Presentation delivered at the joint SPNHC.TDWG 2018 conference on Dunedin, NZ regarding outreach strategies used by the Biodiversity Heritage Library to engage citizen scientists with projects.

1. Outreach Strategies to Engage
Citizen Scientists
Insights from the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Grace Costantino
SPNHC.TDWG 2018
28 August 2018
@BHLCommMgr & @BioDivLibrary
BHL Outreach and Communication Manager

2. LEVERAGING THE CROWD AND CITIZEN SCIENTISTS
Citizen science and crowdsourcing are increasingly being
embraced as a way to…
Gather data to tackle
research questions
Enhance existing
collection data
Make scientific and cultural
heritage collections more
discoverable/shareable

3. LEARN MORE: s.si.edu/BHLGetInvolved
Transcribing Fieldnotes
• Several BHL partners are using crowdsourcing to transcribe fieldnotes digitized for BHL.
• Smithsonian Transcription Center (transcription.si.edu): Smithsonian Institution Archives and
Smithsonian Libraries (stats = 20,000+ pages)
• DigiVol (digivol.ala.org.au): BHL Australia partners including Museums Victoria (stats =
5,000+ pages) and Geoscience Australia (stats = 5,700+ pages | 6,800+ geology slides)
Tagging Images in Flickr
(flickr.com/biodivlibrary)
• Volunteers add machine tags for species, artist, and geo locations.
• 36,000+ images machine tagged to date.
• Originally developed in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life and later expanded as part of
BHL’s Art of Life project.
• More info: s.si.edu/BHLonFlickr
BHL CITIZEN SCIENCE + CROWDSOURCING PROJECTS

4. LEARN MORE: s.si.edu/BHLGetInvolved
Science Gossip on Zooniverse
(sciencegossip.org)
• Designed to increase the discoverability of images in BHL by having volunteers describe
images from 19th century periodicals by tagging species, artist, image type, and more.
• Hosted on Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org) – a major platform for building and hosting
citizen science projects, with hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
• Developed in partnership with Constructing Scientific Communities (ConSciCom) as part
of the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded Art of Life project (2012-2015). The
project was designed to enhance the description and improve discovery of images in
BHL.
• Lead institution: Missouri Botanical Garden. Participating institutions: Indianapolis
Museum of Art; University of Colorado, Boulder; and Smithsonian Libraries.
• Project Director: Trish Rose-Sandler at Missouri Botanical Garden.
• Stats = 10,000+ participants, 150,000+ pages completed
BHL CITIZEN SCIENCE + CROWDSOURCING PROJECTS

5. BHL CITIZEN SCIENCE + CROWDSOURCING PROJECTS
LEARN MORE: s.si.edu/BHLGetInvolved
Crowdsourcing OCR Correction via Gaming
• Two typing-based games, Smorball (smorballgame.org) and Beanstalk
(beanstalkgame.org) were created to help crowdsource the correction of BHL’s OCR.
• Developed by Tiltfactor (tiltfactor.org) as part of the Institute of Museum and Library
Services-funded Purposeful Gaming project (2013-2015). The project was designed to
demonstrate whether or not digital games are a successful tool for analyzing and
improving digital outputs from OCR and transcription activities.
• Tiltfactor, based at Dartmouth College, is an “interdisciplinary innovation studio dedicated
to designing & studying games for social impact”.
• Lead institution: Missouri Botanical Garden. Participating institutions: Harvard University,
Cornell University, and The New York Botanical Garden.
• Project Director: Trish Rose-Sandler at Missouri Botanical Garden.
• Stats = 5,000+ participants, 140,000+ words typed during grant period.

6. How can you engage citizen scientists in your projects and
maintain contributions over time?
Outreach strategies from the
First up?
Strategies to engage volunteers with projects!

7. PRODUCE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
BHL has had great success with coordinated social media campaigns as a way to generate
excitement and engagement in projects.
PARTICIPATING BHL INSTITUTIONS
AMNH
Field Museum
California Academy of Sciences
Chicago Botanic Garden
Cornell University
Harvard, Ernst Mayr Library, Museum of
Comparative Zoology
MBLWHOI
Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County
Natural History Museum, London
The New York Botanical Garden
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Smithsonian
United States Geological Survey
TOTAL: 13
…with
transcription
challenge!
SMITHSONIAN
TRANSCRIPTION
CENTER
SMITHSONIAN
INSTITUTION
ARCHIVES
The Challenge?
Transcribe 9 fieldbooks
from 3 Smithsonian
paleontologists in 1 week

8. PRODUCE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Local field note-book no. 2 of Lester F. Ward,
October 16, 1892 to May 7, 1893.
Digitized by Smithsonian Institution Archives.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/107244.
#FossilFossick Results?
252 PAGES
TRANSCRIBED
IN
3.5 DAYS WITH
VOLUNTEERS
FROM 48COUNTRIES

9. PRODUCE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Key Takeaways?
Embrace social media to promote your
projects!
Be sure to provide more information about the
materials in your projects and how they relate to
broader scientific fields.
This helps fulfill volunteer motivations to learn
new things (West and Pateman 2016), especially
about subjects that interest them (Rotman et al.
2014), and build a deeper connection to the
material (Parilla and Ferriter 2016).
Look for opportunities to partner with
other organizations on campaigns.
This helps increase the reach of your messages
to broad and diverse audiences.
You can divide outreach responsibilities (and
therefore resource costs!) amongst multiple
parties.

10. TAP INTO EXISTING COMMUNITIES
Launching new projects on a citizen science platform that already has an existing audience can fast-
track awareness of your project and attract volunteers.
…hosted on
…featured
under
Zooniverse
nature
projects!

11. Forum posts reveal that
volunteers discovered Science
Gossip thanks to their
Zooniverse participation and
began contributing because
it matched their research
interests (i.e. nature,
illustrations, historic
publications, etc.).
TAP INTO EXISTING COMMUNITIES

12. Key Takeaway?
Don’t build audiences from scratch if you don’t have to!
See how you can tap into existing communities and garner attention for your project by appealing to
volunteer motivations to indulge their personal interest in a subject (Parilla and Ferriter 2016; Ridge
2013; Rotman et al. 2014).
TAP INTO EXISTING COMMUNITIES

13. EMBRACE MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES/OUTLETS FOR PROMOTION
BHL uses its own outlets to promote citizen science opportunities (including social media, blog
posts, newsletters), but also actively seeks opportunities to promote via third-party channels.
…reach out to societies / organizations about
featuring your projects in their newsletters.
…BES-Net newsletter highlight alone
drove 40 visits to our project page!
…ask your active volunteers for ideas and
contacts for promotion.
…volunteer introduction led
to outreach opportunity with
Wisconsin Master Naturalist
community!
BHL citizen science volunteer Hollis
Marriott. Photo Bonnie Heidel.

14. EMBRACE MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES/OUTLETS FOR PROMOTION
…consider listing your opportunity in a citizen
science project directory.
DIRECTORIES TO CONSIDER
• SciStarter
• Project Finder from the ALA / Australian Citizen Science
Association (for Australian CS projects)
• Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Catalog from
citizenscience.gov (for U.S. government-related projects)
• Library Libguides
• Ex: University of Illinois:
http://guides.library.illinois.edu/citizen-
science/find-a-project
• UCLA:
http://guides.library.ucla.edu/c.php?g=180824&p=
1189883

15. EMBRACE MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES/OUTLETS FOR PROMOTION
Key Takeaways?
Actively seek outreach opportunities with other organizations/societies/citizen
science organization/etc.!
The key is to target organizations and communities whose audience interests align with your project(s).

16. EMBRACE MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES/OUTLETS FOR PROMOTION
Key Takeaways?
Encourage and empower your community to spread the word and attract new
volunteers!
Word of mouth marketing and recommendations from friends are more influential than brand (i.e.
organizational) messaging (Keller 2013, 218-219; Nielsen 2015).
Add share buttons to your project pages. Make newsletters and project emails easily shareable with
forward and share buttons.
…social sharing buttons on Smithsonian
Transcription Center project pages.
…add easy forward and social sharing
buttons to your emails.

17. How can you engage citizen scientists in your projects and
maintain contributions over time?
Outreach strategies from the
Next?
Strategies to maintain engagement over time!

18. OFFER INCENTIVES LIKE LIVE, INTERACTIVE EVENTS
We’ve had great success with hosting live, interactive events as a way to engage with volunteers
and encourage continued participation in citizen science projects.
…we originally used behind-the-scenes live events as reward incentives for
completing a project challenge, like with our #FossilFossick transcription
challenge. We hosted a live tour of the Smithsonian’s paleontology
department with Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals, Dr. Nicholas Pyenson,
on Periscope as the challenge reward.
…while well-received, volunteers indicated that the prospect of these
events as a reward was not the reason they participated in the
challenge. However, the events did address things that were
motivations for participation, like learning more about a topic of interest,
project materials, and how their work would support real research.

19. OFFER INCENTIVES LIKE LIVE, INTERACTIVE EVENTS
YouTube Live (via Google Hangouts on Air) hosted by
Smithsonian Libraries during the 2016 #DigIntoDyar
transcription challenge.
Entomologist and Dyar biographer Dr. Marc Epstein
shared more about Dyar’s work, the important
research recorded in the field books being transcribed,
and how volunteers’ work would benefit his research.
…so we decided these events were good things to offer during
the challenges themselves as ways to satisfy motivations for
participating and stimulate continued engagement in the
projects.
Dr. Epstein explores the field books being
transcribed during the YouTube Live event.

20. OFFER INCENTIVES LIKE LIVE, INTERACTIVE EVENTS
Key Takeaway?
Embrace opportunities to interact with your volunteers in a live format!
Major options for live video broadcasting:
Useful guide to these platforms: https://adespresso.com/blog/ultimate-guide-live-video/
Remember, contributing to science is a major motivator for citizen science volunteers (Singh et al. 2014;
Raddick et al. 2013; West and Pateman 2016; Flemons et al. 2015), so this is a great opportunity to
explain how volunteer efforts will benefit research. If volunteers feel their efforts are worthwhile, they’re
more likely to continue contributing (Bruyere and Rappe 2007; Flemons et al. 2015).
How to choose the right platform for you?
Find out where your audience is already active.

21. HIGHLIGHT VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTIONS
Make sure you regularly recognize volunteer contributions and highlight their work and discoveries
during projects.
…DigiVol uses methods like formal
honor boards, contribution feeds, and
appreciation awards to recognize
volunteers.
…or consider sharing volunteer contributions on your own
social media feeds.
…or encourage volunteers to share their discoveries via their own
social feeds and reshare from your accounts. The Smithsonian
Transcription Center is a great example of this.

22. HIGHLIGHT VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTIONS
Key Takeaway?
Recognizing the contributions of your volunteers is critical for fostering sustained
engagement in citizen science projects.
Not feeling like they and their work are valued has been cited as a main reason why volunteers stop
contributing (Locke et al. 2003).

23. FOSTER COMMUNITY BUILDING AND DISCUSSION
Strong communities foster healthy citizen science projects and sustained engagement. Build ways
for your volunteers to develop a community and interact with one another.
…Science Gossip volunteers actively
use the talk forum to ask questions and
engage in conversations about content
on the site. Volunteers have even used
the forum boards to drive self-directed
classification projects. Ex: Identify female
contributor content.
…content tagged with #female is
aggregated into a subject collection for
Female Contributors.

24. FOSTER COMMUNITY BUILDING AND DISCUSSION
Key Takeaways?
Make sure you provide a mechanism appropriate for your particular audience to
foster discussion and community-building.
The desire to be part of a community and connect with like-minded people has been identified as a major
motivator for participation and sustained engagement in citizen science projects (West and Pateman 2016;
Parilla and Ferriter 2016; Van Den Berg et al. 2009; Locke et al. 2003; Asah et al. 2014).
Platform doesn’t have a built-in talk/forum option? Try using a third-party application like Disqus. Or you can
create a Facebook Group or hashtag for community discussions on Twitter (eg. #volunpeer for Smithsonian
Transcription Center volunteers). If feasible, host in-person networking/community events.
Communities can provide valuable project support by answering questions or providing tips to other volunteers.
Discussion platforms provide project staff with a convenient way to communicate with volunteers.

25. STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE CITIZEN SCIENTISTS
1. Produce social media campaigns
2. Tap into existing citizen science communities
3. Embrace multiple opportunities and outlets for
promotion
4. Offer incentives like live, interactive events
5. Highlight volunteer contributions
6. Foster community building and discussion
Outreach strategies from the

26. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Nicole Kearney (Museums Victoria), who managed the Museums Victoria transcription projects on DigiVol and provided guidance on the
Geoscience Australia projects. Thanks to Jane Black (now at Australian Botanic Gardens in Canberra) for managing the Geoscience Australia transcription
projects. Thanks to Nicole for providing insights from her experience. Learn more about this work:
https://mwa2015.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/transcribing-between-the-lines-crowd-sourcing-historic-data-collection/
Thanks to Dr. Meghan Ferriter (former Community Manager for the Smithsonian Transcription Center, now Senior Innovation Specialist for National Digital
Initiatives at Library of Congress), Lesley Parilla (cataloger at Smithsonian Libraries, formerly with the Smithsonian Field Book Project), and Erin Rushing
(Outreach Librarian, Smithsonian Libraries) for their work to help produce, promote, and engage volunteers in the Smithsonian-related transcription
activities on the Smithsonian Transcription Center.
Thanks to the entire Art of Life (s.si.edu/ArtofLife) and Purposeful Gaming (s.si.edu/PurposefulGaming) project teams for all of your work to make these
projects a reality. Thanks to Trish Rose-Sandler (Missouri Botanical Garden) for providing insights from those projects, for which she served as the project
lead and managed much of the projects’ design, support and publicity for Smorball, Beanstalk, and Science Gossip. Thanks also to William Ulate who
provided project management and coordination support on both projects. Thanks to Patrick Randall (formerly Ernst Mayr Library, MCZ, Harvard), who
managed outreach for the Purposeful Gaming projects and related publicity for the games. Thanks also to Tiltfactor (especially Senior Game Designer Max
J. Seidman and Tiltfactor Director Mary Flanagan) for all of their support building and publicizing the games.
Thanks to Dr. Geoffrey Belknap (former fellow on the Constructing Scientific Communities project at Leicester University, currently at the National Science
and Media Museum), Dr. Victoria Van Hyning (former Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at Zooniverse), and Jim O’Donnell (Web Developer for
Zooniverse) for all their contributions to building, supporting outreach for, and managing the discussion forums for Science Gossip (along with Trish Rose-
Sandler). Thanks to ConSciCom and Zooniverse for all of their support building and promoting Science Gossip.

27. REFERENCES
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28. REFERENCES
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30. Thank You!
Grace Costantino
@BHLCommMgr
SPNHC.TDWG 2018
28 August 2018
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