Download - TSC_CIOPres_FINALrev2_06May13_07Feb16
Opening Collections & Inviting Audiences to
“Seriously Amazing”
Opportunities
06 May 2013
Smithsonian Institution Transcription Services Center
Smithsonian InstitutionTranscription Services Center
Smithsonian Institution Transcription Services Center (SI TSC) offers an interactive learning space and flexible approach to growing audiences and knowledge.
SI TSC allows us to link the rapidly changing online experience with physical collections and partner institutions; as we develop access to successfully digitized SI resources held in digital spaces.
With Success in SI Digitization Objectives, Some Challenges Emerge
As we increase volume of digitized collections and open access, in what ways can we:
– Improve and Increase the Quality of Engagement?
– Increase Access and Use of Resources?
– Create Pathways of Learning and New Knowledge?
– Maintain and Build Trust with Communities of Interest, Stakeholders, and Audiences?
SI-wide Objectives:• Open Data
• Increased Access
• Knowledge Diffusion
Unit Needs:• Transcribing
• Sharing
Solution:
An opportunity to bring togetherSI Objectives, Unit Needs, and Audiences
Objectives Meeting Needs
Baekeland’s Diary has been digitized and is accessible through Collections Search Service… is the knowledge within easily accessible?
Objectives Meeting NeedsBaekeland writes a letter to the Globe, responding to“the pessimistic utterance of Mr. Schiff, the banker, who does not know what is going to become of all our immigrants. I doubt whether they will publish my letter.”
Digitized but unsearchable –uncovering relevant historical context presents a true need to be met
If the contents of the journal are transcribed, then the details can be categorized and discoverable through various search methods
What will help units meet their needs as digitization objectives continue to be met?
Transcription by volunteers –
Crowdsourced Participation
Crowdsourcing Participation for Transcription
• What is crowdsourcing?
– “obtain (information or input into a particular task or project) by enlisting the services of a number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet”* - Oxford English Dictionary, 2013
• In reality, crowdsourcing has been integral to Smithsonian Institution practices and certainly predates the internet as a communal and collaborative phenomenon
Notable Moments of Crowdsourcing
• Oxford English Dictionary: The result of a 70 year crowd-sourced adventure in mapping language – volunteers worked through books and marked first instances of new words (1858-1928)
• Secretary Joseph Henry and the Weather:Henry recruited “citizen scientists” across
North and South American to telegraph
daily weather reports, starting in 1849;
these efforts created the first National
weather map and service
Crowdsourcing Models
• Knowledge building: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)
• Identifying Materials: Flickr (SI Archives, BHL)
• Sharing resources: Google docs during Boston Marathon bombing
• Competition and Competitive Collaboration: Building Models or Developing programming
• Teaching and Learning: GitHub, WordPress, other web developers resources
• Funding: Kickstarter, Indie-go-go, Charity Events
Models that suit the intial objectives of the Smithsonian Institution Transcription Services
Center
Crowdsourcing Vital Information
The Power of the Crowd: Google Person Finder and Google Docs offered vital information and places for people to stay or find shelter
and food in a time of uncertainty in Boston
Benefits of Crowdsourced Participation
• Small groups of people performing distributed tasks for greater effect
• Small steps to great volumes of work
• Participation as investment and belonging
• Participation in our model of transcription
– prepares audiences for participation in related future or yet-to-be determined models
– opens doors to new knowledge creation and future research opportunities
Engaging & Cultivating Audiences
• “Engage the public in helping us build knowledge about existing collections, conduct research & make the information we generate available & accessible”
- J. Abrams, 03/20/2013
• Cultivating an audience that participates in innovative ways – Leading that audience to adopt a new way of
thinking about Smithsonian Institution resources: viewing the institution as a trusted digital knowledge repository
Three Models of Transcription
• NYPL: What’s on the Menu
• DIY History – University of Iowa Libraries
• Zooniverse: Old Weather
These three models are examples of successful transcription projects with varying interfaces, levels of required registration, badging, and subject matter.
The What’s on the menu? interface is simple and effective with a clearly stated purpose; also leads to the next project (mapping).
DIY History: Manuscripts, Diaries, Correspondence
http://diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu/transcribe/collections/show/7
The DIY History interface leads users to choose between projects; users may register or participate without registry and also review and edit.
DIY History: Needs Review (Call to Action)
An example of diary pages that need review – the interface calls the user to action by highlighting each piece that “needs review.”
Old Weather is an engaging interface for “citizen science.” Users must register but are rewarded for progress by earning rank.
Old Weather: Predicting the Future from the Past
Old Weather collects specific details, using templates, from ship logs to re-create weather conditions and predict future weather models.
Considering SI Unit Objectives and Needs
• In prioritizing what kind of tool to create for transcription, we consider again our objectives and needs for specific projects
• Also consider the kinds of materials that have been digitized and their formats
• Allows us to build compelling stories around materials
• Allows us to create templates for the formats of material for ease of transcription
Formats of Materials for Transcription
Field Book Project formats
• Narratives
• Lists
• Tabular data
• Cards (Records)
• Photographs with annotations
• Illustrations with annotations
Smithsonian Institution
Transcription Services Center:
Interface and Features
Smithsonian Institution Transcription Services Center Interface: engaging, graphical, and easy to navigate
Persistent Navigation: In the header, users can find projects, login to their account or sign up for an account
Persistent Navigation: In the header, users can navigate with drop down menus to projects organized in a variety of ways
Featured Projects: Progress, statistics, and related content
Project Details: Progress, statistics, contributors, and related records
Record Card: A transcription template complete with a call for registration and a toggle menu to change the layout
Record Card: The same transcription template laid out horizontally – as well as social share options at the right bottom of page
Journals: Flexible transcription options & to describe illustrations
Catalog Card: A template to define specific information from fields on the card; another call for login to track progress & earn awards
SI Transcription Services Center
• Participation that matters!
• Opportunities to learn from SI collections from specific-to-broad (rather than an in-person model of broad-to-specific)
• Improve digital experiences of audiences and coherence with SI branding based around “seriously amazing”
• Facilitates trust in SI as digital repository: users invested in the transparent, open, accessible process
SI TSC: Proposed Results and Benefits
• Greater degree of accessibility and usefulness of the transcribed material for future researchers
• The ability to discover new levels of knowledge and subject matter relationships through previously impossible digital analyses
• Enhancement of knowledge of Unit collections
• Promotes learning along the Grand Challenges
• Serves as a model for other cultural heritage institutions
Smithsonian InstitutionTranscription Services Center
More broadly, SI TSC offers a learning space and flexible approach to developing access to resources in digital spaces: linking the rapidly changing online experience with physical collections to continue to provide “seriously amazing” experiences.