An Investigation of Searching Behavior for Open Datasets: Insights from Cultural Heritage Data Curation Competitions

In recent years, cultural heritage institutions have experimented with opening up cultural heritage data and encouraging its reuse. While a growing body of digital humanities research has focused on the value of open data for cultural heritage and the development of data infrastructures, there is limited work exploring the searching behavior for open datasets in the cultural heritage domain at the micro level. This paper examines cultural heritage data curation competitions as a case to explore the open data searching behaviors of participants in such information practices. Using semi‐structured interviews, field observations, and secondary data analysis, this study identifies participants' data needs, search strategies, evaluation criteria, and related challenges through open coding. The findings will help cultural heritage institutions to effectively organize and curate open datasets, and advocate for digital libraries to better integrate open data resources and build open data platforms.