Project Investigator: Jason Fleming

Department: Acquisitions and Licensing

Title of Grant: Developing a tagging system for the University of Florida Libraries

Amount of Funds Requested: $4782.24

Amount of Cost Share: $478.24

 

 

Resources Needed Action Plan (Timeline) Measuring Success

I am requesting funding to hire one student assistant for 2 semesters to assist in the development of a web application for patron use. This web application will enable patrons to assign keywords they associate with certain records as found in the U.F. Digital Collections. A staff member (The Technical Support Unit’s IT Expert) will oversee all generated code, and will use the development style known as pair programming to ensure that the highest standards are maintained. In addition the student will work closely with the Library 2.0 subgroup for Tagging to develop documentation to help patrons use the service.

 

Funding is also requested for the testing phase of the project for which an IRB protocol will be developed. The funds will be used for marketing and recruitment purposes.

 

The objective of this grant is to create a web application that will allow patrons at the University of Florida to attach keywords, or tags, to records they find in the UF Digital Collection. Two types of tags will be utilized. The first tagging type will be public, and as such will be seen by all visitors of the UFDC.  These public tags will be checked against a controlled vocabulary before being added to the public space. If a tag is submitted as a public tag and is not contained within the set of allowed terms it will be checked against a list of offensive terms first. If it is found in a set of words pre-determined for disclusion it will be automatically rejected. Otherwise it will be sent to a staff member who will determine if it should be added to the allowed set. The guidelines and policies for this procedure will be set by the tagging group in association with the UFDC. All users will be able to use these public tags as a means to guide them to records that other users have associated with the term.

 

The public tags can serve as a way for patrons to easily keep track of records they have already searched on a particular topic. In addition to being useful as a means for information retrieval it will also serve as a means for information discovery. When a patron tags a record it is added to a list of other records with the same tag. A list of resources designated by any patron with the same tag will be generated any time a patron clicks on an individual tag. There are several ways to find a tag; by searching, using a tag cloud, or scanning through an ordered list. Giving users a variety of means to discover tags enables them to browse in the way that makes the most sense for them.

 

The second type of tag that the application will allow is a personal tag. The personal tag would be utilized in a situation where a user would not want anyone else to necessarily associate a term with a particular record, or if they are using the tag as a means of personal organization. One example of such is if a user marked a record with the tag “toread” indicating that they would like to return to the record at a later point to read it.  Nonsensical keywords could be attached to the record for a user’s internal use. One example would be to create a list of records that are to be used on a particular project (i.e. PSY2012-memory). This would enable the public tag space to remain clean from the clutter of tags that are meaningless to other users.

 

It is important to note that neither public nor personal tags would actually reside on the UFDC web page. The tags would be dynamically drawn (using Stored Procedures) from the SQL tables where they are housed. If at any time the test is deemed infeasible it will be very easy to reclaim the space.

 

This project is aimed at fulfilling the library’s goal to simplify the search and discovery of library resources. This can be found in the 2006-2007 list of Library Goals as item I.c. (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/staff-site/goals/goals.html) Users will have a tool at their disposal to help them keep track of records they have already discovered, and a means to find out what other users have tagged with the same keyword.

 

Resources Needed

 

            A student will provide a large portion of the code and functional testing. A staff member identified in cost-share will be given the task of overseeing code written by the student as well as documenting functionality for the benefit of users. The Digital Library Center will serve as a test case for the system and it will be necessary for code to be embedded into their web pages to allow tags to be added and displayed in the system. Systems will provide virtual server space for the database that will house all of the tagging information.

 

Action Plan (Timeline)

 

 (November-December 2007) A student will need to be hired with a computer background that will enable them to code in C# with an excellent understanding of ASP.NET and SQL. An announcement will be sent out requesting applicants.  Once a sufficient pool has been established interviewing will begin. The interview process will include mock scenarios to test the applicant’s knowledge and their ability to work with and for the staff member assigned to them.  They will meet with the tagging group to establish a focus for the project and to go over the overall plan to be started in Spring of 2008.

 

(Spring 2008)

The tagging group will develop an SQL table structure in conjunction with Technical Support Unit’s IT Expert (identified as cost share). Student will work in conjunction with the IT expert to develop code in C# and ASP.Net that is able to read and modify SQL tables where tagging information will reside. This coding will largely be done using a style known as pair programming. This style of code development is currently used in the Systems department and will ensure that the student writes code following established conventions by the library. The tagging group will research authentication capabilities at UF to determine if users should have to login using gatorlink or UFID.

 

At the end of the semester a prototype should be available, and will be debugged internally by staff testing of the resource.

 

(Summer 2008)

Usability Testing protocol will be established by tagging group. Recruitment will begin and testing should be complete by August 2008.

 

(Fall 2008)

Usability Testing will guide how code is modified to better serve the user. Further enhancements will be considered, and a timetable will be established for them. Rollout will commence upon verification that the tagging system is functional and reliable.

 

The project will then be presented to FCLA for inclusion into the Endeca catalog. Initial talks with program developers indicate an interest on their part.

 

Measuring Success

 

Success of the project will be demonstrated by collecting statistics. The number of new users will serve to illustrate adoption of the project. The overall # of tags per user will serve to educate us concerning tagging habits. An average of a given number of tags per user will serve as a benchmark for continued success. A timeline can be established to chart the growth of this percentage. An increased number of suggested public terms will demonstrate a growing community of users who are tagging in a social manner.

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