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RIDE 2010 presentation - Supporting researchers at the British Library
The document details the British Library's role in supporting research across various disciplines, highlighting their extensive collections and digital resources aimed at higher education researchers. It discusses the evolving behavior of researchers, particularly focusing on Generation Y and the impacts of digital technology on research practices. Additionally, it emphasizes initiatives like postgraduate training days and projects intended to enhance accessibility and collaboration among researchers and libraries.
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RIDE 2010 presentation - Supporting researchers at the British Library
- 1. Supporting Researchers atthe British Library Dr Joanna Newman, Head of Higher Education Centre for Distance Learning Conference 27 October 2010
- 2. 2 Introduction to theBritish Library “We exist for everyone who wants to do research – for academic, personal or commercial purposes” Our collections cover all known subject areas; sciences, technology, medicine, arts & humanities, social sciences… We have a copy of every item published in the UK Our collections cover all formats; sound, images, video, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, databases, books and journals, much more…
- 3. Researchers from HigherEducation 30.5% 25.2% 14.6% 8.9% 8.9% 4.5% 2.7% 2.3% 1.6% 0.8% Undergraduates Postgraduates Academic staff SMEs Personal researchers Creative industry researchers Further education students Corporate researchers Authors and writers Public sector researchers HE sector makes up 70.3% of BL Readers (UGs, PGs, academic staff). Source: BL British Library internal reader admissions data for period Oct- 06 to June-07.
- 4. 4 4 Supporting Higher Education PartnershipProjects: EthOS UK Research Reserve Access to Collections: Archival Sound Recordings British Library Newspapers Online Understanding researcher behaviour: Google Generation report Researchers of Tomorrow study Growing Knowledge Exhibition
- 5. 5 5 Supporting research Social Sciences Science, Technology& Medicine Arts & Humanities Document Supply service provides 1.4m articles/year primarily to scientists Renewed engagement with researchers using digital content and online services In-depth focus on biomedicine and energy/environment Collection includes journals, patents, theses and more, and is updated by some 9,000 articles every day A significant and underexploited international collection of books, journals, reports, theses, official publications and other materials A unique collection of grey literature, of special interest to practitioners and theoreticians Research collaboration with ESRC Greatest research collection of its kind in the world World-class curatorial expertise by subject, medium and geographical area BL has been developing world-leading e-innovations for past decade (e.g. International Dunhuang Project) and building a significant corpus of digitised texts Research collaboration with AHRC, British Academy and HEIs
- 6. Global changes affectingthe research environment New Technologies New research methods Growth of UK knowledge economy Changes to researcher expectations Proliferation of information 1 2 3 • Web 2.0/3.0 • Mobile & interoperability • Display technologies • Born digital • Mass digitisation • Rights management • Information & media literacy • Want contact anytime, anywhere • Store, personalise, manipulate, repurpose, share info with peers • New ways of relating to each other and information • Different attitude to Intellectual Property • Entrepreneurialism & innovation • Creative Industries • Science, Media & Technology • New subjects • Greater collaboration • Multiple formats, mash-up • Creative theory & creative practice • Importance of ephemera • Students learn in a different way to their teachers TextText VideoVideo SoundSound ImagesImages Cross-disciplinaryCross-disciplinary Cross-borderCross-border Multi-authoringMulti-authoring Non-linearNon-linear EphemeraEphemera DynamicDynamic
- 7. Digital Literacy andchanging researcher behaviour The Google Generation study published in January 2008 claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web. It aslo concluded that - All age groups revealed to share so-called ‘Google Generation' traits Libraries still have to adapt to the digital mindset Young people are seemingly lacking in information skills; strong message to the government and society at large
- 8. Researchers of Tomorrow: Athree year JISC-BL study tracking the research behavior of ‘Generation Y’ doctoral students Generation Y Born 1982 – 1994 Education partly non-digital Generation Z The ‘Google’ Generation Born 1995 onwards Education digital from start A 3 year study into the information seeking and research behaviour of UK doctoral students born between 1982 and 1994 Builds on the findings of the ‘Google Generation’ report published in 2008 Focusing on behaviour of ‘Generation Y’ – unlike ‘Google Generation’, their school education was partly non-digital and internet-free Commissioned by the British Library and the JISC Education for Change Ltd and The Research Partnership commissioned to undertake the research Study commenced February 2009 and will report in February 2012
- 9. Researchers of Tomorrow Purposeof the report Report conclusions and recommendations will… Allow BL and JISC to determine how best to meet current and future needs of academic researchers Provide guidance to libraries and information specialists on how to best meet research needs of Generation Y scholars and their immediate successors Establish a benchmark for research behaviour against which subsequent generations of scholars can be measured Reveal potential impact of changing research behaviour on HE institutions
- 10. 10 10 Results so far: TheWider Context Setting Survey – Key Findings July 2009: 6,500 responses from 68 HEIs 38% of these were from Generation Y researchers July 2010: 6,500 responses from 70 HEIs (results being analysed now) Students are turning to their peers and supervisors for support rather than librarians and information specialists Only a small proportion of respondents in any age group say they use ‘emergent technology (e.g. Web 2.0 applications) in their research Interesting attitudes to Open Access More Generation Y than older scholars are likely to be working from office space, laboratory or in their own institution, rather than their own home. Far fewer respondents have received any training in using more advanced technology-based research resources and tools such as e-research methods, finding and using online datasets or working in virtual research environments. Results confirmed by recent BL/HEPI report on the postgraduate landscape – www.bl/news/pgreport
- 11. Skills for theFuture - National Postgraduate Training Days Objectives Promote awareness of the Library amongst postgraduate students To introduce varied relevant collections to researchers Remove perceived anxieties about the Library Involve students and researchers from outside London Provide valuable networking for students Contribute to Robert’s skills agenda 305 532 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 2007-8 2008-9 Over 1000 participants since Training Days began
- 12. Who attends NationalPostgraduate Training Days? Attendees by location Other England (outside London) London Scotland Wales Open uni NI Bursaries provided to encourage participants from outside London, thanks to funding from key partners. 36% from London universities 64% from universities outside London Institute for Historical Research Institute of English Studies Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies Key Funding Partners Economic & Social Research Council
- 13. What impact toNational Postgraduate Training Days have? 38% 24% 77% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 1 Already had a reader pass Currently use the BL ("Yes" only) Would use th BL in the future 38% of participants already had a readers pass 24% of participants currently use the Library 77% of participants said they would use the Library in the future.
- 14. What participants hadto say about Postgraduate Training Days… Exploring the collections Networking opportunities “Today has demolished a mental wall for me as I had (wrongly) felt too unimportant to use the BL. Thank you very much indeed for arranging the day and making it clear that ALL researchers are welcome. I shall acquire a Readers card and return immediately!” “The facilities really are fantastic and an eye opener for me at the potential avenues for further research.” “The programme was excellent, all staff involved were very interesting and the event was well worth attending.” “Everybody was down to earth and flexible in their approaches to using library resources. This I found to be particularly helpful as BL can seem intimidating.”
- 15. Is digital different?Digital resources for researchers: Ethos EThOS: Provides free access to the research contained in doctoral theses Offers a one-stop electronic shop for all UK theses Improves postgraduate knowledge transfer to students Creates an international showcase for the best of UK research Enriches the UK and global knowledge pool Ensures a sustainable service for the future.
- 16. Ethos – Benefits Benefitsof e-theses online For thesis authors: Your research is easily available to the wider scholarly community. E theses over 100 times more likely to be read than paper ones You can present your research in more creative ways – using multimedia, incorporating datasets to support results. For institutions: Provides a ‘shop window’ highlighting your research outputs Usage stats indicate who is using your research outputs The Online Toolkit provides guidance on establishing e-thesis repositories and participating in EThOS.
- 17. Is digital different?Digital resources for researchers: Archival Sound Recordings www.sounds.bl.uk Available for playback and download 284 institutions signed up Free to UK higher and further education Tens of thousands of recordings Browse, search, locate on map Over 21,000 recordings selected from the British Library Sound Archive Music, spoken word, environmental sounds
- 18. Archival Sound Recordings Collectionhighlights Oral histories World and traditional music Classical Music Wildlife vocalisations Soundscapes Sound Recording History
- 19. Archival Sound Recordings SpecialFeatures Browse recordings by map Add contextual comments Mark favourite recordings Add tags
- 20. 20 Archival Sound Recordings EscapingGoogle • Martine Franck Martine Franck, interviewed by Amanda Hopkinson, Paris 1998 Source: Archival Sound Recordings http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0459X0104XX-0300V0.xml “I found the audio fantastic to work with. The realism of it inspired students and encouraged them to source other material beyond Google searches. As a tutor I maybe too often stand there and give my opinion about somebody’s work. Listening to interviews allows students to hear from the photographer themselves what’s behind the images.” Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor, Joseph Priestley College
- 21. Archival Sound Recordings Preservingglobal culture Amakondere players: Samuel Kahunde 2008 “I found the audio fantastic to work with. The realism of it inspired students and encouraged them to source other material beyond Google searches. As a tutor I maybe too often stand there and give my opinion about somebody’s work. Listening to interviews allows students to hear from the photographer themselves what’s behind the images.” Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor, Joseph Priestley College “The Wachsmann Uganda Recordings are extremely useful. In Bunyoro kingdom for example, an official recently told me that they had instruments that are not played because nobody knows the skills and their music. I feel that the music can be restored through listening to the digital sounds that are in the British Library archives.” Samuel Kahunde, PhD ethnomusicology student, Sheffield University “The Oral History of Recorded Sound collection provides valuable interviews with those directly involved in the development of stereo recording technique and commercial decision making. As periods of technical experimentation, the processes are often poorly documented and these first hand accounts provide an invaluable insight into the methods employed,” Ewan Gordon, PhD music technology student, University of York
- 22. Archival Sound Recordings For teachers Full of engaging, thought- provoking material to provide enhance pedagogy A valuable tool for teaching key skills to students For researchers A rich collection of cross- disciplinary, primary source material A large selection of rare and unpublished material
- 23. Is digital different?Digital resources for researchers: British Library Newspapers Online Online access to milliions of pages from the British Library’s unique collections Free to licensed UK higher and further education Pay-per-view model available for the public Search entire text using advanced OCR (optical character recognition) technology View scanned images of original newspapers and download pages Bibliographic head notes for each title Contextual essays by academic experts Chronological timeline overviewDetail from ‘Latest incidents in Connection with the Doings of Jack the Ripper’ The Illustrated Police News 27 October 1888
- 24. 17th to 18th Century BurneyCollection Titles include: The Boston Gazette The Bath Journal Dawk’s Newsletter Craftsman or Say’s Weekly Journal The Calcutta Chronicle and General Advertiser 700 or so bound voulmes of newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Doctor Charles Burney (1757- 1817) 1 million fully text-searchable pages Newspapers, newsbooks, Acts of Parliament, addresses, broadsides, pamphlets and proclamations Titles from London, British Isles and Colonies Highlights: The Great Fire of London The French Revolution The Boston Tea Party Engraving from A Continued Journal of All the Proceedings of the Duke of Buckingham 30 August 1627 Engraving from His Majesties declaration to all his subjects 20 December 1647
- 25. 19th Century British LibraryNewspapers Titles include: The Graphic The Poor Man’s Guardian The North Wales Chronicle The Manchester Times The Chartist 48 titles displaying history as it unfolded through newspapers the day 2.2 million fully text searchable pages National and regional papers from England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland Titles in specialist areas such as Victorian Radicalism and Chartism Highlights: War: The Battle of Trafalgar Crime: Jack the Ripper Science: Responses to Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’ Sports: The cricket match that started the Ashes Literature: serialisations by Charles Dickens ‘Murder and Suicide at Tintagel The Illustrated Police News 2 February 1867 ‘A Remarkable Railway Accident in Dublin’ The Graphic 27 February 1900
- 26. 19th Century British LibraryNewspapers One undergraduate tracked the early weeks of the newspaper reception of Darwin's Origin of Species, the first time this had been attempted for half a century. I used to spend much of my time showing students how to find things; now there is more time for them to think. Prof. James A. Secord, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge The well chosen geographical range of provincial newspapers and the sophisticated search facility could well change the face of British historiography over the coming decades, as genuinely national treatments of topics are now much more manageable. Andrew J. Hobbs, PhD student, University of Central Lancashire 19th Century British Library Newspapers gives us an invaluable new perspective on the way Victorian Britain came to understand itself as a community of citizens, consumers and commentators. It is hard to imagine any researcher with nineteenh-century interests to whom it does not offer important insights on their subject: and it is dangerously addictive! Prof. Arthur Burns, Kings College London ‘War Between France and Prussia’ The Illustrated Police News 30 July 1870
- 27. 27 Blending digital andphysical environments: Growing Knowledge: the evolution of research 12 October 2010 – 16 July 2011 Our new exhibition of innovative digital tools and technologies Visit onsite in the British Library or online and tell us what you think Join one of our evaluation sessions specifically for researchers www.bl.uk/growingknowledge #blgk For evaluation sessions contact - infostudies-survey@ucl.ac.uk
- 28. 28 Any questions? Contact us… HigherEducation Team The British Library 96 Euston Road London T 020 7412 7218 highereducation@bl.uk
Editor's Notes
- #2 This presentation will look at the use of digitised resources inteaching, learning and research, using examples from British Libraryprojects including Archival Sound Recordings and (19 newspapercollections. It will also look at recent research on information seekingbehaviour and how the emerging findings are providing sign posts forlibraries and universities.
- #3 National library of the UK, legal deposit library (we receive copy of all published material in UK). One of 5 largest research reference libraries in world Two main functions: the role of the BL is to provide access to these collections to whoever has a need to use them. Also to preserve for future generations (including material in printed and electronic format) Who uses the BL? Diverse audiences from students and academics from around the world - Currently over 60% of users of our collections and services are from UK higher education - includes university libraries, academic staff, postgraduate students, etc. Also the general public for exhibitions and events, to visit the building. Also run large engagement programme with schools which includes online resources and workshops. We also run one of the largest document supply services in the world, and we supply your own university libraries with information. This involves sending actual books or documents, photocopies or electronic pdfs of journals, etc, to university and also private sector companies.Includes a wide range of formats of material, not just books & journals, but sound, maps, photographs, illustrations, electronic databases. For example our Sound Archive is a national resource of audio history, recordings, music, including a large collection of wildlife sounds to regional dialects. Also have large business resources for entrepreneurs, the Business & IP Centre. This is a new space for the Library – we have one of the best collections of business information, from company, industry and market guides, and patents & IP.
- #4 Key points: - 30.5% of Readers are undergraduates, 25.2% postgraduates. - SMEs (8.9%) and personal researchers (8.9%) also make up a significant proportion of readers, particularly since SMEs are a relatively new audience for us to target. - In the presentation to analyse two top areas in more detail; UGs and PGs.
- #5 Leads to an overview of how we work with higher education. Examples include commissioning research on user behaviour, partnerships with higher education, and digitisation projects to provide remote access. We commission large studies into changing researcher behaviour to understand how best to meet current and future needs of researchers in terms of resources, technology and environment Current 3 year study Researchers of Tomorrow in collaboration with JISC to understand research behaviour and needs of the so called Generation Y students Partnership Projects Work with key partners across the sector to help provide solutions and deliver innovative projects including EThOS and UKRR Access to Collections Opening up BL collections via digitisation and JISC funding to allow remote access to primary source materials, eg. BL newspapers online and ASR
- #7 Huge changes currently going on in Higher Education – this slide produced before Browne Review and CSR but if anything, is truer now than before. The BL has to adapt its products and services, and its support for researchers to a changing world… This slide outlines the drivers of change within research (**** refer to slide here **** ) The centre is needed because of these global changes affecting the research environment. These changes mean current services and facilities do not meet the needs or expectations of researchers. Research practices are evolving, including increased collaboration and demand for multimedia content Researcher needs & expectations of how they should be able to interact with and use these resources in their work are changing There are discovery and authentication difficulties associated with rapidly growing and fragmented resources. These problems are pronounced in the areas of navigation and quality-assurance
- #9 Three year research study into the information seeking and research behaviour of UK doctoral students born between 1982 and 1994 Builds on the findings of the ‘Google Generation’ report published in 2008 Commonly dubbed ‘Generation Y’ – unlike ‘Google Generation’, their school education was at least partially non-digital and internet-free Education for Change Ltd and The Research Partnership commissioned to undertake the research Study commenced February 2009 and will report February 2012
- #10 Research conclusions and recommendations will aid BL and JISC to determine how best to meet current and future needs of academic researchers Reveal potential impact of changing research behaviour on HE institutions establish a benchmark for research behaviour against which subsequent generations of scholars can be measured provide guidance to libraries and information specialists on how best to meet the research needs of Generation Y scholars and their immediate successors.
- #13 Looking at the reading rooms to which the participants are accessing most, humanities occupies a generous slice (18%) representing by far the most represented subject. The situation does not change much when projecting this data into the future, with humanities taking a 65% of the choices. Beside Humanities, the categories that register a higher usage are Manuscripts and Rare Books and Music. Looking at future projections made on respondents’ intentions Newspapers and Manuscripts will register a massive increase. Overall all the reading rooms showed an impressive increase in likelyhood of usage. In this section it is interesting to note how, while in the current behaviour values a percentage as high as 62% of the respondents did not insert any reply, that percentage drops to 6% for future behaviour, suggesting that the participants have clear ideas on which reading room to use and that they took interest in making it clear. The percentages don’t add up to 100% (the total sum is 267%), this is due to the fact that many people would like to exploit the multidisciplinary offer of the British Library using more than one reading room. In fact many respondents ticked more than one reading room, underlining the fact that they would like to research at the same time in different disciplines. This particularly free and multidisciplinary offer of research material is a peculiar characteristic of the BL, and a very important advantage towards the latest trends of research in multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.
- #14 Introduce idea of online training
- #15 Feedback on Expectations For what concerns the management of expectations, a very good result has been obtained: 81% of the respondents found that the day was as expected, Among those who said the contrary, 15% was positively surprised. Another very positive data can be found in the percentage of those who agreed to opt in for future research projects: 320 out of 411 (78%). This is very good because underline the possibility of a long term commitment with the Library. Quotes and Claims The most frequent claims and suggestions proposed by the respondents are listed at the end of APX 1. The most frequent (top 3 highlighted) ones there are: Less overlap between the speakers Lunch should be provided More opportunities for networking should be provided Handbook, contact details, a list of participants and name badge should be provided A tour round the reading rooms should be organised The session/workshops should be more interactive Get a chance to search records It is easy to note how some of these comments could actually be resolved in one single solution: offering a lunch will be good for those who come from outside London, and, at the same time, it would be a good opportunity for networking. It has not been done for budget restraints. At the same time, it is easier to network if name badges and name lists are provided, and it is also easier to keep in touch after the event. If it is possible a simple catering should be offered. Many comments referred to that, and even if it might look like a trivial issue, it is an easy and important networking moment. Some digital/printable material with all the relevant information should be created and made available before/during and after the workshops. Some of the comments referred to the fact that there is overlapping between the different speakers, they should probably compare their material before.
- #16 The Open Access definition used by EThOS is: - Download of thesis is free to researchers; - Participating HEIs will pay up-front costs of theses digitisation; - If the thesis is required hard-bound, soft-bound, loose-leaf or on CD/DVD, costs will be charged to the researcher; For HEI's who opt-out of Open Access supply, digitisation of the thesis will be charged to the first researcher ordering the item, and thereafter will be free to download Open Access is NOT free access! If UK HE wants to offer Open Access, they must cover the costs (as they do now). If we wish to offer access to the great body of research currently held on paper, we need to digitise the contents. Digitisation is manually intensive and therefore expensive! To fund this, we have devised the following participation options – UK institutions can select the participation option most appropriate to their own circumstances Open Access Sponsor – contribute up-front and receive the full value of your contribution in digitised theses selected on-demand by researchers using the system Associate Member Level 1 (Open Access) – contribute retrospectively to the full cost of theses digitised Associate Member Level 2 – theses contributed but first researcher pays for digitisation Associate Member Level 3 – metadata supplied but theses supplied by the institution Theses will be digitised only once – thereafter they will be available on-line for Open Access download from EThOS forever, hence ‘Opening Access to UK Theses’.
- #17 For thesis authors: Your research is easily available to the wider scholarly community. E theses over 100 times more likely to be read than paper ones You can present your research in more creative ways – using multimedia, incorporating datasets to support results For institutions: Provides a ‘shop window’ highlighting your research outputs Usage stats indicate who is using your research outputs The Online Toolkit provides guidance on establishing e-thesis repositories and participating in EThOS. Working with a broad partnership of institutions to ensure that end-product meets the needs and addresses concerns of the academic community.
- #18 The Archival Sound Recordings project makes selections from the British Library Sound Archive available online for UK universities and colleges. (click) It is funded by the JISC, which stands for the Joint Information Systems Committee. (click) The website offers a wide range of spoken word, music, wildlife and environmental sounds as well as related images. There are currently 4000 hours of recordings on the site and around 5000 more being added over the coming year. If you were to try to all listen to all these recordings for, say, 8 hours a day every day, it would take you a little over 3 years to hear everything. (click) You can access the website at www.sounds.bl.uk Anyone can use the site to browse recordings, and visit the British Library to listen in the reading rooms. (click) Members of licensed institutions can also stream and download recordings using an Athens login and password. You don’t need to be in your institution to do this – you can use your password to login from anywhere in the UK.
- #19 The collections include interviews with UK artists and designers, jazz musicians and scientists, radio programmes and public debates, classical and world music, wildlife recordings and sounds of the natural and industrial world. Unique and previously unpublished material, such as African field recordings and oral history collections are being made widely accessible for the first time. Collections which are not on the website yet, but are being prepared in the current phase of the project include: the ICA talks – a series of public talks given at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in the 1980’s by leading cultural and political figures Living Memory of the Jewish Community in Britain and Pre-1957 recordings of works by Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Haydn and Bach
- #21 This slide (apart from the blue box) is taken from a class given to Level 2 photography students at Joseph Priestley College. The tutor found the resource a good way to introduce students to the kind of research skills they’d need for good marks at Level 3.
- #22 Samuel Kahunde is a researcher from Sheffield University, who has been using the Wachsmann Ugandan field recordings to support his PhD researching the royal music of Bunyoro. Although instruments for this music survive, many of the forms have died out – there are no more living practitioners of the style. Samuel has been consulting with Ugandan officials and the king of the Bunyoro tribe about revitalising these lost traditions, drawing in part on the recordings held on Archival Sound Recordings. “The Oral History of Recorded Sound collection provides valuable interviews with those directly involved in the development of stereo recording technique and commercial decision making, says Ewan. “As periods of technical experimentation, the processes are often poorly documented and these first hand accounts provide an invaluable insight into the methods employed,”
- #23 Archival Sound Recordings is an important tool for teaching, learning and research. (click) Audio recordings can bring classes to life, and give students new insight into a subject ( click) You can develop your students’ research skills through exploring the website (click) Researchers can find a wealth of primary source material to bring originality to their work (click) The service provides easy access to unique material which simply cannot be found anywhere else
- #28 The evaluation is being carried out by UCL. The findings will come out at same time as the Libraries of the Future project will also report on its 18 month study.