The British Library's digital scholarship training programme aims to enhance staff expertise in digital research by providing hands-on, practical workshops that encourage collaboration and incorporate external insights. Launched in November 2012, it includes 15 core courses covering topics such as digital collections, data visualization, and social media, with positive feedback indicating effective delivery and content. Ongoing evaluations suggest a need for broader course offerings and the development of training resources that further engage staff beyond initial training experiences.

1. Digital Scholarship
Training Programme at
the British Library
Dr James Baker
Curator, Digital Research
@j_w_baker

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Objectives
By staff for staff (with a role for external expertise)
Redefine the role of BL in taking an active approach to digital research
Increase awareness of the digital tools and methodologies researchers use
Increase ability to shape digital services
Increase confidence in establishing collaborations with external partners
for supporting digital research

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Design and Development
Surveyed the current literature, primarily around DH, and the skills which
academics were acquiring by attending pertinent training courses and
conferences and reviewing open syllabi and course materials
Sought out scholars working at the intersection of computing and
scholarship and joined them for informal chats about their research
Drafted individual briefs and learning outcomes for what would become
our core offering of 15 one-day courses.
Each team member took responsibility for managing a set of the courses
and worked with our internal advisory board and external institutions on the
leading edge of digital scholarship to finalise the courses
Bought a suite of laptops and negotiated management terms with IT

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Principles
Deliver from the library practitioner perspective and highlight the
Library’s current work, or potential for supporting digital research
Focus on wider concepts, methods and processes (rather than teaching tools)
Deliver hands-on practical and collaborative elements
Courses aimed at “intelligent novices”, colleagues aware of the concepts
but haven’t had the time, space or opportunity to explore them in depth
Deliver a one-day workshop onsite rather than online guide or webinar.
Alert colleagues to what is happening outside the Library, rather than stay
solely within boundaries of current British Library policies and practices.
Develop spaces for capturing rich and informative feedback

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Initial Programme on launch in November 2012 (to run twice
annually)
1. What is Digital Scholarship?
2. Digital Collections at British Library
3. Digitisation at British Library
4. Communicating our collections online: access & reuse
5. Crowdsourcing in Libraries, Museums and Cultural Heritage Institutions
6. Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
7. Data Visualisation for Analysis in Scholarly Research
8. Geo-referencing and Digital Mapping

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Initial Programme on launch in November 2012 (to run twice
annually)
9. Information Integration: Mash-ups, API’s and The Semantic Web
10. Social Media: Introduction to Yammer, Twitter, and Blogging
11. Working collaboratively
12. Presentation skills: From PowerPoint to Prezi
13. Foundations in working with Digital Objects: From Images to A/V
14. Behind the Screen: Basics of the Web
15. Metadata for Electronic Resources: Dublin Core, METS, MODS, RDF,
XML

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Between November 2012 - March 2014:
–50 course days delivered
–245 individual members of staff attended one or
more
–653 seats filled
–3 courses attended pp on average

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But things had to change…
Have you any other specific comments that can help us improve this
course?
“Having different courses for those who have never used it [Twitter]“
"A brief and casual discussion between the presenter and attendees
about what if any experiences they have, had using Social Media.
Good or Bad."
Have you any other specific comments that can help us improve the Digital
Scholarship Training Programme or suggestions for courses you would like
to see added?
"Course which cover MOOCs and Virtual Learning Environments."
"Practical sessions to test and improve existing BL presentations?"

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Out
– Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
– Social Media: Introduction to Yammer, Twitter, and Blogging
– Working collaboratively
– Presentation skills: From PowerPoint to Prezi
In
– Cleaning up Data
– The Programming Curator
– Managing Personal Digital Research Information
– Digital Research Clinic (every Friday 2-3 at our team area)

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What did you most enjoy about the day?
"The handouts are really useful for future reference, checking out
information later and 'playing' with some of the software.“
"It is good to have been given the information sheets which are clear
and easy to digest and excellent reference material; a good reminder
of what was covered and will help me build on what I learnt and
investigate further. The delivery was very clear and well structured and
paced. [...] The practical exercise."

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What did you learn during today's sessions that you anticipate using in your
work?
"The course was excellent to broaden my horizon and general
knowledge. Immediate application may be not an adequate measure of
success in this case."
What did you most enjoy about the day?
"Quite a challenging course with a lot of information to absorb - now
motivated to find out more about subject."

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What did you most enjoy about the day?
"Hearing really knowledgeable colleagues impart interesting
information about the collections."
What did you most enjoy about the day?
"The fact that the trainer had practical skills and expertise that she
made relevant to our situation in the library. Her approach was very
supportive, friendly and knowledgeable. I also enjoyed making
contact with London curators and colleagues who I don't often get
to meet face to face. I've arranged to liaise with a London curator on
some dataset work, which is great."

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What next?
Reach out beyond early-adopters
Turn more of the trained into the trainers
Change angle of external perspective
Develop replicable toolkit
Turn the programme outward

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Thank you!
@j_w_baker
james.baker@bl.uk
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/
Slides: slideshare.net/drjwbaker http://slidesha.re/1pWeD2K