Transcript I’ll have what she’s having”:

Encouraging Discovery by
Blogging Reference Questions
Jim Gerencser
SAA 2010
The Question
In an online, search engine based
environment, why should one
researcher not benefit from the
resource discoveries of another
researcher in a timely fashion?
The Concept – Part I
Create a quick and simple blog post
describing the reference transaction
that is publicly accessible and is
discoverable by future users who
may be researching similar topics.
The Concept – Part II
Record useful information about the
researcher and reference transaction
that is accessible ONLY to the staff
of the Archives for the purposes of
maintaining user data, service data,
and user/usage statistics.
Requirements
• Need basic blog functionalities (i.e. tagging,
commenting, etc.).
• Need both a public side and private side.
• Need data to be easily “harvestable”.
• Need public side to be readily “crawlable”.
• Need a flexible system that can grow and
evolve without breaking.
• Need something simple to operate.
• Need something inexpensive to maintain.
Drupal: Open source software chosen for the project.
To create a post, enter the title, date, tags, and text.
Next, add contact information for the researcher.
Next, use drop-downs to describe the transaction.
Finally, note the resources used for this question.
Reference Blog - http://itech.dickinson.edu/archives
Proof of Concept
• Who is Alois Swoboda?
• Where is the Rickover Report?
Researchers may search all previous blog posts.
Researchers may use tags to find similar materials.
Researchers may leave helpful comments for others.
Link to your
finding aids.
Link to your
other websites.
Link to resources
in your content
management tools.
Link out to
resources in
“the cloud.”
Statistics are generated automatically.
Gather whatever is useful for you to know.
A Statistical Snapshot
• 73% of requests are received via email
• 26% of researchers are pursuing family history
• 21% of researchers are professional scholars
• 29% of researchers find us through search
engines or other online resources
• 41% of researches found our finding aids,
among 30% who mentioned their source
• 175 hours of staff time has been spent serving
off-site researchers
The Outcomes
• We have improved internal processes.
• We have improved discoverability.
• We know more about our offsite users.
• We know what resources are being used.
• We know how users are finding us.
• We save time on repeat questions.
• We save time on repeat researchers.
• We can better plan for future needs.
Summing Up
• Drupal is flexible and customizable.
• Reference transactions are discoverable.
• Reference transactions are searchable.
• Reference transactions are taggable.
• Reference transactions are linkable.
• Researchers can post helpful comments.
• Reference statistics are easily obtainable.
Future Possibilities?
IDIA: “Iterative Digital Interactive Archive”
• Digitize-on-demand documents are preserved
in a sustainable online repository.
• Digitized documents are linked to blog posts.
• Digitized documents are linked to finding aids.
• Finding aids can be updated quickly and easily.
• Researchers can transcribe digitized documents.
• Researcher input can be added to descriptions.
Contact for Questions
Jim Gerencser
Dickinson College Archives
[email protected]
http://itech.dickinson.edu/archives