University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, School of Information)

In this Early Career Research Development project, Dr. Victoria Van Hyning at the University of Maryland will investigate the significant challenges and sociotechnical barriers that libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) face in integrating crowdsourced transcriptions of cultural heritage materials into their content management systems (CMSs). This project will recruit 12 LAM partners and 12 screen reader users for research activities including surveys, semi-structured interviews, data integration demonstrations, and user testing. The project team will produce data for analysis leading to the project’s outputs of individualized LAM Partner Reports, a summative white paper, and open-access journal articles. This research will benefit staff at LAMs to better understand the barriers to crowdsourced data integration and to adapt plans for their own organizations; crowdsource volunteers by ensuring their work remains meaningful and sustainable; and support people who use screen readers by improving their accessibility to cultural heritage through LAM CMSs.