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
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).
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
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)
17. ? And that concludes my
presentation…
Any Questions?
18. References, p. 1
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19. References, p. 2
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20. References, p. 3
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21. References, p. 4
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