1. Social tagging:
British Library and
National Archives of UK
Õnne Mets
University of Milano-Bicocca,
Dept. of Sociology and Social Research
ICARUS meeting. Tartu, 30.05.2017
Dr. Marco Gui, University of Milano-
Bicocca
Prof. David Lamas, Tallinn University

2. Background
• National Library of Estonia, 1997-2017
• Librarian
• Project manager, EU communication
• Head of PR dept.
• eBooks on Demand (EOD) Library Network

3. Outline
• Catalogues
• Explore, BL
• Archives and Manuscripts, BL
• Discovery, TNA
• Conditions
• Results
• 8 considerations
• Flickr
• BL
• TNA

4. Catalogue interfaces (1/3)
Explore, BL Archives and
Manuscripts, BL
Discovery, TNA
Content Records Records Records
View items Mostly on site Mostly on site Download with
registration of e-mail
(some free)
Collection size 70 mln ? 32 mln*
Existing
metadata
Yes Yes Yes
API No No No
Social tagging
since
Nov 2008 Jan 2012 Oct 2012
YourArchives
wiki 2007-
2012

5. Catalogue interfaces (2/3)
Explore, BL Archives and
Manuscripts, BL
Discovery, TNA
Tagging
authorisation
Sign in;
only available to
readers registered
in person, and to
document supply
customers
(frequent users,
purchasing >100
documents a year)
Sign in;
only available to
readers registered
in person, and to
document supply
customers
(frequent users,
purchasing >100
documents a year)
Sign in;
Online registration,
available to anyone,
providing reader’s
ticket nr is optional
Tags instantly
published
Yes Yes Yes
Deletion of
tags
The user,
library
The user,
library
The user,
library
Suggestions Report Catalogue
Error form
Report Catalogue
Error form
Flag inappropriate
tags

6. Catalogue interfaces (3/3)
Explore, BL Archives and
Manuscripts, BL
Discovery, TNA
Representa-
tion of tags
In record;
Tab ‘Tag’: by most
recent & most
popular;
Option to see only
own tags
In record;
Tab ‘Tag’: by most
recent & most
popular;
Option to see only
own tags
In record;
Tab ‘Tags’:
Alfabetically, by most
popular & most
recent
Instructions
for users
In record: what is a
tag, suggest
correction.
Tab 'Tag'
(throughout
navigation): help
articles
In record: what is a
tag, suggest
correction.
Tab 'Tag'
(throughout
navigation): help
articles
In record: sign
in/register.
Tab 'Tag' (opening
page): help article.
Separator comma comma Simply enter a tag and
click 'submit'. You can
add as many tags as
you like.

7. Flickr (1/2)
BL TNA
Content Images from public
domain books
Images
View items Low res. + link to
buy high res.
Low res. + link to
buy high res.
Collection size 1 mln 20K
Existing
metadata
No (but book data) Yes
API Yes Yes
Tagging since 2013 2013
Tagging
authorisation
Online registration
Tags instantly
published
Yes

8. Flickr (2/2)
BL TNA
Deletion of
tags
The user,
account owner
Suggest
correction
No
Representa-
tion of tags
‘?’: short description and link to some
more information.
Instructions
for users
Separator Separate single word tags with spaces
and add phrases in quotes.

9. Period of observation in months
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Explore Archives and
Man.
Discovery* BL Flickr TNA Flickr

10. Results. Taggers
Explore, 780
Archives and
Man., 87
Discovery,
17733
BL Flickr, 496
TNA Flickr,
194

11. Users per year
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Explore
Archives and
Manuscripts
EOD Search

12. Results. Total tags
Explore, 7939 Archives and
Man., 621
Discovery, 51990
BL Flickr, 540446
TNA Flickr,
141603

13. Social tags on the platform
Explore, 7939 Archives and
Man., 621
Discovery,
44184
BL Flickr, 310818
TNA Flickr, 4993

14. Top taggers
Absolute number of people
Percentage of
total taggers
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Explore Archives and
Manuscripts
Discovery BL Flickr TNA Flickr
Attributed >=2% of
total tags
Attributed >=2% of
total unique tags
Tagged >=1% of
total tagged items
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Explore Archives and
Manuscripts
Discovery BL Flickr TNA Flickr

15. Return dates per user in avg
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
1-7 days
8-60 days
2-12 months
1-4 years
EOD Search
Archives and
Manuscripts
Explore

16. Tags per user (median)*
*Institutional
accounts excluded
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Total tags per
person
Unique tags per
person
Tagged items
per person
Explore
Archives and Manuscripts
Discovery
BL Flickr
TNA Flickr
total tags, sd= unique tags, sd= items, sd=
Explore 43 8 34
Arch. and Man. 1 3 35
Discovery 18 10 10
BL Flickr 6386 842 5067
TNA Flickr 106 63 40

17. Correlations
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Total and
unique tags
Total tags
and tagged
items
Unique tags
and tagged
items
Explore
Archives and Manuscripts
Discovery
BL Flickr
TNA Flickr

18. Taggers per item
• 1 item got mostly 1 tag by 1 person
• Maximum:
• Archives and Manuscripts: 0 records tagged by at least 2
people.
• Explore: 4 people (one occasion)
• BL Flickr: 5 people (18 occasions)
• TNA Flickr: 8 people per item
• Discovery: 104 people per record in maximum (one occasion;
100 people per record once; 80 people per record once etc.).

19. Top tags. Explore
Tags attributed most in total Tags attributed by most people
>=1% of total tags >=1% of total users
silent cinema dissertation
business directory >=0,51% of total users <=0,77%
war of 1812 fantasy fiction
telecommunications industry
guide history
this read
anarchist newspapers &
periodicals (english language) to read
propaganda 2013 exhibition biography
construction check
renewable energy industry
guide music
1
business, directory
darwin
literature
psychology
thesis

20. Top tags. Archives and Manuscripts
>=1% of total tags
All tags attributed by at
least 2 people
sialkot john
gujranwala - 1
sargodha
sialkot - book
jhang
lyallpur
gujrat
faislabad
sahiwal-1
sialkot - 1
trade unions
west punjab
auditor notes
jenny
miscpoems
sialkot - map
war of 1812

21. Top tags. Discovery
>=0,46% of total tags <=-0,93% >=1% of total users
a level - korean war grandad
a level - chartism 0,24-0,92% of total users
movcon grandfather
cycle dad
haiti list father
ww1
great uncle

22. Top tags.
BL Flickr
Tags attributed most in Tags attributed by most
>=1% of total tags >=4,23% of total users
map map
georefphase2 portrait
togeoref church
rotate90 bird
hasgeoref london
wp:bookspage=geography castle
geo:continent=europe river
coatofarms dog
portrait boat
colorful horse
colourful ship
people woman
lettert cathedral
>=0,43% of total tags <=0,87 bridge
wp:bookspage=synopticinde
xusa letter
rotate270 man
geo:country=uk egypt
geo:country=unitedkingdom split
music geology
fauna child
lettera children
letteri fish
wp:bookspage=synopticinde
xukandireland scotland
georefphase1 world
wp:bookspage=synopticinde
xfrance africa
geo:state=england birds

23. Top tags. TNA Flickr
Tags attributed most in total Tags attributed by most people
>=1% of total tags >3% users
thenationalarchivesuk woman
tna:departmentreference=co horse
tna:seriesreference=co1069 railway
tna:divisionreference=cod32 road
africathroughalens school
asiathroughalens street
asia
tna:subseriesreference=co1069ss1
etc.

24. Take-aways
• Enable and instruct
1. Enable tagging for everyone upon online registration
2. Make sure that instructions can be found when landing
directly on the record
3. Adjust syntax, if needed
• Advance and reflect
4. Provide personal tagging option
5. Empower users with APIs
6. Consider displaying tags attributed by most people
• Monitor and maintain
7. Record time
8. Detect relevant contributors quickly before they leave.

25. Thank you!
o.mets@campus.unimib.it
onne.mets@gmail.com