The new IMA website provides many ways to discover works of art in our collection.  Today I want to highlight how we have integrated tagging into the website to make each work easier to find and interactive.

Tags on Artworks

When viewing an artwork on the website you will notice a section called TELL US WHAT YOU SEE in the right sidebar.  This is the area where you can interact with the page by providing your own tags.  It also displays the top tags provided by users for this work.  When you enter your own tags they will be highlighted in a color matching the IMA logo on the page.

The larger the tag the more times it has been used to describe this work.  You can even hover your mouse over each tag to get a tool-tip that shows how many times that tag has been used. Clicking on a tag will take you to the Collection Search and perform a search for other works with that tag. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Technology

Yes that’s right there are two new people working/blogging at the IMA.  Along with Kris, I am working with the IMA to continue to grow our online presence.  I am currently working on the Steve Tagger project (more info here).  So how did I get here?

Moving Time

Yes that’s right, I moved here from the center of America, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  I actually am a native Hoosier but moved further out west a few years ago.  South Dakota is an interesting place, it is very flat and has a lot of wind.  There are a lot of windmill farms popping up all over the state.  We enjoyed living in South Dakota but the opportunity at the museum was a good excuse to move back.

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Filed under: Design, Technology

Last week a few of us ventured to San Francisco for the kickoff meeting of Steve in Action, a new IMLS grant aimed at creating usable tools for social tagging in museums.  This grant is a logical extension to the previous IMLS research project which focused on the usefulness of social tagging in museums (which it is).

Developing Steve User Personae

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Filed under: Technology