museumsandtheweb.com - statistics

Rethinking Evaluation Metrics in Light of Flickr Commons

jdalton — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:15:07 +0000

MW2011

Paula Bray, and Sebastian Chan, Powerhouse Museum, Australi; Joseph Dalton, New York Public Library, USA; Dianne Dietrich, Cornell University Library, USA; Effie Kapsalis, Smithsonian Institution Archives, USA; Michelle Springer and Helena Zinkham, Library of Congress, USA

Abstract

In the past several years, cultural heritage institutions, including archives, libraries, and museums, have been placing their collections in Web spaces designed for collaboration and communication. Flickr Commons is one example of a highly visible space where cultural heritage institutions have partnered with a popular social networking site to provide greater discovery to, access of, and opportunities to interact with image collections on a large scale. It is important to understand how to measure the impact of these kinds of projects. Traditional metrics, including visit counts, tell only part of the story: much more nuanced information is often found in comments, notes, tags, and other information contributed by the user community. This paper will examine how several institutions on Flickr Commons - the Library of Congress, the Powerhouse Museum, the Smithsonian, New York Public Library, and Cornell University Library - are navigating the concept of evaluation in an emerging arena where compelling statistics are often qualitative, difficult to gather, and ever-changing.

Keywords: Flickr, metrics, evaluation, crowdsourcing, statistics, images

Program Item Reference:

Rethinking Evaluation Metrics in Light of Flickr Commons

dd388 — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:16:59 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Rethinking Evaluation Metrics in Light of Flickr Commons

Keywords:

flickr

Keywords:

digital images

Keywords:

statistics

Keywords:

evaluation

Keywords:

outreach

Keywords:

online image collections

Abstract:

Flickr Commons launched in 2008 as a platform for enhancing the discoverability of cultural heritage collections and for allowing users to tag, annotate, and repurpose these materials. The Commons now boasts 46 members and tens of thousands of public domain images. The impact of the project has been monumental. Many of the institutions involved can boast hit counts on their Flickr images that far exceed other digital collections. While many of the numbers are certainly impressive, it can be argued that they are one of the least compelling statistics.

What, then, are the most meaningful statistics for a project that puts library collections in a highly visible space outside the library's traditional confines? Some of our standard and more established metrics, such as hit counts, only illuminate a small part of the story – the bigger picture includes the myriad ways users have interacted with our images, by adding notes and comments, by including them in their own curated galleries, by tweeting them, and referencing them on their blogs. There are limitless possibilities for users to interact with digital materials and we should be developing metrics that reflect this landscape. This forum will examine multiple approaches to assessing the impact of a digital library collection that exists beyond an institution's borders.

Type:

Professional Forum - discuss an issue

Professional Forum on Rethinking Evaluation Metrics

Authors:

Dianne Dietrich

Joseph Dalton

Effie Kapsalis

Sebastian Chan

Michelle Springer

Helena Zinkham

Paula Bray

Evaluating the online audience of a new collections website

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:46 +0000

James, D. (2010). Evaluating the online audience of a new collections website. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.