At the beginning of September 2014 I worked up the courage to present at my first national conference - CILIP CIG 2014. The theme of
Metadata - Making an Impact really appealed to me (and not just because I was on the conference organising committee!). I decided to talk about a successful work project involving a Pinterest board which I created for the Cambridge Library Science Collection. The slides for my talk are included below together with the write up I produced for the
Catalogue and Index journal. The latter is reproduced here with the kind permission of CILIP CIG.
We all know that cataloguers produce great quality metadata but we also
know that our users seldom turn to the library catalogue as their first, or
even second, source of information. However many users are active on social
media on a regular basis, keeping in touch with their peers and their
institutions. Libraries are taking advantage of this by promoting
themselves and their collections on various social sites. This article will
discuss the use of the website Pinterest to promote the Library Science Collection
at Cambridge University Library. Pinterest is an online pinboard where
users can share images of interest with their followers and at Cambridge we use
this to share our metadata in visual form.
The Library Science Collection at Cambridge is a result of the library’s
legal deposit status. This dedicated professional collection is made up of
approximately 2000 items, mainly monographs and journals but also a growing
ebook collection. After taking over the management of the collection one of my
key goals was to advertise this valuable professional resource to both
Cambridge librarians and the wider information world. The collection now has an
established social media presence including a blog, Twitter account and
Pinterest site.
Rise of the visual web
Pinterest has become increasingly popular in the last few years as part
of the phenomenon of the visual web. Visual websites are overtaking text based
sites as the main method of communication on social media. In recent years
sites such as Instagram and Snapchat have launched to huge acclaim and almost
instant popularity. Analysts claim that we are moving away from a text based
web towards something more visual and people are designing image based websites
as a way to tap into this trend. You need look no further than some of the
newer templates on popular sites such as Wordpress to see where this trend is
taking hold. Couple this with the general decrease in people's attention spans
and it becomes clear that websites now need something different to draw users
in and engage them with the content. In addition to this, image based sites
offer a better display on mobile devices. Studies show that people are
accessing increasingly large amounts of information on devices such as
smartphones and tablets which may have problems with text based sites. As
information providers we need to be aware of this when designing our web
presence.
The visual web has several advantages over its text-based counterpart.
Think back to a time when you have done a web search only to be confronted with
one page full of densely packed text and another page full of images. There you
can start to see how difficult text is to absorb quickly whereas carefully
chosen images can make an almost instant impact.
Using Pinterest at Cambridge
So how can we use this knowledge of the visual web to make our metadata
more discoverable?
As mentioned, Pinterest is a collection of online pinboards where users
can upload, link to and share images which then link back to content. An
example of a Pinterest board can be seen below:
Visitors to the site can
browse the images and then click through to visit the original content such as
a blog post or news item. Libraries can use the same mechanism to share their
metadata with users in a visual form.
Currently at Cambridge we are using Pinterest to create an online new
books display. Cover images of the books are displayed on our pin board and
used can access the catalogue record by clicking on the image. This has obvious
benefits over the traditional new books display still used by traditional
libraries. With an online display the physical books are still accessible for
use so users are not restricted from accessing the actual material. Users no
longer need to be in the library building to see what has been added to the
collection, opening it to a wider professional audience. Another advantage is
the sites simplicity for both librarian and user. It is easy to navigate, even
for those new to the format and does not require registration to browse. The
images posted display in online image searches, further aiding is
discoverability.
 |
| Fig. 1 |
Constructing a Pinterest board is a simple process. Obviously the first
thing you need to do to set up a page is register for an account. Before you do
this it is worth finding out if your institution already has an existing
account which you can join as this can help to grow an audience for your site.
Accounts can have multiple boards on a variety of subjects. Each individual
image on these boards is known as a 'pin'. Pins can be uploaded from a computer
or taken directly from a website. The easiest way to do this is to install
Pinterest's Pin It browser extension (Fig 1). This extension is available for most
browsers trombone from the Pinterest homepage and selects images with one
click.
The crucial component of a Pinterest site is to link the image back to
the content you wish to share, in the case of Cambridge this would be the
metadata of the book represented by its cover image. When you pin an image from
the Internet Pinterest automatically links back to the original content. As we
use Library Search at Cambridge, Pinterest links to the main catalogue interface
as a default. A small amount of editing is required to make sure that cover
images link back to the stable URL of the item rather than the main homepage of
the catalogue. This is achieved by using the Pinterest edit interface. If you
select the small pen symbol (Fig. 2) on the pin this takes you to an edit
screen where you can make the necessary changes to the source URL.
 |
| Fig. 2 |
As the image is uploaded Pinterest will provide a short description in
the description box (Fig. 3). In order to increase metadata exposure, at
Cambridge we expand on this to include the basic bibliographic details of the
book - full title, author and classmark. This provides a quick reference to
users without having to click through to the catalogue, although this is still
the main aim of the project. When the pin in complete it functions as a visual
link to the catalogue.
 |
| Fig. 3 |
The Library Science Pinterest board has been extremely popular,
gaining nearly four hundred followers in the first few hours after its launch.
Since then follower numbers have continued to climb and engagement via likes
and shares has been positive. Individual pins and whole boards can be also be
promoted easily. For a site which requires minimal work to produce this is an
excellent outcome which has helped to promote the visibility of both the
collection and its metadata.
Copyright
Like many other image sharing sites, Pinterest has been the subject of
some copyright discussion. It goes without saying that libraries using
Pinterest need to be mindful of copyright, particularly when using cover art as
these are of course copyrighted works in their own right.
Prior to starting the Pinterest project at Cambridge we consulted the
University Copyright Department who cleared us to use images that were available
through our catalogue interface as long as they linked back to the source of
the image - the catalogue record. Not all titles in Library Search have cover
images so unfortunately we cannot include images for these unless we seek
individual permission from the copyright holders. We decided early on in the
project that this was not practical and so do not include these books on our
board.
If you cannot obtain clearance from your institution’s copyright
department or are in any way unsure if you can use the images then the safest
policy is to avoid using them.
Other uses for Pinterest
Even if pinning cover images is not an option for your library there are
alternative ways of using Pinterest to make your metadata more discoverable
online.
Topic and resource boards are easy to assemble and can make a great
visual impact. Using images you have either created yourself or found an
appropriate Creative Commons license for you can create eye-catching pins
which you can then link back to your metadata. Topic boards focus on a theme
and can take advantage of popular news stories such as the anniversary of
the First World War. Resource boards use a similar approach but centre around
popular academic topics such as How to write an essay. Using Pinterest
in this way you can create a graphic reading list of items and ensure that your
metadata is noticed.
Top pinning tips
If you do decide to pursue Pinterest there are some important points to
bear in mind. As with other social sites Pinterest allows account holders
to write short biographies of themselves or their institution. In addition
there is a chance to compose a short description for each board. Write these
carefully and try to include relevant keywords to increase discoverability.
Choose or create your images with care to create the maximum impact on both
Pinterest and the Internet in general. The aim is to make people stop and look
in an environment which is increasingly becoming image dependent.
Conclusion
Pinning images with links to our metadata has proved hugely popular at
Cambridge. It provides us with a way to tap into the trend for the visual web
using metadata - something not traditionally thought of as picturesque.
Hopefully this helps us to make more of an impact with our metadata on social
media.
Edited to add: Since this article was first published Pinterest have become more forceful in trying to get you to sign in/up to view pins. I think this is a real shame as allowing non-members easy access was one of the biggest selling points of Pinterest for me.
Originally published: Catalogue and Index, November 2014.
