My #HuntLibrary

building new things despite uncertainty and risk


Bret Davidson
NCSU Libraries

Who are we?

  • NCSU Digital Library Initiatives
  • Digital Services Development
  • Librarian Developers
  • 25+ Applications
  • go.ncsu.edu/dli

Agenda

  • My #HuntLibrary
  • Work Practices
  • Risk in MHL

James B. Hunt, Jr. Library

Opened January 2013

lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary

goals

increase engagement

contribution mechanism

explore new technologies

My #HuntLibary/lentil

go.ncsu.edu/myhunt

enabling features

responsive

RESPONSIVE

battle

social

curated and popular views

contributor pages

harvesting

moderation

themes

How do students relate to libraries?

Building crowdsourced photographic collections with lentil and Instagram

speakerdeck.com/cazzerson

How do students relate to us?

  • (de)centralization (relation)
  • consumption/creation (direction)
  • physical/virtual (setting)
  • individual/community (identity)
  • present/future (horizon)

(de)centralization (relation)

social network

authors

#huntlibrary authors

aggregating peers

lentil users

services, archives

indirect participation

the life of a lentil image


  1. metadata of user-tagged Instagram image is harvested via API
  2. image is approved by moderator
  3. image battles, collects "likes" (subjective metadata)
  4. (loop) calculate popularity score
  5. (loop) check for removal from Instagram
  6. image file is harvested and stored in staging area
  7. donor agreement is automatically submitted as a comment
  8. barring author objection, image metadata and file are packaged for (future) external system

Libraries as Storytelling Platforms

Engaging the Academic Community: Library as Storytelling Platform

slideshare.net/mikecontrol

Oldenburg's “third places"

neutral social sites where conversation is the main activity

Why did people participate?

  • Others to see my picture: 83%
  • Contribute to NCSU archive: 75%
  • Win an iPad Mini: 58%
  • See my pic on a public display: 50%
  • Other: 25%

How would you feel about your photos being added to an archival collection?

“I would be so excited. For me, I think it would be better than winning an iPad."

usage


  • 3000+ images
  • 7700+ "likes"
  • 70,000+ "battles"
  • 37,000+ visits
  • 240,000+ pageviews
  • 1000+ donor agreements
  • 2 objections

work practices

brainstorming

rapid prototyping

one pager

  • Summary
  • Requirements
  • Features
  • Out of Scope
  • Project Team
  • Schedule

out of scope

  • Images not related to Hunt
  • Advanced curation tools
  • Advanced presentation of images

project team

  • Mike Nutt => product lead
  • Jason Casden => project manager
  • Cory Lown => developer
  • Bret Davidson => developer
  • Jason Ronallo => rails expert
  • Brian Dietz => special collections
  • Jennifer Garrett => visitor experience

other partners

  • Steve Morris => project champion
  • Will Cross => copyright/legal
  • David Hiscoe => communications
  • Todd Kosmerick => archives
  • Library Admin => contest
  • Library IT => microtiles
  • And more...

trello

peer instruction

pair programming

code review

blameless post-mortem

go.ncsu.edu/postmortem

questions

  • What worked well?
  • What was frustrating?
  • What were you proud of?
  • What would you change if you had magical powers?
  • How did you feel about our estimates and plan?
  • Were expectations clear?
  • Did the team work together well?

risk

“learn everything, then there is no such thing as sight-reading"

Brian Bowman

“mini moon shots"

minimum viable product

risk mitigation in MHL

timeline

new technologies

participation

legal issues

instagram platform

risk in MHL

  • Timeline
  • New Technologies
  • Participation
  • Legal Issues
  • Instagram Platform

closing thoughts

  • scope ruthlessly
  • practice work
  • mitigate risk

credits

  • Jason Casden
  • Brian Dietz
  • Jennifer Garrett
  • Cory Lown
  • Mike Nutt
  • Jason Ronallo
  • ...and many others

github.com/NCSU-Libraries/lentil

Thank You!

bret_davidson@ncsu.edu | http://go.ncsu.edu/myhunt