Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Karen Smith-Yoshimura, OCLC Research
Carol Jean Godby, OCLC Research
Helice Koffler, University of Washington
Ken Varnum, University of Michigan
Elizabeth Yakel, University of Michigan

Download Part 2 (.pdf: 831KB/73 pp.)

Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums.
Part 3: Recommendations and Readings

Karen Smith-Yoshimura, OCLC Research
Rose Holley, National Library of Australia

Download Part 3 (.pdf: 111KB/78 pp.)

Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Executive Summary

Karen Smith-Yoshimura, OCLC Research

Download the executive summary (.pdf: 464 KB/20 pp.)

Metadata helps users locate resources that meet their specific needs. But metadata also helps us to understand and evaluate the resources curated by libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs). Social metadata—content contributed by users—is evolving as a way to both augment and recontexutalize the content and metadata created by LAMs.

In our first report, Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Part 1: Site Reviews, the 21-member RLG Partners Social Metadata Working Group reviewed 76 sites relevant to libraries, archives, and museums that supported such social media features as tagging, comments, reviews, images, videos, ratings, recommendations, lists, links to related articles, etc. In our second report, Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums Part 2: Survey Analysis, we analyzed the results from a survey of site managers conducted in October-November 2009. In Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Part 3: Recommendations and Readings, our third and final report in the series, we provide recommendations on social metadata features most relevant to libraries, archives, and museums and an annotated reading list of the literature we consulted during our research. We believe it is riskier to do nothing and become irrelevant to our user communities than to start using social media features.

The three reports total over 300 pages. We have thus produced a much shorter Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums: Executive Summary (.pdf: 464 KB/20 pp.) which includes highlights from all three reports.

A video summarizing the project is available on YouTube.

In addition, we held a Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums webinar on 9 March 2012, of which the recording and slides are available below. Please note: due to technical difficulties, the webinar recording begins on the second slide after Karen Smith-Yoshimura defined social metadata. However, the first slide is available in the webinar slides below.

• Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums webinar slides (.pptx: 27 MB/80 slides)
• iTunes

Related information:

Activity page:
Sharing and Aggregating Social Metadata

Suggested citations:
Smith-Yoshimura, Karen, and Cyndi Shein. 2011. Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums Part 1: Site Reviews. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/C37K9X.

Smith-Yoshimura, Karen, Carol Jean Godby, Helice Koffler, Ken Varnum and Elizabeth Yakel. 2011. Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Part 2: Survey Analysis. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/C3C91C.

Smith-Yoshimura, Karen and Rose Holley. 2012. Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Part 3: Recommendations and Readings. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/C3H34P.

Smith-Yoshimura, Karen. 2012. Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Executive Summary. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/C3H34P.