The document describes the British Library Labs, including the challenges it addresses, who it works with, its projects, and use of digital collections. Some key points:
- BL Labs was founded in 2013 and addresses challenges like return on investment for digitization and how digital collections can be more openly used.
- It works with researchers, artists, librarians and more on over 200 projects involving sounds, maps, books and other collections.
- Projects follow a pattern of finding new things in data, unlocking hidden history, and celebrating discoveries. BL Labs aims to better understand use and impact of open data.
Interactive Powerpoint_How to Master effective communication
BL Labs Presentation to the British Library Development Team
1. 1@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
http://www.bl.uk/projects/british-library-labs
Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Running since March 2013
2. 2@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
Challenges it addresses
• Money spent on digitising / capturing digital – What’s the return on investment?
How is it being used and what value and impact it is having, especially when
opening collections for all? How can that be made into a business and usual
service?
• 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?
3. 3@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
4. 4@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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 @BL_DigiSchol
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*
>1000,000,000* views
>17,500,000* 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
7. 7@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
8. 8@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
9. 9@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
10. 10@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
11. 11@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
Virtual Reality with Unity 3D
13. 13@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
Experiments with Data Mining,
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Frederick
Douglass
Ellen
Craft
Josiah
Henson
Ida B
Wells
14. 14@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
#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/
15. 15@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
Have you got X?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Real_wuerzburg.jpg
Looking for Physical Content in the British Library
16. 16@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
17. 17@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
Our Audience and Collections
Audience
research &
Digital
interests
Digital
collections we
have
This is where Labs works
It starts with a conversation!
18. 18@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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 you’re 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?
19. 19@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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 …
20. 20@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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
21. 21@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
How are doing this?
We support research - it’s our job!
We are listening to users so that we can:
• Understand their requirements (so we can
support research and build a scaleable
service)
• Help us build a business model (which allows
the service to continue)
22. 22@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
By listening to you, we are trying to learn how we
can provide the best service to support your
research.
Every project is different - your requirements shape
the problems we work on, such as:
How are doing this?
• Access to digital collections and data?
• Advice, guidance, technical support, training?
• Services, Tools and Processes?
• Many more reasons…
23. 23@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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 @BL_DigiSchol
• 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
Researchers / Artists / Entrepreneurs / Educators 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 @BL_DigiSchol
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 @BL_DigiSchol
We are a small team!
- What if all of you want to come and work with us?
We want to encourage larger volumes of researchers!
- We need a ‘Business as Usual’ scaleable service…
We need funding – external and internal sources
- We need to create a Business Model
The Future of BL Labs
Business
Model
Scaleable
Services
27. 27@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
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?
28. 28@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
Phases of interaction at BL Labs
Submit idea
for support
Ideas always change
Once people experience the data
and culture of the organisation
31. 31@BL_Labs @britishlibrary @labs@bl.uk @BL_DigiSchol
Summary…
1. Labs tries to start a conversation, generate positive energy, 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
Hinweis der Redaktion
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!
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 theLibrary 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.
2 seconds (5 words)
Why are we doing this?
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!