User Contributed Data in Libraries
You’ve probably seen by now that OpenWorldCat now supports user data including Reviews and notes. I only expect more user contributed to data to creep into Library related systems. There has been debate over the Wiki-ness of the project but I’m not concerned about taxonomy here. There was a recent post on XML4Lib discussing the WikiD/OpenURL backend. From the very little information presented I think there is a lot more good things to come. The WikiD page over at OCLC sheds some light and looks like there may be some promising web services/data extraction in the future.
I didn’t really understand how much value user annotations could bring until I saw the BBC Audio Annotation project. While still under development the preview gives you an idea of what is possible, including screencasts. People can easily create segments in the audio that can be annotated with information. From the post:
The project we undertook was focused on Annotatable Audio (specifically, but not exclusively, of BBC radio programming) – and we decided to look in an unorthodox direction – towards the possibilities of user-created annotation and metadata. We decided that we wanted to develop an interface that might allow the collective articulation of what a programme or speech or piece of music was about and how it could be divided up and described.
I think of it as an intelligent transcript though much more can be done. I can see it being expanded where people can record their own snippets to be associated with certain sections or even attach other audio files. For example with a speech was given twice but a certain section was changed in later speeches someone could attach the snippet of the change to the original so others could hear what changed and compare.
Our library has a large collection of voice recordings and I can see the ability of users to annotate these with notes, links, transcripts being a very large plus. Odeo already allows people to comment on specific shows, how long before they can comment on specific sections of the stream? On a side note Odeo has their podcast creation section up for many users I think, at least it’s up for me. Very simple and easy to use.
I’ve also seen various posts around the web regarding tags, folksonomies and other user data in the OPAC/ILS. Does user contributed data have a place in the library? Should it be social or personal? How much control should be in the hands of the patron? Right now the OpenWorldCat has very limited things for what a user can contribute but that will likely change over time.
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