Crowdsourcing as a resource in archival institutions : a study of archivists’ views on usefulness and reliability in user generated metadata

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to identify archivists’ attitudes towards crowdsourcing to see how they relate to modern archival theory and science. The study focuses on reliability, functionality and potential in user generated metadata. Crowdsourcing in the archival profession is connected to our increased internet use and the general digitalization of society, but it is also a result of a paradigm shift in archival science. The idea of the neutral archivist ceased to exist with the advent of postmodernism and there is now a widespread understanding that organization, selection and description affect how archival documents are perceived and used. One outcome of postmodern theory and practice is an understanding of the plasticity and change of documents over time. This has led to a greater interest in metadata created by users, as it could help contextualize and strengthen the information value of archival collections. The introduction of crowdsourcing in archives presents challenges. The influence of the participating user can be seen as a threat to the archival profession and questions regarding reliability and usefulness need to be considered when introducing user generated content and metadata. Seven archivists from five Swedish archival institutions have been interviewed for this thesis. The results show a correspondence between the interviewees responses and contemporary archival science, revealing a consensus in attitudes towards crowdsourcing and a similar approach in the institutions towards user generated metadata.