Lecture talk by Masao Takaku at International Summer School of Informatics - Join Event by T3 Information Schools (Taiwan-Thailand-Tsukuba), September 8-9th, 2014

1. Helping Memory Institutions in the Networked Information Society
Masao Takaku
(University of Tsukuba)
masao@slis.tsukuba.ac.jp
@tmasao
International Summer School of Informatics
September 9th, 2014
Tsukuba, Japan
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2. Outline
•2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
•MLAK –Memory institutions
•Project “saveMLAK”
Wiki-based activities
Coordinating efforts
•Summary
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3. About me (Masao Takaku)
•University of Tsukuba
Associate Professor
Joined this school last year (2013).
Received PhD in Information Science (2004).
Research fields
Information Retrieval, Web Information Seeking Behavior, and Digital Library
•Before joining here, I worked for a national institute as a library engineer.
Development and operation on Web services such as a institutional repository.
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4. 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami
•March 11th, 2011. 14:46PM
Over 20,000 people were killed or missing.
400,000 houses were damaged.
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5. 5

6. What and how can we do?
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https://twitter.com/arg/status/46159899150925824
As a Librarian or library services, let’s think about what can we do NOW.

7. 7
https://twitter.com/tmasao/status/46423283620528128
NOW we are able to try to gather, provide and share information on the local community.

8. Crisis response with ICT
•Google Person Finder
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9. Crisis response with ICT (cont.)
•sinsai.info
Ushahidhi(Open source software)
+ OSM (Open Street Map)
+ Voluntary effort
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10. saveMLAKProject
1.Gathering information ofMLAK’s facilities in damaged areausing wiki (http://savemlak.jp)
2.Coordinating activities to rebuild the functions of MLAK.
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Museum
Library
Archives
Kominkan*
MLAK =
* community center.

11. 11
http://savemlak.jp

12. 12
Basic information (Facility template)
Free text information
(How much damages, operation notices, source of info., etc.)

13. Facility Template on saveMLAKWiki
•Name
•Transcription
•Address
•Longitude and Latitude
•Phone number
•FAX number
•Email address
•URL for Web site
•ISIL (International Standard Identifier for Libraries)
•Notes
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14. Some Statistics of saveMLAKWiki
•Pages: 30,000
•Contributors: 300
•Edits: 140,000
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15. Number of Pages on saveMLAKWiki
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0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
2011/4/1
2011/5/1
2011/6/1
2011/7/1
2011/8/1
2011/9/1
2011/10/1
2011/11/1
2011/12/1
2012/1/1
2012/2/1
2012/3/1
2012/4/1
2012/5/1
2012/6/1
2012/7/1
2012/8/1
2012/9/1
2012/10/1
2012/11/1
2012/12/1
2013/1/1
2013/2/1
2013/3/1
2013/4/1
2013/5/1
2013/6/1
2013/7/1

16. Number of Edits/Day on saveMLAKWiki
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0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200

17. Usages of saveMLAKWiki
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0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11
Dec-11
Feb-12
Apr-12
Jun-12
Aug-12
Oct-12
Dec-12
Feb-13
Apr-13
Jun-13
Visitors
Page Views

18. Components of saveMLAK
•Voluntary efforts and community to gather information.
Semantic MediaWiki
Pro-bono (professional + volunteer)
•Communication
Twitter –social media
Mailing list
MeetUp–online/offline meetings
Wiki –wiki style
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19. Open Data from saveMLAKWiki
•Datasets
Whole datasets by XML Dump
CC-BY-SA license
List of basic information of facililtiesby Tab Separated Value format
Public Domain
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20. Other activities of saveMLAKproject
•Support at several public libraries
MinamisanrikuTown Library
ICT support
Natori City Library
Coordination for building temporary library
KesennumaCity Library
•Cooperation with Prefecture Libraries
Agreement with Miyagi Prefecture Library
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21. Coordinating activities to rebuild the functions of MLAK (1)
•Temporary library buildings in NatoriCity Library
January 4th, 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/argeditor/6633697713
January 4th, 2013 http://www.flickr.com/photos/argeditor/8348064613/

22. Coordinating activities to rebuild the functions of MLAK (2)
•Books
MinamisanrikuTown Library
School libraries in
KesennumaCity, MinamisanrikuTown and others cities.
Octoter17, 2012
By MinamisanrikuTown Library’s staff

23. saveMLAK: Outcomes
•Pro-bono community
MeetUps-Every month 10-20 attendees
Tech, Project manager, Accounting, PR, etc.
•Cooperation with other organizations
Miyagi Prefecture Library, Natori City Library, MinamisanrikuTown Library
Japan Library Association, Tohoku University Library, Harvard University, Japan Philanthropy Association, iSPP, Internet Museum, National Federation of KominkanAssociations of Japan, etc.
•Awards
LOD Challenge 2011 Best Dataset Awards
Library of the Year 2012 (Japan) nominee
INFOSTA Good Organization Prize (2012)
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24. Lessons from my experiences
•Support the community
Information is essential to survive and reconstruct people’s daily lives after the crisis.
•Support librarians to work for the community
Networks of libraries beyond regions and institutions would be helpful.
Communication takes high costs.
Coordination efforts are the key to success.
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25. Summary
•Project “saveMLAK”
Using ICT technologies for supporting and rebuilding library services after the disaster.
Building community beyond the cultures of MLAK.
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