Giuseppe Sollazzo@puntofisso

How can IT systems and technologies be applied to Senate House Library,

with its unique volume, range and quality?7 November 2014

Senate House Library

Me

Senior Systems Analyst at SGUL

● IT Operations team leader● 250+ servers, 30K users● Library-related R&D

Ministerial Advisor on Open Data and Transparency

● Open Data User Group - Cabinet Office● Health and Social Care Transparency Panel - Dept of Health

Problem 1: Discovery

Search

● OPACs● Google-based approach

○ The more it knows you, the less it tells you● Discovery Tools

○ Summon, Primo, Ebsco Central…○ Popular with “normal” users: they look like Google

■ Advanced users don’t like “advanced search”

The “Answers People”

● By Essex County Council● Search as a human skill, through an IT medium

○ iterative and interactive

Research Approach

● Metadata is good, content is king● Big Data

○ what can we learn about our collections?● N-Grams, LDA, etc

○ novel ways to search for content○ analyse content to make search more interesting

Problem 2: Physical vs Virtual

The Big Issue for Libraries

● The world is increasingly digital● Not all digital is good

○ e.g. e-books can be used as a platform lock-in■ what about spreading culture?

● We still need physical space○ to store books○ to study○ to meet

Archiving

● Remote locations● Experimental solutions

○ Robots, Drones○ NFC, iBeacons

Digitisation

● Increase access to rare books● How?

○ Open standard/source as a way not to be locked in● Reaching out to users

○ “Libraries without Walls”■ Bringing libraries to public spaces

Library Box

Giuseppe Sollazzo20:02 Today

Resolve

Problem 3: Building Knowledge

Traditional Activities

● Deposit & Access● Networking● Serendipity

How do we use IT Systems in this context?

● Digital Scholarship

New methods

● Foster information literacy○ build participation○ run courses

● Extend access to resources○ MOOCs

● Digital Humanities○ OCR, Text Analysis, …

VIVO Web

● Semantic Web approach to encouraging networking● Linked Data● Machine-readable description of people, papers, etc…

Crowdsourcing

● British Museum: MicroPast○ Archaeological Research○ Tasks that need human intelligence

■ location of photographed scenes■ identification of subject matter in historic archives■ transcription of letters and catalogues

● Applications for digitised books

Conclusions

IT + Library

● “Blacksmiths of Knowledge”○ Traditional library service support○ Knowledge services ○ Data analysis○ Skills building

Open

Open Source

OpenCollaboration

Open Data

Open Access

Thanks!

Giuseppe Sollazzo@puntofisso

www.puntofisso.net

Open

Open Source

OpenCollaboration

Open Data

Open Access

Innovation

The Virtuous Loop

Search (books)

Data

ProduceKnowledge,

tools

Public vs Academic Libraries

● Public Libraries are laboratories of R&D○ meeting points for learning○ hackspaces, tinkering, making○ “we lend x”, where x is no longer just a book

● Academic Libraries have a traditional mission○ more difficult to innovate○ scholar-to-student○ book-oriented

Senate House Library Specificity

● Central University● Users● Humanities● Rare books● Large collections● Thesis deposit

Open Data

Open Data

● Share knowledge● Encourage people to join in the academic conversation● Opportunity for revenue streams

○ courses, apps, data visualization, sale of librarian skills● Research Data Management

○ bespoke, CKAN, … ○ what in a digital humanity context?