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Herding the Fuzzy Bits: What do you do after Crowdsourcing?

So you’ve been crowdsourcing and now you’ve collected lots of fantastic data. What do you do with it?

Or maybe you’ve been thinking about crowdsourcing but you’re not sure how you would integrate what you get with the data you already have.

The truth is that crowdsourcing often yields lots of fuzzy data and fuzzy solutions for reintegration with existing content. It can be challenging to figure out how to herd all of that fuzziness together in an effective way for reuse in your own project, library, or database.

Join staff from the Smithsonian Libraries and the Biodiversity Heritage Library at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, on Saturday, 27 June, 2015, 8:30-10:00am, for “Herding the Fuzzy Bits: What do you do after Crowdsourcing?” We’ll share ideas for incorporating crowdsource-enhanced data from many sources (flickr, transcription, twitter) back into collections, along with approaches–including “whoopsies” and remaining challenges–for quality control, data discovery, data disagreement, building communities, and scalability. We’ll be using Twitter, and our own session hashtag #alafuzzy, as well as interactive activities (such as live polls!) to discuss successes and challenges and demonstrate the issues and methods at play.

You’ll also have a chance to win one of these fabulous fuzzy prizes!

The session is free with conference registration. We encourage you to bring your own laptop and smart phone in order to get the most out of our interactive activities.

We look forward to seeing you there, and follow #alafuzzy on Twitter and Facebook for more information!

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June 16, 2015
Avatar for Grace Costantino
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Grace Costantino served as the Outreach and Communication Manager for the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 2014 to 2021. In this capacity, she developed and managed BHL's communication strategy, oversaw social media initiatives, and engaged with the public to excite audiences about the wealth of biodiversity heritage available in BHL. Prior to her role as Outreach and Communication Manager, Grace served as the Digital Collections Librarian for Smithsonian Libraries and as the Program Manager for BHL.