Presentation given at Online Information 2013
TRACK 2: EXPLOITING SEARCH, RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
Tools and e-resources for researchers
Online Information Show 2013
Victoria Park Plaza Hotel, London, SW1V 1EQ, UK
Wednesday 20th of November, 2013, 1130 - 1200
by Mahendra Mahey, Manager of British Library Labs
British Library Labs Presentation at Elpub 2014, June 20, 2014labsbl
Key note presentation given at ElPub2014, June 20 about the Digital Scholarship department and the work of the Digital Research Team and British Library Labs.
British Library Labs Presentation at Elpub 2014, June 20, 2014labsbl
Key note presentation given at ElPub2014, June 20 about the Digital Scholarship department and the work of the Digital Research Team and British Library Labs.
British Library Labs and Competition Presentation at the Open Universitylabsbl
Presentation given at the department of Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts, The Open University.
Friday 7th June 2013
12:00 - 14:00
CMR01
Open University
Presentation given to visitors from the University of Sunderland on the 10th of February, 2014 about BL Labs at the British Library in the Panizzi Room.
Supporting the Digital Scholar:Experiences from the British Library Labslabsbl
The presentation will first give a very brief overview of the Library and then tell you a number of ‘stories’ mostly from a Humanities perspective on how researchers did things in the past and how that is changing because of rapid developments in digital technology. With more and more digital content, data, tools and services being made available, researchers are able to ask questions they had never dreamed of before, share their findings in an open way and collaborate, some of them are becoming the ‘digital’ scholar.
It will bring back the story to the British Library, and how the digital scholar is changing the way we do things. It will then move on to the efforts of digitisation across the British Library, giving a whistle stop tour of some of the incredible digital collections we now have and highlight some of the challenges that we face given our historical origins, licensing and technical restrictions. Importantly, it will also try to address how we are trying to tackle some of these challenges. It will outline the work of Digital Scholarship department, created to support the changing research landscape, focusing particularly on the work on the Digital Research Team and that of British Library Labs, both of which sit in the same department. It will point out some of the surprising findings we have discovered and some of the lessons we have learned so far and what we are planning for the future. Finally, it will finish with some important final ‘take away’ messages and The Presentation will be asking you what excites you most about digital scholarship. Hopefully, if there is time, there will be an opportunity to take a few questions too.
British Library Labs Virtual Event - 17 May 2013, 1500GMTlabsbl
British Library Labs presentation given as part of a Google Hangout on the 17 May, 2013 at 1500GMT. The presentation gave some background information to the project and detailed information about the competition.
This presentation was from a talk I gave at the International Association of Technology, Education and Development conference in Valencia, Spain in 2010.
What are the key issues and opportunities in digital scholarship, and how sho...Stuart Dempster
Key elements of current and emergent academic practice(s) in the age of AI and machine learning, and how academic libraries can develop resources, people and institutional responses.
Presented at the AAO 2013 Conference - a discussion on building a Digital Scholarship Unit at the University of Toronto Scarborough Library. Covers the conference questions of "should you; could you; and why would you digitize"
Presentation for the Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University. Searching for video & images was covered in another presentation). Note: All URLs are made clickable on the last sheet.
Looking to the Future: What’s the Mindset for a Successful Information Organization? by Keith
Webster, Dean of the Libraries, Carnegie Mellon for the October 16, 2013 NISO Virtual Conference: Revolution or Evolution: The Organizational Impact of Electronic Content.
British Library Labs and Competition Presentation at the Open Universitylabsbl
Presentation given at the department of Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts, The Open University.
Friday 7th June 2013
12:00 - 14:00
CMR01
Open University
Presentation given to visitors from the University of Sunderland on the 10th of February, 2014 about BL Labs at the British Library in the Panizzi Room.
Supporting the Digital Scholar:Experiences from the British Library Labslabsbl
The presentation will first give a very brief overview of the Library and then tell you a number of ‘stories’ mostly from a Humanities perspective on how researchers did things in the past and how that is changing because of rapid developments in digital technology. With more and more digital content, data, tools and services being made available, researchers are able to ask questions they had never dreamed of before, share their findings in an open way and collaborate, some of them are becoming the ‘digital’ scholar.
It will bring back the story to the British Library, and how the digital scholar is changing the way we do things. It will then move on to the efforts of digitisation across the British Library, giving a whistle stop tour of some of the incredible digital collections we now have and highlight some of the challenges that we face given our historical origins, licensing and technical restrictions. Importantly, it will also try to address how we are trying to tackle some of these challenges. It will outline the work of Digital Scholarship department, created to support the changing research landscape, focusing particularly on the work on the Digital Research Team and that of British Library Labs, both of which sit in the same department. It will point out some of the surprising findings we have discovered and some of the lessons we have learned so far and what we are planning for the future. Finally, it will finish with some important final ‘take away’ messages and The Presentation will be asking you what excites you most about digital scholarship. Hopefully, if there is time, there will be an opportunity to take a few questions too.
British Library Labs Virtual Event - 17 May 2013, 1500GMTlabsbl
British Library Labs presentation given as part of a Google Hangout on the 17 May, 2013 at 1500GMT. The presentation gave some background information to the project and detailed information about the competition.
This presentation was from a talk I gave at the International Association of Technology, Education and Development conference in Valencia, Spain in 2010.
What are the key issues and opportunities in digital scholarship, and how sho...Stuart Dempster
Key elements of current and emergent academic practice(s) in the age of AI and machine learning, and how academic libraries can develop resources, people and institutional responses.
Presented at the AAO 2013 Conference - a discussion on building a Digital Scholarship Unit at the University of Toronto Scarborough Library. Covers the conference questions of "should you; could you; and why would you digitize"
Presentation for the Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University. Searching for video & images was covered in another presentation). Note: All URLs are made clickable on the last sheet.
Looking to the Future: What’s the Mindset for a Successful Information Organization? by Keith
Webster, Dean of the Libraries, Carnegie Mellon for the October 16, 2013 NISO Virtual Conference: Revolution or Evolution: The Organizational Impact of Electronic Content.
More than just books - British Library Labs Presentation given at MSc Compute...labsbl
The British Library: More than just books
Exploring new ideas and methods to better understand the cultural and historic heritage held by the Library.
MSc CGE: Games Industry Seminar Series 2013-14
Computing, Room NAB 314, New Academic Building,
29 St James Street, Goldsmiths University of London
Mahendra Mahey
Manager of British Library Labs
Tuesday 4th of February 2014, 1400 - 1415
British Library Labs Presentation Given to British Library Stafflabsbl
Presentation given to British Library Staff as part of C21st Curatorship staff talks by Mahendra Mahey (British Library Labs Manager) and Stella Wisdom (Digital Curator)
Building Better GLAM Labs - Keynote at University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, ...labsbl
Presentation given by Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs entitled 'Building Better GLAM Labs'.
Experiences and lessons learned from the British Library and around the world with Galleries, Libraries , Archives and Museums engaging with researchers, artists, educators and entrepreneurs who want to use digitised and born digital cultural heritage collections and data for innovative projects.
Mahendra Mahey, Manager of British Library, British Library, London, UK.
Wednesday 27 February 2019, 1330 – 1500 (Keynote)
Talk given on behalf of the British Columbia Research Libraries Group, in the McPherson Library/Mearns Centre for Learning, Digital Scholarship Commons, Room A308, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Latest developments in open source educational materials including open textbooks. Special talk given to Douglas College Faculty of Science and Technology at their 2012 Christmas Luncheon.
Building Better GLAM Labs - Opening talk at Museum Big Data Conference - UCL ...labsbl
Talk given on 30 April 2019, between 1500 - 1520 at the UCL Qatar Museum Big Data 1st Conference, UCL Qatar, given at the Auditorium, Qatar National Library.
7th BL Labs Symposium (2019): 12_Digital Research team projects updatelabsbl
Neil Fitzgerald, Head of Digital Research, British Library
--
Highlights of some innovative recent and current projects in the Digital Research team at the British Library.
Mahendra Mahey, BL Labs Manager, British Library
--
This Award recognises an artistic or creative endeavour that has used the Library’s digital content to inspire, amaze and provoke.
Maja Maricevic, Head of Higher Education and Science, British Library
--
This Award recognises a current member of staff, or team, who has played a key role in an innovative project using the Library’s digital content or data.
7th BL Labs Symposium (2019): 08_An update on the ‘Living with machines’ projectlabsbl
Mia Ridge, Digital Curator and Co-Investigator for Living with machines, British Library
The 'Living with machines' project is a collaboration between the British Library and the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
7th BL Labs Symposium (2019): 06_An overview of digital preservation at the B...labsbl
Maureen Pennock, Head of Digital Preservation, British Library
An overview of the challenges of preserving an ever-growing and complex set of digital collections and a presentation of the work of the Flashback project.
7th BL Labs Symposium (2019): 05_The Research Awardlabsbl
James Perkins, Research & Postgraduate Development Manager, British Library
This Award recognises a project or activity which demonstrates the development of new knowledge, research methods or tools, using the Library’s digital content.
7th BL Labs Symposium (2019): 04_The story of the GLAM Labs community and how...labsbl
Sophie-Carolin Wagner, Project Manager, Austrian National Library Labs, Austrian National Library
A report on the work to develop a global community of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) Labs and the creation of a handbook for professionals wanting to set up, maintain and ensure digital innovation Labs thrive in their organisations.
Mahendra Mahey, BL Labs Manager, British Library
This Award celebrates quality learning experiences created for learners of any age and ability that use the Library's digital content.
Digital Magical Mystery Tour - British Librarylabsbl
Presentation given by Mahendra Mahey, BL Labs Manager about the British Library and it's digital collections and how they have been used by the public.
Building Better GLAM Labs - Keynote Presentation at Simon Fraser Universitylabsbl
Presentation given by Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs at Simon Fraser University between 1030 - 1200, Monday 25 February, 2019.
See: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/publish/dh/dhil/bl-labs
For more details.
Introduction to BL Labs and Reading 35,000 Books: The UCD Contagion Project ...labsbl
Presentation given by Mahendra Mahey at the Reading 35,000 Books: The UCD Contagion
Project and the British Library Digital Corpus event on 20 February 2019
BL Labs Presentation at Open Science Infrastructures for Big Cultural Datalabsbl
Presentation given in Plovdiv, 13 December 2018 by Mahendra Mahey from British LIbrary Labs.
Fostering Excellence in Scholarship with Big Cultural Heritage CollectionsInsights from British Library Labs
Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs
1630 - 1715, Thursday, 13th December 2018,
Fostering Excellence in Scholarship with Big CH Collections (in Humanities data and their research use session), Open Science Infrastructures for Big Cultural Data, International Advanced Masterclass,Fifth Floor Conference Room, Hotel Trimontium, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
A hands-on data exploration & challenge to become a derived data-set author o...labsbl
Mahendra Mahey, manager of British Library Labs (BL Labs) will examine some of the BL’s digital collections/data & discuss challenges he has had in making the BL's cultural heritage data available openly or onsite at the British Library.
Mahendra will invite delegates to explore data-sets at their leisure, setting a challenge for those who are interested, skilled in exploring, finding patterns and grouping data. They could become data-set authors/creators of derived data-sets, based on pre-existing digital collections/data provided on the day or already available on https://data.bl.uk.
The workshop will conclude with reflections from the delegates and possibly highlighting a number derived data-sets that were generated by participants on the day that could now potentially exist on https://data.bl.uk. If selected, these new derived data-sets will be attributed with the creators' / authors' details and each will have its own cite-able Digital Object Identifier (D.O.I). These new data-sets would then be available for reuse by any researcher in the world.
GUIDANCE FOR THIS WORKSHOP
We strongly recommend you come to this workshop with an appropriate device such as a laptop pre-installed with appropriate tools to analayse different kinds of data-sets, e.g. Microsoft Excel may work with smaller data-sets such as metadata (see other data exploration tools below). If you don't have one, and would still like to attend, please request to 'pair up' with someone who is willing to share and has already signed up.
Other data exploration tools include: Notepad++ (e.g. for viewing text and XML); Open Refine (e.g. for cleaning data); Tableau Public (e.g. for visualising data); Google Fusion Tables (e.g for visualising geo-spatial data); Spacy (e.g. for text and data mining), RStudio (an open source Statistical package), MATLAB (data analysis tool) & NLTK (Natural Language processing).
Please note that this workshop is NOT about training you in using any of these tools, just tools you may be already familiar with to explore and find patterns in our data.
Datatypes you may be examining in this workshop could include: .ZIP, .PDF, .TXT, .CSV, .TSV. .XLS, .XLSX, RDF, .nt, XML (TEI, ALTO and bespoke), .JSON, .JPG, .JPEG, .TIFF and .WARC
Please ensure you are able to read these files on your device before the workshop if you are interested in exploring them during our session.
Slides for session: http://goo.gl/
URL for specific data: http://
Mahendra Mahey tweets at @BL_Labs & @mahendra_mahey
Presentation given by Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs, 1400 - 1430, 2 July 2018
London Psychology Librarians Group Meeting
Dickins Room, Conference Centre,
British Library
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
British Library Labs: Lessons learned in its first year
1. British Library Labs:
Lesson learned in its first year
TRACK 2: EXPLOITING SEARCH, RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
Tools and e-resources for researchers
Online Information Show 2013
Victoria Park Plaza Hotel, London, SW1V 1EQ, UK
Wednesday 20th of November, 2013, 1130 - 1200
Mahendra Mahey
Manager of British Library Labs
2. Overview
• What is Labs?
• Lessons learned…
– getting content
– data driven approach, lessons learned
– running the first competition
– other engagement
• Questions and discussion
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
2
3. What is British Library Labs?
• 2 Year Andrew Mellon funded project.
• Encouraging scholars to do research and development with and
across British Library digital collections and data (born digital
and digitised). No digitisation involved in project.
• ‘Data driven’ approach through competitions, events and
creating an environment for scholars where they can work
intensively with British Library digital collections / data.
• Library will learn how better to support digital scholars and
build on existing or create new processes, tools (e.g. APIs etc.)
and services.
• Case studies for other research libraries around the world
wanting to build Labs for their digital content.
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
3
4. Our Brand…
At the beginning of the project…
Let loose on our digital collections
Now…
Experiment with our digital collections
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
4
5. How Labs works in pictures…
idea
Competition
Other
outputs…
BL Digital
Collection /
Data
Contact
Software
idea
BL Digital
Collection /
Data
BL Labs
Publications
Researchers
Developers
?
Events
Other Digital
Collection / Data
Audience
http://labs.bl.uk
idea
Meetings
and visits
Data
Research
question / idea
Engagement with Labs
Experimenting with our
digital collections
#bl_labs
Tools &
services to
support
Digital
Scholarship
Outputs from
engagement
labs@bl.uk
5
8. Labs Project and Advisory Boards
Project
Board
Michele Burton
- Head of Trusts & Foundations
British Library
Richard Boulderstone
- Chief Digital Officer
British Library
Kristian Jensen
- Head of Arts and Humanities
British Library
Maja Maricevic
- Head of Higher Education
British Library
http://labs.bl.uk
Advisory
Board
Professor Tim Hitchcock (Digital History)
– University of Sussex
Professor Andrew Prescott (Digital Humanities)
– King’s College London
Bill Thompson (Head of Partnership of Archive
Development Group) - BBC
Professor Claire Warwick (Digital Humanities)
- University College London
David De Roure – Professor of e-research
- Oxford e-research centre (University
of Oxford)
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
8
11. Labs staff
Labs
Mahendra Mahey
- Labs Project Manager (Started in March 2013)
Ben O’Steen
- Labs Technical Lead (Started in August 2013)
Researchers / Interns / Volunteers / Curators
- Can start at any time
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
11
14. Digital Scholarship
Digital Curator Team
Digital Scholarship Heads
Aly Conteh
- Head of Digital Research and
Curator Team
Stella Wisdom
- Digital Curator
Nora McGregor
- Digital Curator
Adam Farquhar
- Head of Digital Scholarship
(Wrote Labs proposal)
Aquiles Alencar Brayner
- Digital Curator
Digital
Scholarship
Team
James Baker
- Digital Curator
Rossitza Atanassova
- Digital Curator
http://labs.bl.uk
Digital
Curators
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
14
17. 200 British Library Curators
200
Curators
• Responsible for many different kinds of collections, though not
all digital
• If they work with digital content, and the content is freely
available (or potentially), important to get the curators on board
with Labs and work together
• ‘Story’ behind a collection - detailed knowledge (e.g. rights,
how acquired, who uses them (potential researchers working
with Labs), etc.)
• Usually subject experts too, so have good ideas of what to do
with the content
• May know about curatorial decisions about which items were
chosen and answer questions around metadata
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
17
23. Researchers in the Library
Researchers
• Library is a research organisation in its own right and is able
to bid for funding from Research Councils
• Over 100 researchers working at the Library
• Labs engages with researchers internally (and externally)
through funding calls especially with digital content
Developers in the Library
Developers
• Over 30 software developers working in the Library
• Labs has helped facilitate the creation of a ‘Library
developers’ group to share ideas, best practice, exchange
knowledge, assess a list of web services / APIs for external
access
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
23
26. Researchers outside the Library
Researchers
• Main target for Labs are researchers in UK academia
(through interest from around the world)
• Researchers considering or already using digital content
and associated research methods
• Not necessarily have to be skilled in computational / digital
research methods, just have a good idea, Labs can support
them if possible
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
26
27. Developers outside the Library
Developers
• Interest to developers in academia and commercial sector.
• Labs has organised and participates in Hack events getting
developers to use our content to build things, e.g.
– http://hackathoncentral.com/ (26-27 Oct, 2013, Google Campus, London, UK)
– http://labs.bl.uk/Competition+2013+-+Hack+Event (26-27 May, 2013, British Library, UK)
• Interest from start-ups / creatives working with Labs and
creating new opportunities
• Some researchers have software development skills
• Pairing up developers with researchers at events potentially
useful collaborations
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
27
28. British Library Digital Collections
Where do you start?
1
2
Over 600 digital collections and counting…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t_buchtele/3422507814/
Finding openly licensed digital content
can be like finding a needle in a haystack
3
Some kind of filter needed
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
28
30. Datasets, Books / Text, Images / Music,
Maps, Sounds, Multimedia
http://labs.bl.uk/Digital+Collections
Planning to launch http://data.bl.uk
Resonance FM
10 year Community
Arts Radio Show
Book ordering and
anonymised reader
data
Environmental Sounds
Text-mining of
electronic journals
19th Century Books
UK Web Archive Data
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
British National Bibliography
labs@bl.uk
30
31. Example digital research methods
Location based searching
Corpus analysis tools
Crowdsourcing /
Human Computation
Using APIs for datasets e.g. Metadata, Images
Geotagging
Visualisations
Annotation
Transcribing
Natural Language
Processing
http://labs.bl.uk/Launch+Event (has some examples from researchers)
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
31
32. Engaging with Labs
• Events – Hack/ Data Days and Ideas Labs
• Funding calls – writing Labs into funding proposals
• Competitions – running competitions to encourage
researchers to come up with ideas, Labs will try to work with
them (resources permitting)
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
32
33. Engaging with Labs - events
1
2
• Hack and Data days - researchers,
developers, curators and anyone
interested with digital collections
working together at events, solving Brainstorm ideas & group
problems and developing prototypes
• Ideas Labs – researchers together
over lunch, engaging with the
Library’s digital collections through
cards, coming up with ideas / research
questions, focussing on what outputs Labs Data Cards
might be generated
3
Work into the night and show
what has been done
Social Media Top Trumps Cards
• Contact us…
http://labs.bl.uk
Consider and choose
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoonie/5077408371/sizes/l/in/photostream/
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
33
34. Engagement with Labs…
written into funding calls
• Recent AHRC Big Data Call, Labs was written in as a data
partner, facilitating data access to BL Digital content (August
2013)
• Five potential projects
• Labs being considered to be written into other calls all the
time, e.g. Other Research Councils, National Lottery
Funding etc.
• Labs is another route into access to digital content at the
Library
• Contact us!
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
34
35. Engaging with Labs - competitions
• Labs will organise at least 2 Competitions
• Winners will work ‘in residence’ where possible
• ‘Data Driven’ approach, i.e. here is our data come and do
stuff with it!
• Focus particularly on cross collection research, research at
scale but other research and development encouraged too!
• Help develop tools and services to support digital
scholarship
• Approach will be re-examined each time, e.g. possibly
smaller rewards for shorter pieces of work, theme etc.
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
35
36. Labs Competition 2013
• Launched late April 2013, closed end of June 2013
• 22 high quality entries
– Text mining tool in the reading rooms
– Curatorial…repackaging metadata for teaching and learning
in a CMS e.g. Drupal, funded through another AHRC fund,
creating narratives on Oil paintings from the India Office /
Foreign and Commonwealth office
– Working to re-use a radio archive
• 2 winners chosen, ideas worked on in ‘residence’ at the Library
working with Labs (expenses paid) from Aug – Nov 2013,
presented at showcase event, 11 November 2013
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
36
37. The winners of the Labs 2013 competition
Dan Norton (left) and Pieter Francois (right) each receiving a cheque for £2000
as winners of the first British Library Labs 2013 competition from
Adam Farquhar, Head of Digital Scholarship, The British Library.
On the 11th November 2013 at the
Transforming Research through Digital Scholarship Event, held at the British Library, London, UK
http://labs.bl.uk/Competition+2013+Showcase
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
37
38. Dr Pieter Francois
• The Sample Generator
• Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of
Oxford, interested in travel in the 19th Century in
Europe
• Creating demonstrator which searches across 1.8
million metadata records from the 19th Century and
where possible finds highly significant digital
samples for further research from the books we
have digitised so far
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
38
39. Sample Generator – distribution of items
http://samplegenerator.cloudapp.net
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
39
40. Sample Generator – with sample
and search terms around ‘tour’
http://samplegenerator.cloudapp.net
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
40
41. Sample Generator – with samples
(a closer look)
http://samplegenerator.cloudapp.net
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
41
42. Dr Dan Norton
• Mixing the Library:
The Disc Jockey and the Digital Collection
• PhD Researcher, University of Dundee and is Artist in Residence
at Hangar, Centre for Art and Research, Barcelona.
• Building a prototype interface for interacting with Library digital
collections, for building aesthetic, experimental, or logical links
between resources; and for developing ad hoc visualizations, or
publishing annotated data, developed from the DJ's interaction
with information.
• Working on functioning prototype to collect URLs for different
media types e.g. text, video, sound and images, and then
comparing two digital objects and being able to annotate in real
time
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
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43. Mixing the Library:
The Disc Jockey and the Digital Collection
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
43
44. Mixing the Library:
The Disc Jockey and the Digital Collection
Annotation
http://www.tompro.co.uk
Preview ‘item’
‘Play back’ of ‘items’ (Blue)
and annotations (Yellow)
http://www.ablab.org/pd/di/
Selected ‘left’
channel ‘item’
Collection ‘stalks’ made of ‘items’. Each ‘item’ is a URL.
The order of the ‘items’ can be ‘shuffled’ and sent to the ‘left’ or ‘right’ channels
Selected ‘right’
channel ‘item’
Prototype design
http://www.ablab.org/shetland
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
44
45. Mixing the Library:
The Disc Jockey and the Digital Collection
http://212.71.253.54:8000/a
First functioning prototype, Labs focussed on backend – to be developed
by further project, Living Lab: Library of the Future,
see: http://alturl.com/284zw
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
45
46. Other Labs’ developments
• Labs is working with Library stakeholders, particularly with
Curators who engaged with the project (reward!)
• Working on technical ‘quick wins’ to support the Library and
Labs remit and release as much content possible,
prioritising ‘projects’ at the moment to focus on
• Digital Research and Curator team and Labs recently were
awarded £40,000 worth of cloud computing facilities to
experiment with for a year (36 Cores, 10TB), enabling
parallel computing tasks to be carried out (From Microsoft
Research)
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
46
47. The Mechanical Curator
• Posts small illustrations taken almost at random from the
digitised book corpus to a Tumblr blog.
• This experiment with undirected engagement was a byproduct of work to uncover the hidden wealth of
illustrations within the digitised pages.
• Grown to 100+ unique visitors per day since its launch
(26/09/2013).
• http://mechanicalcurator.tumblr.com/
• Images now available on Flickr (420,000 plus images and
API), http://goo.gl/OrCKZz
• Using other data types, e.g. sounds etc.
http://mechanicalcurator.tumblr.com/image/67461770133
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
47
48. Other possible technical developments
• Some Labs projects being prioritised at the moment:
–
–
–
–
Teletext corpus proof of concept
Augmenting news metadata through text mining subtitles
Working with Latin American digital books and AHRC mini project
Working with colleagues on providing access to the computer
archive of John Maynard Smith (Evolutionary Biologist)
– Releasing more content by working with curators, via various
channels, e.g. Wikimedia, Flickr, other channels, e.g. Early Indian
photos, Russian posters etc.
• Parallel computing facilities, e.g. Map reduce activities for
processing large datasets , tasks that require significant compute
power
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
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49. Lessons learned…in getting digital content
• Filter was necessary because of the amount of content, size
and time period of the project
• Getting the story behind the collection was crucial, usually
from the curator
• Getting the curators on board (engaging with the
competition, getting them to be judges) and rewarding them
after is important (e.g. technical quick wins by working with
the Labs technical lead)
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
49
50. Lessons learned…metadata
• Cataloguing isn’t consistent, e.g.
1850?
• Older records don’t have subject
classification (Only from 1950s
onwards), have to rely on titles and
text mining if possible
• Metadata cleansing needed,
duplicate records, records not
always linked when updated
• Lots of digital content doesn’t have
metadata, initiate crowd sourcing
perhaps?
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
http://benosteen.com/dewey/
Distribution of the use of Dewey Decimal
in the British National Bibliography
There is limited subject classification for the 19th
century metadata for books
labs@bl.uk
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51. Lessons learned…technical
• Some content is only available on site due to licensing
restrictions
• Labs highlights when systems don’t always join up and this
can be flagged internally
• Some restrictions mean that workarounds have to be
developed for researchers to work with the content
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
51
52. Lessons learned…human
• Those engaged with Labs early and regularly got better
results all round
• Working on site means internal systems and process
challenges, issues not insurmountable, workarounds
possible, lessons for the library
• Starting a dialogue with the right person is the most
important lesson…it all starts with a conversation.
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
52
53. Lessons learned…working with researchers
• Release data early
• Research questions change once researchers see the data
• Researchers don’t often know their research questions until
they see the data
• Researchers don’t always have the technical skills to do the
research
• Researchers working with developers might be fruitful as
they are waiting for problems to solve
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
53
54. Lessons learned from competition
• Have more lead time to allow for engagement with the
sector and longer to work on winning entries
• Data driven approach means research questions may
change depending on data
• Creating ‘themes’ linked to exhibitions
• Think about rewarding small wins at events, e.g. hacks etc.
• Allow more time for judging and asking for amendments to
ideas before they start working on them
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
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55. Future developments on content
• Clear more digital content through Access and Reuse group
(need help from volunteers / interns, very time consuming,
please contact us!)
• Hope to develop data.bl.uk as part of wider Library Strategy
A ‘USB’ slot
• Creating data ‘exhibits’
where people can take
content for free, like
A timeline from the 19 Century
dead drop USB
• Pass it on / pay it forward
A ‘USB’ digital exhibition
hard drives to universities /
public libraries with Library
digital content
UK Universities
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
th
1850
1860
1870
http://www.notcot.org/post/35623/
Ideas from Ben O’Steen
http://labs.bl.uk
http://goo.gl/cV0Rtf
http://www.studyin-uk.com/e/uk-university-map/
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
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56. Future Labs engagement
• Data / hack events at the Library in London
– learn about the data well before competition deadline and
engaging with Labs early
– 12 Dec 2013 – Data / Hack Event around images (‘Unseen
Illustrations’) and second competition launched
– 13 January 2014
– 12 February 2014
– 10 March 2014, possibly in April 2014 too
• Ideas Labs around the UK and virtually
BL Labs Virtual Event, May 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFt0NvbTFHs
– Organising several Ideas Labs in universities around the UK
focussing on early career researchers
– Virtual events to allow for international participation
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
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57. Labs competition 2014
• Launched Dec 12 2014
• Close around late March / April 2014
• Start late May 2014 and finish Nov 2014
• Showcase Nov / Dec 2014
Other Labs engagement
• Links with successful funding calls
• Ad-hoc collaborations internally and externally with curators,
researchers and developers
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
57
59. Email us
• Let us know your ideas for engaging with Labs!
labs@bl.uk
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
59
60. Licensing…
You are free to:
– Copy, share, adapt, or re-mix
– Photograph, film, or broadcast
– Blog, live-blog, or post video of;
this presentation provided that:
– You attribute the work to its author
and respect the rights and licences
associated with its components
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Unported License unless stated
otherwise.
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
labs@bl.uk
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