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Experiences and lessons learned through British Library Labs How have we engaged researchers, artists, entrepreneurs in using our digital collections?
- 1. 1@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ 1100 - 1130, Thursday, 17th May 2018, Part of Plenary Session ‘Cultural Innovation: experiences from the field’, CAMP iC4: A Breeding Ground for Useful Innovation, BASE Milano, Via Bergognone, 34, Milan, Italy Experiences and lessons learned through British Library Labs How have we engaged researchers, artists, entrepreneurs in using our digital collections? mahendra.mahey@bl.uk Mahendra Mahey, Manager of British Library Labs (BL Labs)
- 2. 2@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ http://www.bl.uk/projects/british-library-labs Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Running since March 2013
- 3. 3@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Challenges it addresses • Money spent on digitising / capturing digital – return on investment, how is it being used and what value and impact it is having, especially when opening collections for all. • What digital collections are there that can be used openly and onsite and how do we tell people? • How do we explore the feel / shape of collections at scale? • How do we find, explore, augment discovery in often ‘messy’ cultural heritage data without public APIs? • How do we discover, celebrate old culture & remix to create new culture?
- 4. 4@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Who do we work with? Researchers https://goo.gl/WutNyi Artists http://goo.gl/nNKhQ2 Librarians Curators https://goo.gl/9NWZUW Software Developers https://goo.gl/7QQ5Tf Archivists https://goo.gl/x7b4tg Educators https://goo.gl/qh01Mi Working and Communicating Examples Experiences Challenges Lessons Learned Entrepreneurs https://goo.gl/Fx8RG7
- 5. 5@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Example Pattern of Projects 1, 2, 3 1. Find / identify new things in messy stuff 2. Unlock hidden history / data 3. Celebrate new discoveries
- 6. 6@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ An example…
- 7. 7@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Worked better for female faces than men’s Press http://mechanicalcurator.tumblr.com Posts image every 30 minutes http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/ 1,020,418 images need tagging! Creative uses of images Face recognition Algorithms based on photos Mechanical Curator with an algorithmic brain (Circles, Squares and Slanty etc) http://goo.gl/qPPgxX Wikimedia Flickr Commons Individual URL & API Snipping out images from 65,000 Digitised Books* >800,000,000* views >17,000,000* tags https://goo.gl/FgZ4HM Work @ BL by Ben O’Steen, Labs & Digital Research Team*Matt Prior - http://goo.gl/j29Tnx Since Dec 2013 Tumblr *Estimates >More demand to see physical items
- 8. 8@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Tagging a million images Iterative Crowdsourcing James Heald Mario Klingemann Chico 45 Use computational methods Human Tagger Top British Library Flickr Commons Taggers 18 hard core taggers How to reward and keep motivated this ‘small group? Average for ‘crowd – 500K’ is 1 tag per person What kind of ‘task’ can this ‘crowd’ do? 50,000 Maps found, >30,000 georeferenced http://goo.gl/0APpE8Sherlocknet http://goo.gl/HNQq5e Crowdsource Arcade
- 9. 9@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Visibility Understanding value / impact of making the BL’s data open / in the public domain Peter Balman developed an analytics dashboard for the Library showing what is happening to our open Images Challenge details: http://goo.gl/Hb6l4A
- 10. 10@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ http://goo.gl/dM8ieA Mario Klingeman Code Artist / Curator http://goo.gl/bNxGZZ Kris Hoffman Animation for Fashion Week https://goo.gl/QilqqT Jiayi Chong - Animation tool https://www.facebook.com/RealmlandStory/ Paul Rand Pierce Graphic Novel on Facebook Tragic Looking Women 44 Men who Look 44 (Notice the direction faces) A Hat on the Ground Spells trouble Artistic / Creative Works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SBxO34Zlc David Normal Collages/Paintings & Lightboxes
- 11. 11@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Hey there Young Sailor! Ling Low – Hey there Young Sailor (Malaysia) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcOP1E5bRE0VIMEO.COM/SWEETANDLOWFILMS @SWEETNLOWFILMS ON INSTAGRAM @SWEETNLOWLING ON TWITTER The Impatient Sisters
- 12. 12@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Imaginary Cities Exhibition 2019 (Michael Takeo Magruder) An artistic exploration seeking to create provocative fictional cityscapes for the Information Age from the British Library’s digital collection of historic urban maps
- 13. 13@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Alanna Hilton British Fashion Colleges Council and Teatum Jones 2018
- 14. 14@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Experiments with Data Mining & Machine Learning Frederick Douglass Ellen Craft Josiah Henson Ida B Wells
- 15. 15@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ #bldigital 3 %* digitised * estimate Digital Partnerships Commercial & Other Organisations Bias in digitisation http://goo.gl/bR9UJL Sample Generator 15 %* Openly Licensed – most online 85 %* Available onsite only at the moment Digitisation / Curating Born Digital costs money, time, resources http://www.turing.ac.uk Digital increasing rapidly Born Digital http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/
- 16. 16@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Have you got X? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Real_wuerzburg.jpg Looking for Physical Content in the British Library
- 17. 17@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Have you got X digitised / in digital form? http://www.yorkmix.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mr-simms-sweet-shoppe-york.jpg Looking for Digitised / Digital Content in the BL
- 18. 18@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Our Audience and Collections Audience research & Digital interests Digital collections we have This is where Labs works It starts with a conversation!
- 19. 19@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ https://goo.gl/qpCLlk https://goo.gl/wMTS3Z • Dialogue typically: – you are ‘lucky’ & we have the digital content / data relevant to your project – we don’t have exactly what your looking for, but is there anything of interest? Let’s talk… – engagement can be hard work and it’s constantly required to maintain interest in our digital collections! • We also tend to attract projects with ‘fuzzier’ boundaries and possibly open to more interdisciplinary / collaborative research • Artists / Creatives find this dialogue easier… What engagement does the BL have with people wanting use our digital content?
- 20. 20@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ The Story of the Digital Collection… Digital Collection Curator Who paid for the digitisation? Who did the digitisation? Technology used Born digital? Published Unpublished Where is it? Access / API? Can it still be accessed? Generates income Reputational risk in using? Legalities / Ethics / Morality Politics when digitised Personalities involved Surprises (e.g. gaps) Descriptive information Old format not supported What media was the digitisation done from? Is there any background documentation? No Descriptive information Inconsistent descriptive information Still there? Good to know the background ‘story’ of a Digital Collection if you want to use it for projects …
- 21. 21@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Why are doing this? (1) We support research it’s our job! We want to work closely with and listening to those who want use our digital collections and data for their work! Listen to your users! https://goo.gl/esqpRb
- 22. 22@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ We can learn how we are and should be supporting you and this therefore shapes the problems and projects we work on, such as: https://goo.gl/esqpRb Why are doing this? (2) • Access, discovery to digital collections / data? • Advice, guidance, technical support, training • Services, Tools and Processes? • Many more reasons…
- 23. 23@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Where are the gaps between what people want & what we can give? How do we build the bridges to overcome the gaps? Why are doing this? (3) https://goo.gl/6CwCeE
- 24. 24@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ How do we help people ‘navigate’ their way through the ‘maze’ (sometimes) of the Library to what they want to do? Requires understanding the culture of the organisation Cultural entrepreneurs often need a translator/advocate for successful projects. Learn to wear the spectacles of the organisation, read their vision/strategy documents! https://goo.gl/62JnQT Why are doing this? (4)
- 25. 25@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Living Knowledge Vision (2015 – 2023) Custodianship Research Business Culture Learning International To make our intellectual heritage accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment and be the most open, creative and innovative institution of its kind by 2023 (50 year anniversary). Document:http://goo.gl/h41wW7 Speech:https://goo.gl/Py9uHK Roly Keating (Chief Executive Officer of the British Library) To make our intellectual heritage accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment and be the most open, creative and innovative institution of its kind by 2023 (50 year anniversary).
- 26. 26@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Competition Awards Projects Tell us your ideas of what to do with our digital content (2013-16) Show us what you have already done with our digital content in research, artistic, commercial, learning and teaching, staff categories Talk to us about working on collaborative projects Tell us your ideas of what to do with our digital content Engagement • Roadshows • Events • Meetings • Conversations New! Digital Research Support How?
- 27. 27@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Phases of interaction at BL Labs Submit idea for support Ideas always change Once people experience the data and culture of the organisation
- 28. 28@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Huge appetite to use digital content & data for anyone’s ideas! (e.g. Flickr Commons stats). Huge demand for open digital content… https://goo.gl/yQ5s4U
- 29. 29@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Summary… 1. Labs tries to start a conversation, generate positive energy, is nice/kind, encourages fun/play/experimentation and tries to support ideas. 2. Start with small experiments, use can be really simple, but OK to think big! 3. Fail faster (don’t be afraid) and persevere. 4. Reject perfectionism! Good enough is sometimes…good enough! 5. Services that allow useful exploration of cultural heritage data are rare! 6. Exploring data is difficult to do with large datasets and often requires specific skills and capabilities that many of our users don’t have – training or collaborations? 7. Celebrate the uses of digital collections, tell the world! 8. Success is sometimes all about the right people, place & right time… https://goo.gl/noASfl
- 30. 30@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @FitzcarraldoFon https://goo.gl/ Startup success can be largely about timing… https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gross_the_single_biggest_reason_why_startups_succeed
Editor's Notes
- 90 seconds (270 words) I manage a project at the British Library called British Library Labs or ‘BL Labs’ for short. It’s made up of a team of 4 people and we also work occasionally with our Digital Research and Digital Scholarship colleagues. The project’s been running for over 4 years and is kindly supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the BL. <CLICK> I am going to take you on a journey so that you learn about our experiences of working with the BL‘s digital collections. I will identify issues, challenges, problems and solutions we have encountered and look at the impact our work is having. I will show you how and why we have engaged with a range of people using our data, highlighting their work and findings, and present some of the lessons we have learned and examine the wider impact of the project on the Library and other organisations.<CLICK> A link to download my presentation appears on the bottom of each slide and for those of you using social media I have also included some relevant tags if you would like to tweet.
- 23 seconds (71 words) Though the project focusses on working and communicating with Digital Humanities and Digital Scholarship researchers, we have also engaged with amazing Artists, Librarians, Curators, Educators, Entrepreneurs, Archivists, Software Developers and other innovators. Hopefully, I will show you<CLICK> some inspirational examples of work they have done which have used our digital collections.<CLICK> I will also reflect on our experiences, challenges and lessons we have learned working with some amazing and pioneering people.
- Posts small illustrations taken almost at random from the digitised book corpus to a Tumblr blog. This experiment with undirected engagement was a by-product of work to uncover the hidden wealth of illustrations within the digitised pages.
- Add image of Peter Balman
- 24 seconds (72 words) The BL are world renowned experts in digitising materials from our physical holdings. One common misconception that many people have is that much if not all of our collections are digitised. So, the actual proportion of our collections that are digitised surprises many<CLICK> The figure is around 3% of our physical collections.<CLICK> Much of our digitisation activity happens through partnerships with commercial, philanthropic, charitable and foundation partners<CLICK> What is for certain, is the amount we are digitising is increasing rapidly. Our new programme called Heritage Made Digital for example prioritises those collections for digitisation where there is a clear researcher demand.<CLICK> One important thing we have learned is that researchers need to take heed when doing research based on our digital collections, as they are rarely complete, having gaps and not necessarily being representative of our physical collections.
- 28 seconds (85 words) This what I imagine it feels like for a researcher looking for our physical collections. <CLICK> Everything is on an industrial scale and it can feel overwhelming. Sometimes it isn’t always straightforward to find our items, as there are many that are not on our digital library catalogue, e.g. still on card catalogues and some items are in the secret and very secure parts of the Library where you would need very special permission because the items are extremely valuable and fragile for example.
- 36 seconds (109 words) Our digital offering is perhaps like this.<CLICK> Imagine entering a boutique sweet shop. We have some lovely things to tempt you, but it’s much smaller than the hypermarket you just visited. The shop keeper tells you there are some things behind the back door in a giant warehouse. However, you will need special access to enter that space. She also states that there are rooms in that warehouse, even she isn’t allowed to look. She isn’t even allowed to share the full list of stock because there are items on there she may never be able to be see because they were meant to be secret.
- 12 seconds (37 words). In another way, we are trying to match our audiences research needs and digital interests <CLICK> With the digital collections we have<CLICK> It is at this intersection where Labs works best and it usually starts with a conversation.
- 49 seconds (148 words) So what kind of conversations do we have with researchers who may want to use our digital collections and data?<CLICK> The dialogue typically can be: ‘Ah, you are ‘lucky’ & we have the exact digital content / data relevant to your research’, informally we call these our ‘lucky dip researchers’.<CLICK> Or the conversation might go like this…’Ah, we don’t exactly have what you are looking for, but here is what we do have, is there anything of interest that you like? Let’s talk…<CLICK> We have learned that engagement can be hard work. But it’s constantly required to maintain interest in our digital collections because they aren’t all instantly discoverable on search engines.<CLICK> We also tend to attract researchers with ‘fuzzier’ and ‘flexible’ research boundaries and those who are possibly open to more interdisciplinary / collaborative research.<CLICK> Finally, we have found that artists find this dialogue easier.
- 41 words (125 seconds) Our work in Labs has taught us that it always pays for researchers to know the back ‘story’ of a digital collection especially if they want to use it for research and analysis.<CLICK> There are too many things to consider right now, but a few highlights are such as, ‘are there gaps in the collection?’, ‘can they still be accessed?’, but perhaps most important of all is whether the curator or a human being who knows about the collection is still around who could be asked about it. Our experience has told us that so much will probably be in their head that isn’t written down, information that could be vital, important and useful for knowing about before carrying out research or re-use.
- 9 seconds (28 words) We support research it’s our job! We want to work closely with and listening to those who want use our digital collections and data for their work!
- 13 seconds (39 words) We can learn how we are and should be supporting you and this therefore shapes the problems we work on, such as: Access to digital collections / data? Advice, guidance, technical support, training Services, Tools and Processes? Many more reasons…
- 7 seconds (22 words) Where are the gaps between what you want & what we can give? How do we build the bridges to overcome the gaps?
- 10 seconds (30 words) How do we help you ‘navigate’ their way through the ‘maze’ (sometimes) of the Library to what they want to do? It sometimes requires understanding the culture of the organisation
- 42 seconds (128 words) The Library focuses most of its work and collaborations through it’s 8 year Living Knowledge vision. Initiated in 2015, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Library, our vision is to make our intellectual heritage accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment and be the most open, creative and innovative institution of its kind by 2023. The Library’s two core purposes are to build, curate and preserve the UK national collection of published, written and digital content and to support and stimulate research of all kinds.<CLICK> We also support businesses helping them to innovate and grow, engaging everyone with memorable cultural experiences, inspiring young people and learners of all ages and working with international partners around the world to advance knowledge and mutual understanding.
- 24 seconds (72 words) Let’s look a little further at the types of interactions we have with our researchers. We have summarised these phases as ‘Exploration’ where people often ‘rethink’ their ideas of what they want to do with the data, ‘Query-Focused’ where they often have to iterate to come up with a realistic proposal of what they want to do and a ‘Wrap-up’ phase to end their project with us, if it is relevant.
- 15 seconds (47 Words) Start a conversation, generate positive energy, be nice, have fun and try to support ideas.<CLICK> Start with small experiments, but think big! <CLICK> Fail faster (don’t be afraid) and persevere. <CLICK> Reject perfectionism! Good enough is sometimes…good enough! <CLICK> Celebrate the uses of digital collections, tell the world!