Metadata Games: Improving Access to Humanities Artifacts

Our team received Level II Start Up funding to create a pilot of Metadata Games (MG), a software system that uses computer games to collect information about artifacts in libraries and archives as they strive to go digital. Games are useful in that they can entice those who might not visit archives to explore humanities content while contributing to vital records, and they create much more metadata than typical staff can do alone in the same timeframe. The system is open-source and is easily customized to meet each institution's needs. The full project employs new techniques to make the system smarter and more trustworthy. We will also create new game components. MG can be used to enhance knowledge about artifacts in particular disciplines and fields, or with interdisciplinary collections. MG has the potential to unearth new knowledge that could radically enhance scholarship in the humanities, expanding what records we can encounter in our quest to understand the human experience.