02/12/2014 Discovering Cultural Heritage: the power and pitfalls of aggregating content

2 + 2 =

17 x 23 =

“Steve is very shy and withdrawn,

invariably helpful but with little interest

in people or in the world of reality. A

meek and tidy soul, he has a need for

order and structure, and a passion for

detail.”

Is Steve

(a) a farmer

(b) a librarian?

WYSIATI

“Online finding aids clearly offer scholars enormous benefits. As mentioned, the use of finding aids before visiting an archive can help a scholar prepare more thoroughly for the visit, and use his/her time most effectively while there, especially given limited travel time.”

ITHAKA, 2012

What we know….

Archives Hub: Value

• The ability to search across archives held in different locations, without knowing where they are held

• The ease of use of the interface

• The breadth of coverage

• Online access to collections that would not otherwise be available online

• Frequent new additions

• Access to the institution’s own descriptions (admin)

Annual online survey, 2012, 2013

Stuff

Repository

Website

Online

Repository

website

Aggregator

Saves time

Recommend to others

4

1

2

3

Do ‘hits’ or ‘page views’

translate into value?

17/04/14 – 17/07/14 (3 months)

Archives Hub sessions: 83,787

APE sessions 86,800

“The average website bounce rate is

40% (source: Google).”

“After being an analyst for many years, I can tell

you that I misinterpreted bounce in my early

days and I run across many people who don’t

spend enough time in analytics tools to know

how to accurately interpret this metric. The

primary reason is context.”

http://www.blastam.com/blog/index.php/2012/02/what-is-bounce-rate

http://www.marketingtechnologyinsights.com/2014/03/ignore-bounce-

rate.html

http://www.marketingtechnologyinsights.com/2014/03/ignore-

bounce-rate.html

Can we trust statistics?

• Archives Hub July 2014

– Google Analytics: 72,434

– Logs: 901,976

• Robots?

• 404s and 500s?

• Error?

• Hacking?

Happy user

Happy user you know about

Value

Innovation

?

Use

Recommendations

“For archives, we recommend ongoing improvements to access through improved finding aids, digitization, and discovery tool integration, as well as expanded opportunities for archivists to help historians interpret collections, to build connections among users, and to instruct PhD students in the use of archives.”

ITHAKA report, 2012

http://archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/topics/exploring-british-design/

Exploring British Design

Collections Australia Network

Europeana: digital content…

http://samplegenerator.cloudapp.net/

http://ww1.discovery.ac.uk

‘gold mining’

33 hits on APE

146 hits on the Archives Hub

Search: smith, williams, jones, boland, rousseau, gruber…before

success with arnold

Shakespeare – one entry for the personal name

2 + 2 = 4

17 x 23 = 391

……..Thinking Fast

…..Thinking Slow

“Steve is very shy and

withdrawn, invariably helpful but

with little interest in people or in

the world of reality. A meek and

tidy soul, he has a need for

order and structure, and a

passion for detail.”

Is Steve (a) a farmer?

(b) a librarian?

WYSIATI

WYSIATI

Should aggregators build basic

bridges that help others build

their own landscapes, rather

than trying to build big

impressive bridges?