A presentation from Museums and the Web 2010. By the time The New York Public Library (NYPL) joined The Commons on Flickr, almost a year after The Library of Congress (LOC) had launched the initial pilot project, it was clear there is great potential for user-generated content to shed new light on archival imagery. in ways that are difficult to achieve with more traditional methods. Many of the earliest Commons images contained little or no prior description, and users were encouraged to tag these records with much-needed metadata. Images uploaded more recently by Commons partners often have included associated metadata, and this fact has been dealt with differently by various institutions. Some choose to not upload that data; others upload subject-headings, but only as descriptive text; still others add selected subject headings as single tags across a set of items. When the library uploaded its first set of 1,300 images in late 2008, it was thus faced with a number of questions about what type of metadata should also be uploaded. Should we hide or cloak the structured metadata (subject headings, name authority files, etc.) associated with these images? Or could we try to contribute our pre-existing subjects as tags? Although Flickr machine-tags have emerged as one option for exposing controlled vocabularies on Flickr, what if our structured metadata could look – and behave – more like user-generated tags from the beginning? This paper discusses the rationale behind NYPL's decision to combine existing metadata – in the form of subject headings – with user-generated tags, and demonstrates some of the challenges, benefits and drawbacks for institutions that may be interested in using similar approaches for their own collections. Session: Collections: Tag / Search / Deploy - Part 1 [access] see http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/abstracts/prg_335002306.html

1. Can Structured Metadata Play
Nice with Tagging Systems?
Parsing New Meanings From Classification-
Based Descriptions on Flickr Commons
Museums & the Web 2010
4.15.2010
Joseph B. Dalton

3. Metadata In A New Context?

5. www.flickr.com/photos/luciusyg/3292841265/

6. Our Content

7. User Generated Content

8. Let’s Talk Ontology (Really?)
www.flickr.com/photos/the_widget/169644838/

9. Conforming Data to the Model
“... defining models and persuading
providers of information to understand
them, and to make the information they
provide conform to them.”
- Michel Biezunski. Reflections from Advancing Topic Maps:
Maintenance of Concept Integrity as Names Change, 2007

10. Conforming Model to the Data
“The consideration of any piece of
information either as data or metadata is a
question of perspective ... and many data
can be both ...

11. Which Makes More Sense?
... the idea is to take whatever information
is available, and, with or without the
provider’s cooperation, to try to make one
or more kinds of sense out of it.”
- Michel Biezunski

12. © the rut. 2008 http://bigeyedeer.wordpress.com

13. Our Inherited Data Model
www.flickr.com/photos/www_317537_com/367506056

14. Our Inherited Data Model: Pre-RDMS

15. Card Catalog: Nested Subject Headings
Archaeological sites -- Syria -- Damascus ...

16. Card-catalog (1-dimens) vs. RDMS data
Debates and debating, Intercollegiate
-or-
Debates and Debating
Intercollegiate
-or-
Debates
Debating
Intercollegiate

17. Laser Precision vs. Flexible Data
Americans -- Employment -- New York (State) -- New
York -- 1900-1909

18. Facets As Data Delimiters
Americans -- Employment -- New York (State) -- New
York -- 1900-1909
Tag Data:
1900s
Americans
Employment
New York
New York State

19. CAN Subject Headings Be Tags ?
A Few Hurdles
• Integrate structured metadata with tagging
systems
• Will meanings be lost in shifting models?
• Will users contribute tags to pre-tagged
items?

20. Looking For Term Patterns
• Parse terms in subject by punctuation
– term 1 – term 2 (term 3) – term 4
• Becomes:
– term 1
– term 2
– term 3
– term 4

21. Looking For Commas
• Commas can be tricky
– Zinzendorf, Nicolaus Ludwig, Graf von, 1700-1760
– Alexandra, Queen, consort of Edward VII, King of Great
Britain, 1844-1925
• Most names are more like:
– Washington, George

22. Looking For Phrases
• Archaic and dated phrases may need an
agreed upon conversion:
– “Homes and haunts”
– “City and Town Life,”
– etc.

23. Subject Headings As Tags

24. Will Users Add Their Tags Too?
• Environment Needs to Encourage Tagging
• Flickr Commons Users Highly Motivated to
Participate

27. Can Users Add Value?

28. Can Users Add Value?

31. Tags Only Used By NYPL

32. Tags From Users & NYPL

33. Tags Only From Users

34. Lesson 1. Web Is Not A Catalog (Yet)
• Set your terms free
(but if they’re still weird, that’s OK)
• If terms don’t fit, don’t upload them

35. Lesson 2. Learn From Users
• Flickr’s 200+ million users and 6+ billion
photos: Use them!

36. People, Content & Context
Flickr User Model v0.3
www.flickr.com/photos/bryce/58299511/

37. Thanks!
Questions, Feedback: jdalton@nypl.org
New York Public Library
Strategic Planning
188 Madison Ave., 4th Fl.
New York, NY 10016