Addressing the Metadata Bottleneck* *By Developing and Evaluating an Online Tool to Support Non-specialists to Evaluate Dublin Core
Metadata Records
Michael Khoo, The iSchool at Drexel
ALISE Annual Conference
Boston, MA, January 12-25, 2010
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Web is a rich source of digital resources Quality metadata = quality repositories The number of resources needing metadata
>
number of people making metadata There is a metadata bottleneck or gap in the
way of quality digital repository development
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Web is a rich source of digital resources Quality metadata = quality repositories The number of resources needing metadata
>
number of people making metadata There is a metadata bottleneck or gap in the
way of quality digital repository development
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Web is a rich source of digital resources Quality metadata = quality repositories The number of resources needing metadata
>
number of people making metadata There is a metadata bottleneck or gap in the
way of quality digital repository development
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Metadata Bottleneck
The Web is a rich source of digital resources Quality metadata = quality repositories The number of resources needing metadata
>
number of people making metadata There is a metadata bottleneck or gap in the
way of quality digital repository development
The Metadata Bottleneck
Addressing the metadata bottleneck …
The Web …
… the library …
… and the ‘bottleneck’
Some possible solutions
More librarians
Automatic tools
Creators, users, volunteers, etc., using custom tools
However, metadata tools for non-experts are not always successful
Identified problems: Poor communication of knowledge and
instruction Poor interface design Poor usability
Useful to continue to have a professional cataloger dimension (support, QA, etc.)
How can users be better supported?
Metadata tools for non-experts
Context: IPL/LII merger, and IPL2
IPL & LII metadata crosswalked to Dublin Core
This required a new metadata admin tool Tool will be used by students in iSchool
classes to practice metadata generation and contribute metadata to IPL2
Students are ‘non-experts’ (for now)
Context: IPL/LII merger
User-centered design approach
Metadata tools have to be carefully designed
For the IPL metadata tool, a UCD approach was adopted Interface design Tool content
requirements
testing
developmentrefining
User-centered design approach
Analysis of Problem Space
IPL cataloging currently requires:
Training materials …
… metadata forms …
… and the resource itself
Cataloging requires multiple windows/tabs
Graduate HCI class at Drexel IPL introduced as ‘client’ (real world example) Metadata tool as the design brief
Student teams worked on Requirements gathering Paper prototyping Usability testing Prototype refining
User-centered design approach
Students developed several prototypes, and a hybrid was subsequently developed further http://research.cis.drexel.edu/test/ipl/ipl.html file:///Users/mkhoo/Desktop/Work/
10%20ALISE/tool_01%20copy/ipl.html
User-centered design approach
Content Analysis
Aims Identify key concepts in metadata experts’
discourse Identify student conceptions Provide useful instructions to bridge the two
Only the first analysis (key concepts for metadata experts) undertaken so far
Content Analysis
Identify online/digital guides to and descriptions of metadata
Convert to text files and analyze with Centering Resonance Analysis (CRA) software Output as graphs and ranked indices
Definitions of Metadata
Final tool will:
Integrate multiple windows (rubric, record, resource) into one interface
Explain complex metadata concepts to non-specialist users Support usability with iterative user-centered HCI
“Surprises”
Students are busy Technology (e.g. Fedora api) is complex Tech staff are busy Existing IPL workflow is complex
Outcomes
Khoo, M., Park, J-r., and X. Lin. (2009). The User-Centered Design Of A Non-Specialist Metadata Tool And Interface For The Internet Public Library. 72nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vancouver, BC, November 6-11, 2009.
Khoo, M., X. Lin, & J-r. Park. (2009). A User-Friendly Metadata Quality Control Tool for the Internet Public Library. 9th ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), Austin, TX, June 15-19, 2009, pp. 407-408.
Galloway, M., Khoo, M., Lin, X., & Park, J-r. (2009). Crosswalking IPL metadata to Dublin Core. iConference 2009, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, February 8-11, 2009.
AcknowledgementsOCLC and ALISE
Thank you. Questions?
Image credits
Librarian 2.0 http://www.daveyp.com/blog/stuff/librarian2/ro
bot_catalogue.png
If you build it, they will come http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/11/10/if-y
ou-build-it-they-will-come/