Enabling Discovery, Integration, and Understanding of CJS Information Carol A. Hert University of Washington, Tacoma Sheila O. Denn University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Project supported by DOJ Grant # 2005-BJ-CX-K016

Presentation Objectives Overview of the CJS I-MAP project Project goals Current status of MAP development Proposed user studies for project What we can learn from user studies to support our metadata practices

CJS I-MAP Project: Mission To support efforts to integrate and synchronize criminal justice statistical information among BJS and its agency partners through the development of a metadata application profile Emphasis on facilitating end user discovery of relevant information items across disparate sources

Project Partners NACJD Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics OJJDP/NCJJ FBI (UCR) FJSRC (Urban Institute) BJS

CJS I-MAP Deliverables A Metadata Application Profile (MAP) to facilitate metadata sharing and reuse  Primarily directed towards supporting users’ discovery of data Evaluation of the MAP  Technical review  User-oriented studies Recommendations for implementing MAP Theoretical insights into how metadata supports user goals

The CJS I-MAP Developed via: Technical analysis of existing standards Metadata standards of interest: DDI Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) ISO/IEC National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) which incorporates Global Justice XML Data Model Some document/information analysis and modeling Interviews with partners about needs and issues A moving target (other standards evolved during development) Will now be largely DDI with some additional CJS- specific elements supporting “findability”

Likely CJS-specific Elements Aspect(s) of criminal justice system presented E.g., crimes, courts, corrections as well as administrative (legal system), social issues related to crime (e.g., public opinion on guns), etc. Geographic entities relevant to CJ E.g., typologies of places where crime occurs, jurisdictions of agencies represented Others? (still under investigation)

User Studies Rationale for user studies Help identify additional elements Indicate which elements are most useful in supporting certain tasks Thereby enabling prioritization of metadata creation for an item Provides insight into utility of the I-MAP User studies to be conducted Fall 2006

The User Studies Study Question: What metadata elements enable a specific type of user (to be designated) to assess potential relevance of an entity to a specific task? Design implications: enables us to: Assess the extent to which the I-MAP supports findability Make recommendations for prioritization of metadata creation efforts

Basic logic: Ask users to select, from a set of entity representations, those entities that seem relevant for the task at hand. Have them look at those entities and again assess relevance At both points, ask them to discuss the “cues” that lead to judgments of relevance and non-relevance

Analysis Compile a list of characteristics that are used to assess potential relevance (at two different points in a relevance judging process). If possible, establish which are more highly used (at either point in process). Map the characteristics to the CJS I-MAP.

The Premise Metadata support findability and usability Provide structure to support content Terminological consistency enhanced Can enable “context on demand” Support information management goals Metadata Effort Management How much? How sophisticated a structure? What level of entity gets encoded? What level of agency effort? How to we assess metadata ROI or quality? User Experience (UX) How is information used/ what tasks? What words do they use? What information is of high value? How do people make choices among information sources? Metadata management is the linchpin of quality UX User studies inform UX design and metadata system design and management

Contacts Carol Hert: Sheila Denn: Project Funded by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics ( DOJ Grant # 2005-BJ- CX-K016)