My #HuntLibrary

My #HuntLibrary is a participatory digital service designed to encourage visitors to document their Hunt Library experience using the social media platform Instagram. 

Overview

The development of this project coincided with the lead-up to the launch of NC State's new James B. Hunt Jr. Library. My #HuntLibrary serves as an anchor activity for the Hunt Library opening events by helping to foster a sense of community ownership of the new building. Images from this crowdsourced documentation effort will be selected to become part of our permanent digital collections, allowing the NC State community to contribute to the historical record of the Hunt Library through image submissions as well as the use of voting tools.

This project is a collaboration between Digital Library Initiatives, External Relations, the Special Collections Research Center, and the Hunt Opening and Dedication Committee.

How We Did It

My #HuntLibrary is a Ruby on Rails application that utilizes responsive design techniques. Although this application is deployed in support of the Hunt Library launch, the underlying architecture is quite flexible and has been released as open-source under the name "lentil".

My #HuntLibrary features include:

  • Harvesting of image metadata based on sets of tags via the Instagram API
  • Image moderation
  • Extensive responsive interfaces serving channels ranging from mobile devices to large display walls
  • Crowdsourced curation tools, including "like" and "battle" (i.e. this-or-that) voting
  • Digital preservation rights clearance and image ingest framework

Results

Recognition

Team