From Crud to Cream: Imagining a Rich Scholarly Repository Interface

  This article addresses the design of a dynamic repository interface to support numerous scholarly activities. Starting with the four fundamental functions associated with persistent storage — create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) — we tested, as an organizing rubric for the interface, the acronym CREAM: Create (represent, illustrate); Read (sample, read); Enhance (refer, annotate, process); Analyze (search, select, visualize, mine, cluster); and Manage (track, label, transform). Based on a card-sorting exercise conducted with researchers, we conclude that a slightly modified rubric of CREAMS offers a useful starting point that emphasizes the enriched functionality a scholarly repository or similarly complex digital environment requires, as well as the immense challenge of designing conceptually clear interfaces, even for a relatively homogenous community of researchers

Ukrainian Folklore Audio Project

How can crowdsourcing be used in the humanities? This paper describes a crowdsourcing project at the University of Alberta that developed a tool for participants to sign out audio clips for transcribing and translating from Ukrainian. The audio clips were from fieldwork on Ukrainian folklore and include stories, songs, and beliefs. We describe the design process and provideCrowdsourcing only works if you can motivate sufficient participants and different participant communities call for different strategies. an environmental comparison with other crowdsourcing projects. We discuss the challenge of motivating community members with the language skills to volunteer to help with the project. Crowdsourcing only works if you can motivate sufficient participants, and different participant communities call for different strategies.  Comment l'externalisation ouverte peut-elle être utilisée en lettres et sciences humaines? Le présent article décrit un projet d'externalisation ouverte à l'université de l'Alberta, dans le cadre duquel un outil a été mis au point afin que les participants puissent emprunter des audioclips pour les transcrire et les traduire à partir de l'Ukrainien. Les audioclips proviennent de travaux effectués sur le terrain sur le folklore ukrainien et incluent des histoires, des chansons et des croyances. Nous décrivons le processus d'élaboration et fournissons une comparaison environnementale avec d'autres projets d'externalisation ouverte. Nous traitons du défi à motiver les membres de la communauté qui parlent la langue à apporter bénévolement leur aide au projet. L'externalisation ouverte n'est efficace que si l'on peut motiver un nombre suffisant de participants, et différentes communautés de participants requièrent différentes stratégies