
Drew Bourn Stanford University, School of Medicine (Lane Medical Archives)
Douglas Campbell National Library of New Zealand, Innovation Centre
Kevin Clair Pennsylvania State University
Chris Cronin University of Chicago
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman University of Minnesota
Mary Elings University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft library
Steven Galbraith Folger Shakespeare Library
Cheryl Gowing University of Miami
Rose Holley National Library of Australia
Rebekah Irwin Yale University, Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library
Lesley Kadish Minnesota Historical Society
Helice Koffler University of Washington
Daniel Lovins Yale University
John Lowery British Library
Mark Matienzo New York Public Library
Marja Musson International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam)
Henry Raine New-York Historical Society
Cyndi Shein Getty Research Institute
Ken Varnum University of Michigan
Melanie Wacker Columbia University
Kayla Willey Brigham Young University
Beth Yakel University of Michigan, School of Information

John MacColl and Karen Smith-Yoshimura, OCLC Research




Last update: 11 August 2009.