Steve Tagger and the Minnesota Digital Library

www.steve.museum [email protected] [email protected]

Steve Taggerand the

MDL

Scott SayreMinnesota Digital Library/Sandbox Studios


What is tagging?

www.steve.museum [email protected] Sayre, Sandbox Studios



What is a tag?

• A tag is a word you can use to describe an item

• A tag can be one or more words• Tags can be related to subject, time,

place, objects, emotions, composition and more

• Tags can be personal or general


Other variations…

• social tagging• social cataloguing• crowdsourcing• community cataloguing• cataloguing by crowd


What is tagging good for?

• Collecting a range of personal perspectives and experiences

• Publicly sharing record enhancement• Organizing items in new ways• Improving retrieval • Assisting in data analysis


Who is Steve?

• Steve is a collaborative project, formed in 2005, dedicated to exploring the effectiveness of social tagging for accessing art museum collections online and engaging audiences.


Who is Steve?

• Founded in 2005 as a volunteer effort• Funded as a research project by an IMLS

National Leadership Grant in 2006• Re-funded by IMLS for research activities in

2008, as well as implementation work


Chipstone FoundationCleveland Museum of ArtDenver Art MuseumGuggenheim MuseumLos Angeles County Museum of ArtIndianapolis Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of ArtMinneapolis Institute of ArtsMinnesota Digital LibraryRubin Museum of ArtSan Francisco Museum of Modern ArtSmithsonian American Art MuseumUCLA Graduate School of Education and

Information StudiesWalker Art Center

Funding: Institute of Museum and Library Services

Listserv Participants: 350 active members

Archives and Museum InformaticsSusan Chun, Independent ConsultantNew Media ConsortiumTaxonomy StrategiesThink DesignUniversity of Maryland, CLiMB Project


http://www.steve.museum


Why study social tagging?

• Can tagging help users find items more easily?

• Can tagging change the way users look at and engage with items?

• Can tagging help cultural institutions understand what visitors see and understand?


From: J. P. [email protected]: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 11:24:43 -0700To: [email protected]: Looking for a painting

Please help:

I have been looking on and off for years for this painting. The painting is of a very well dressed renaissance man standing in a room (a library) in front of him on a table is a large hour glass. The painting has very rich colors. I have talked to a lot of people and they have said they have seen this painting but can't remember its name or the name of the artist.

Could you please use your resources to find this painting?



What “J. P.” knows:

painting

Renaissance

standing

man

very well dressed

library

hourglass

table

rich colors

What a curator knows:

Portrait of a Man, ca. 1520–25Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino) (Italian, Brescian, born about 1498, died 1554)Oil on canvas; 34 1/4 x 32 in. (87 x 81.3 cm)Rogers Fund, 1928 (28.79)

Provenance: Maffei, Brescia (by 1760, as "Ritratto d'uomo con carta in mano, ed Orologio, di Callisto da Lodi"); by descent to contessa Beatrice Erizzo Maffei Fenaroli Avogadro, Palazzo Fenaroli, Brescia (by 1853–at least 1857, as by Moretto); her daughter, contessa Maria Livia Fenaroli Avogadro, later marchesa Fassati, Brescia (in 1862); her son, marchese Ippolito Fassati, Milan (by 1878–at least 1912); [Elia Volpi, Florence, by 1915–16; sold to Knoedler]; [Knoedler, New York, 1916–28; sold to MMA]


The steve term review tool: a tool for reviewing and annotating tags--and for listening to visitors


The steve reporting suite: allowing us to review and analyze the data


Some stats from the Steve project research:

21 Participating Museums

89,671 Works of Art in the Research

480,617 Tags collected

4,588 Users who tagged


A Few Highlights

88% of tags were useful

If you found this work using this term would you be surprised?

Museum professionalsfound most tags useful


A Few Highlights

Tags are different than museum documentation

• 86% of all tags not found in label copy

• 62% of distinct tags not in AAT

• 85% of distinct tags not in ULAN


A Few Highlights

Tags are almost always useful when they are assigned two or more times


Steve in Action: Social Tagging

Tools and Methods Applied

A demonstration grant focusing on encouraging and enabling widespread use of tagging in museums, and in extending the functionality of the steve tool set


Overview of the Steve Tagger


Steve and the Minnesota Digital Library


Potential advantages in Minnesota Reflections

• Record expansion• Community knowledge collection• Community engagement• Better understanding of community

perspective• Simplified open system• Integration with larger cultural communitees



Tags can include:

• persons• places• things• events• time• iconography

• dress• themes • emotions• colors• materials• provenance


The Steve Tag Cloud





Steve and the Minnesota Digital Library

Research Project


MDL Steve Tagging Project

Research Question 1Can the Steve tagger be successfully integrated with a “black box” application, such as CONTENTdm, which the MDL uses to present Minnesota Reflections, so it is easy to use and informative from the end-user’s perspective?




Research Question 2What type of marketing, education and training is necessary to engage MDL members and their communities of volunteers and end-users in the tagging of MDL assets?



MDL Partner TrainingThe MDL project team conducted 2 training sessions for interested MDL partners and the members of the public they recruit.


MDL Steve Tagging ProjectThe training program included:• Definition of tagging• Potential public and institutional benefits of

tagging• Overview of the components of a tagging

application• How tagging is facilitated within Minnesota

Reflections• How tags can be used to query Minnesota

Reflections• Tagging Q & A• Goals for tag contribution short term and long

term



Research Question 3What incentives in the way of feedback and interface are required or helpful to encourage and sustain community-generated tags?



Research Question 4What was the perceived usefulness of community-generated tags by the members of the MDL before and after the Steve tagging initiative?



Research Question 5What are the requirements needed to feasibly sustain community-based tagging within the MDL beyond the project period?


Current Project Status• Training completed fall 2010

• MDL tagging evaluation period summer 2010 - summer 2011

• Evaluation results summer 2011


Some stats from the MDL Steve project research:

23,206 Items in the research

476 Items tagged

5,628 Tags/terms collected

31 Registered users who tagged


Questions or [email protected]

Web: http://steve.museum

Twitter: steve_museum