CIL2008: User Generated Content

Speaker: Roy Tennant

• Focus on library managed sites
• Definition: Content = photos, movies, documents
• Descriptive Content = tags, descriptions, ratings, reviews
• More (decent) content is better
• more access is better
• Can help provide more personalized service?
• Foster interaction and community

"We don't know everything" - Farcas

• Examples:
• kete.net.nz - public repository of content; a story of community told by it's people
• hhpl.on.ca/greatlakes/glimages - asking community for help in identification
• Worldcat - add to it, rate & review (why can't we do this?)
• LC on Flickr - tagging
• higher profile for the collections - they went where the users are
• Community engagement
• Got 11,000 contacts
• Exploit the knowledge of the masses
  
• Boston Public Library also now on Flickr
• steve.museum - museum social tagging project

What to know:

• Our idea of "content" may not be theirs.
• It'll be messy, but that's mostly OK
• There are ways to increase effectiveness through intelligent usage

Issues:

• What are your goals?
• Are you set up appropriately to meet those goals?
• Are there strategies to maximize the benefit?
• How to distinguish between user and library content
• Will you need to moderate?
• Is the impact worth the investment?

User engagement is a good thing
Need to get up to speed on fostering engagement
Get savvy about using this stuff effectively