Research Design and

Methodology: A Comparative

Study of User- and Cataloger-

Assigned Subject TermsHannah Marie Marshall

Metadata Librarian for Image Collections

Overview

• Summary of the survey and images that were used in the study

• Background about the Arts and Sciences Images for Teaching Collection

• The challenges of subject analysis in images, works of art, and images of works of art

• The questions I was trying to answer

• Design and methodology of the study

Survey design

Control Variable

Survey Images

BACKGROUND

The Arts and Sciences Images for Teaching Collection (KVRC)

Subject Analysis of Images

The Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL)

The Arts and Sciences Images for

Teaching Collection(Knight Visual Resources Collection)

• 43,233 images

• 30,001 works

• April 2013 backlog = over 5,000 images

• Backlog eliminated May 2014

• Collection development driven primarily by faculty in Art History, Classics, Anthropology

• Images of art, architecture, cultural artifacts

• Available in Artstor and Luna

• Cataloged in PiCtor

The Arts and Sciences Images for

Teaching CollectionImage Cataloging

• Structure based on VRA

Core 4.0

• CCO (Cataloging Cultural

Objects)

• Work records allow up to 9

subject terms

• Image records allow up to 5

subject terms

• Subject cataloging practice

has been inconsistent over

time

• Current practice is to do full

descriptive and subject

cataloging for all images

and to use the work/image

relationship whenever

possible

• Getty AAT

• LCSH

• (Iconclass)

The Arts and Sciences Images for

Teaching CollectionImage Cataloging

• Structure based on

VRA Core 4.0

• CCO (Cataloging

Cultural Objects)

• Full subject cataloging

• Getty AAT

• LCSH

• (Iconclass)

• Work records allow up

to 9 subject terms

• Image records allow up

to 5 subject terms

• Subject cataloging

practice has been

inconsistent over time

…is this useful?

Subject Analysis of Images

• "Image indexing is a complex socio-cognitive process that involves processing sensory input through classifying, abstracting, and mapping sensory data into concepts and entities often expressed through socially-defined andculturally-justifiedlinguistic labels and identifiers" (Heidorn, 1999)

• "Concept-based indexing has the advantage of providing higher-level analysis of the image content but is expensiveto implement and suffers from a lack of inter-indexer consistency due to the subjective nature of image interpretation" (Chen, Rasmussen, 1999)

The Institute for Research

Design in Librarianship (IRDL)

• 3-year IMLS funded project endeavoring to teach research design to new librarians

• New academic librarians submit a (rough) proposal for a research project they would like to develop at their institution

• 21 proposals accepted per year

• Two-week intensive course to teach research design

• help in developing and refining a research project to be carried out over the following year

• Held at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

• Year-long fellowship offering support and feedback while participants carry out research projects at their institutions

IRDL Course Objectives

• Write effective research questions and hypotheses

• Choose an appropriate research design for a library science study

• Conduct a literature review

• Explain the conceptual logic behind various data collection approaches and describe the rationale for selection of specific methods

• Access and participate in the Institute virtual community and related networks for support during the research process

• Identify appropriate sampling strategies for research projects

• Use and apply commonly used qualitative data collection methods

• Assess and apply different qualitative data analysis options

• Design and implement a survey

• Understand survey data management

• Explain various analytic options for surveys

• Understand basic principles of mixed methods research design

• Choose an appropriate research dissemination forum

• Write and disseminate an effective research report

Research Questions

“Is this useful?” “This” = subject cataloging for images

“Useful” = improving the search utility

of this content & facilitating

successful image retrieval by users

Do users search for images using the

same terms we use to describe them?

What is the level of correspondence

between the existing subject terms for

these images and the user-assigned

subject terms?

Do users search for images using the

same types of terms we use to describe

them?

What is the level of correspondence in

the types of subject terms assigned by

users and those in the existing

metadata?

Can the search utility of images be

improved by teaching users to think more

like catalogers?

Does providing users with a formula

for analyzing the subjects of images

change the nature and content of their

responses when asked to perform

descriptive tasks?

Research Question # 1

Do users search for images using the same

terms we use to describe them?

What is the level of correspondence

between the existing subject terms for

these images and the user-assigned

subject terms?

“Bonfire” – literal match for the control group and

the variable group (successful image retrieval)

“Boats” – literal match for the variable group but not

the control group (successful image retrieval)

“Bays” – non-match (unsuccessful image retrieval)

Research Question # 2

Do users search for images using the same

types of terms we use to describe them?

What is the level of correspondence in

the types of subject terms assigned by

users and those in the existing

metadata?

Primary – perception of the work’s pure form

• “What is the image of?” / “What does the

image include?”

• Identifies figures and gestures

Secondary – incorporates cultural and

iconographic knowledge

• “What is the image about?”

• Interprets figures and gestures

Tertiary – demonstrates an awareness of the

work as a cultural document reflecting a time and

place

• “What is the image a good example of?” /

“How does the image communicate?”

• Identifies devices

• ie. “symbolism, “abstraction”, “chiaroscuro”

Non-Subject terms ie. worktype, creator,

style/period, culture, materials/techniques, etc.

Research Question # 3

Can the search utility of images be

improved by teaching users to think more

like catalogers?

Does providing users with a formula for

analyzing the subjects of images

change the nature and content of their

responses when asked to perform

descriptive tasks?

Control Variable

Questions?