BL Labs Presentation to the Chinese Academy of Social Sceinces
BL Labs Presentation to Michigan State Students
63
1 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc Engaging and Supporting Researchers who want to use the British Library’s Digital Collections and Data Examples and Lessons from the British Library Labs Project Mahendra Mahey 1400 – 1440, Tuesday, 14 th June 2016, Meeting Room H, British Library, London. Presentation to students of Michigan State University, Part of ‘Technology, Humanities, and the Arts in London’ http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Transcript of BL Labs Presentation to Michigan State Students
1 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Engaging and Supporting Researchers who want to use the British Library’s Digital Collections and DataExamples and Lessons from the British Library Labs ProjectMahendra Mahey
1400 – 1440, Tuesday, 14th June 2016,Meeting Room H, British Library, London.Presentation to students of Michigan State University,Part of ‘Technology, Humanities, and the Arts in London’
http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
2 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Overview
Interestingexamples
ExperiencesChallenges
Lessons LearnedWorking and Communicating
Researchershttps://goo.gl/WutNyi
Artistshttp://goo.gl/nNKhQ2
LibrariansCurators
https://goo.gl/9NWZUW
Software Developershttps://goo.gl/7QQ5Tf
Archivistshttps://goo.gl/x7b4tg Educators
https://goo.gl/qh01Mi
3 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
The British Library
Inside the British LibrarySpace for 1200 readers, around 400,000 visitors per year
Uses low oxygen and robotsReading room and delivery to London
Document Supply and Storage at Boston Spa
Stockton-on-TeesAuthor right to payment each time their books
are borrowed from public libraries.
St Pancras, London, UKMany books are stored 4 stories below the buildingLegal Deposit Library – Reference only
4 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
British Library - Not just books!> 180* million items
> 0.8* m serial titles
> 8* m stamps
> 14* m books
> 3* m sound recordings> 4* m maps
> 1.6* m musical scores
> 0.3* m manuscripts
> 60* m patents
King’s Library *Estimates
5 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
http://www.bl.uk/projects/british-library-labsFunded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
6 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
#bldigital1-2 %* digitised
* estimate
Digitisation
Partnerships Commercial & Other Organisations
Amountincreasing rapidly
Bias in digitisation
http://goo.gl/bR9UJL Sample Generator
7 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
digitalData all around us!
/
Knowledge Quarter London55 knowledge organisations within 1 mile radius of Kings Cross
http://www.knowledgequarter.london
https://goo.gl/pGO7QY
digitalData all around us!
8 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
only in Reading
Rooms due to ©
only on site due to
© or ethical etc
not online / available –
various storage devices,
personal data
online and open
British Library
online behind paywall
Challenges of Digital access at the Library
9 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Finding Open Digital Collections• No easy search, so…
Where is it, is it accessible?
• Licensing?Internal Access and Reuse and Licensing Group (Risk assessment group – Strategic, Commercial, Copyright, Curatorial, Technical Stakeholders all have a say)
• Curated? Learn the story behind a collection!Is there a human who knows the ‘story’ about the collection, who wants it used, are there any surprises lurking?
• Metadata available? What state is it and does it need cleaning?
https://goo.gl/Qjeqo1
https://goo.gl/Kfc4qc
10 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Playbills, Books, Newspapers (includes OCR)
Digital collections and Datasets
British National Bibliography
http://bnb.data.bl.uk
http://sounds.bl.ukhttp://dml.city.ac.uk/
Music (Recordings & Sheet) & Sounds
http://goo.gl/frSMJt
Broadcast News (TV and Radio)http://goo.gl/cwThHw
http://goo.gl/pBkisZhttp://goo.gl/E8aRyQ
Usage dataImages, Manuscripts & Maps
http://www.qdl.qa/
Qatar Digital Libraryhttp://idp.bl.uk/
International Dunhuang
Project
Mapshttp://www.bl.uk/maps/
Hebrew Manuscriptshttp://goo.gl/4sbCp9
Flickr & Wikimedia Commons
https://goo.gl/LZRmaZ
11 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
http://www.bl.uk/subjects/digital-scholarship
http://labs.bl.uk/Digital+CollectionsOver 100 collections described
62 Open through Access and Reuse
Soon…http://data.bl.ukNo easy way to search though (yet)
Over 120 guides available to date
Finding Digital Collections
12 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
The Digital Scholar
Digital
NetworkedOpen
From Digital Scholar : How technology is transforming scholarly practice, Martin Weller, Bloomsbury Academic, 2011, page 4
Specialist who employs digital, networked and open approaches to demonstrate their specialism.
13 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Distant Reading
https://goo.gl/ln04pM
Adam Crymble
14 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Digital research methods
Visualisations
Using Application Programming Interfaces for datasets e.g. Metadata, Images Annotation
Location based searching & Geo-tagging CrowdsourcingHuman Computation
15 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Wider Audience
Researchershttps://goo.gl/WutNyi
Artistshttp://goo.gl/nNKhQ2
LibrariansCurators
https://goo.gl/9NWZUW
Software Developershttps://goo.gl/7QQ5Tf
Archivistshttps://goo.gl/x7b4tg Educators
https://goo.gl/qh01Mi
16 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Your Audience and You
Audience research &
Digital interests
Digital collections you have
This is where Labs worksIt starts with a conversation!Only a small amount of content is digitised!
Might not be the treasure expected at the end of a digital journey!
17 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
How?
18 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Competition
Awards
Projects
Tell us your ideas of what to do with our digital content
Show us what you have already done with our digital content
Talk to us about working on collaborative projects
19 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
•Submit ideas by April.•Two finalists announced late May.
•Residency June – October.•Up to £3600 support, technical, curatorial etc.
•Showcase @ Symposium Nov.
•Winner £3000 & Runner up £1000!
Competition
20 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
•Projects already using BL digital content in interesting and innovative ways.
•Submit projects (previous and new) by 5 September 2016.
•Artistic, Commercial, Research and Learning / Teaching categories.
•Winners announced @Symposium 7 Nov 16.
•£500 Winner & £100 Runner Up.
Awards
21 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Projects• Ideas change once you try to access, examine and use the data!
•Talk to us about working on potential ideas / projects.
22 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Who?
23 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Competition
24 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Finding things in messy data
Mrs Folly• Clean up manually• Get ‘ground truth’• Write code to find things
reliably in it automatically• Try code on messy content• Tweak if necessary
25 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Katrina Navickas (2015) Political Meetings Mapper
http://politicalmeetingsmapper.co.ukhttps://goo.gl/Qq78Oa
Labs Symposium 2015
https://goo.gl/BSA3be
Interview 2015
The Chartist Newspaperhttp://goo.gl/vOLSnH
Chartist Monster Meeting
26 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Chartists Un-CoveredHistory in London
The Red Lion Pub, SohoChartists Re-enactment
Chartist’s Meeting Locations in London
Chartist’s Meetings Heatmap in London
Chartist’s London Walking Tour 21 Sep 15
27 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Chartists Re-enactment London
https://goo.gl/BSA3be
28 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Victorian Meme Machine (2014)
https://goo.gl/HMqDt3
Bob Nicholson
http://victorianhumour.tumblr.com/
29 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
http://victorianhumour.tubmblr.com
Victorian HumourPublic Engagement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GRgj7Q5OM0
Rob Walker, Victorian Mother-in-law Jokes
Bob Nicholson interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Making History Programme:
http://goo.gl/fmV9ep
And telling jokes to the public:http://goo.gl/xIDRhz
30 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Rob WalkerVictorian Mother-in-law Jokes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GRgj7Q5OM0
31 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Awards
32 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Commercial (2015)Etsy project by Dina Malkova
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DinaMalkova
https://goo.gl/OfJujM
Labs Symposium 2015http://goo.gl/pbxZUv
33 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Commercial (2015) Runner UpSarah Wingate-Gray and Kate Lomax
http://goo.gl/s1dVSC
34 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/spatialhum.wordpress/
Labs Symposium 2015: https://goo.gl/ZCU56a
Research (2015)Spatial Humanities: Lancaster University
Combining Text and Geographic Informationhttp://goo.gl/yZ3xCJ
Investigating geographical representation of disease in digitised 19th Century newspapers
35 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
What can 65,000books tell us?
Image: Artwork by Alicia Martin
Just one digital collection
36 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Worked better for female faces than men’s
Press
http://mechanicalcurator.tumblr.comPosts image every 30 minutes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/
1,020,418 imagesneed tagging!
Creative uses of images
Face recognition
Mechanical Curator
http://goo.gl/qPPgxX
Flickr
Snipping out imagesfrom 65,000 Digitised Books*
>400,000,000 views
>500,000 tags
https://goo.gl/FgZ4HM
Work @ BL by Ben O’Steen, Labs
and Digital Research Team*Matt Prior - http://goo.gl/j29Tnx
37 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Opportunities – increasing traffic to Library services
You can purchase a ‘High Res’ Copy
View in the Library Item Viewer
Download .pdfAll illustrations
in book
Other illustrations in booksPublished in same year
View the item in the Library Catalogue Tags auto generated
User generatedTag
Grouping for image
Work @ BL by Ben O’Steen, Labs
and Digital Research Team
38 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Visibility - Technology Strategy Board Competition Winner 2014
Understanding value / impact of making the BL’s data open / in the public domain
Analytics dashboard for the Library showing what is happening to our Flickr Images
Presentation: https://goo.gl/phtgqv
Challenge details: http://goo.gl/Hb6l4A
39 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Tagging a million imagesIterative Crowdsourcing
http://goo.gl/j6fxac
Cardiff University’sLost Visions Project
http://www.metadatagames.org/
Metadata Games
James Heald
Mario Klingemann
Chico 45
Use computational methods
Human Tagger
Top British Library Flickr Commons Taggers
http://goo.gl/8SkfM1
Machine LearningSearch Engine
& Google Imagesearch
40 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Curious Images Event 2014https://goo.gl/ubL0AO
Labs Symposium 2015https://goo.gl/gRZ5Ia
44 Men who Look 44(Notice the direction faces)
Tragic Looking Women
Collage Art
Artistic (2015)Mario Klingeman - Quasimondo
Blog post: http://goo.gl/dM8ieA
A Hat on the GroundSpells trouble
41 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Special Jury’s Prize (2015)James Heald – Wikimedia and Map work
https://goo.gl/WYZCB2
http://goo.gl/HNQq5e
https://goo.gl/VPgffL
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
https://goo.gl/djtm1b
Labs Symposium (2015)Geotagging maps
42 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Adam Crymble (2015)Crowdsource Arcade
What if crowd sourcing
looked like this?
http://goo.gl/LBfJ4W
http://goo.gl/OH9pOZ
https://goo.gl/7z0j8p
30 mins talkLabs Symposium (2015)
https://goo.gl/SSRsdd
5 min interview (2015)
http://goo.gl/0APpE8
Game Jam
43 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Art Treachery and Tag Attack
https://goo.gl/vVMPuL
Art TreacheryJanuz Druz
Tag AttackAntonio Padial
https://goo.gl/engC6A
44 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
David Normal
https://youtu.be/Q3SBxO34Zlc
‘It was beyond my wildest dreams’
45 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Finding one image on Flickr
Finding many more!Make collagesMake 4 paintingsExhibit light boxes at Burning Man 2014
In Nevada USA
Work with Labs & British Library to installLight boxes in London
In 2015
Where did we put it?
46 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Let’s have a party!Exhibited from June to Nov 2015
20th June 2015
Music mix by DJ Yoda using British Library Sounds: https://goo.gl/z3k4JT
David Normal’s Art work: http://www.crossroadsofcuriosity.com & http://www.davidnormal.com
Images from Burning Man and Flickr brought into the Poet’s Circle
Physical
DigitalDigital
Physical
47 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
By Kestrel Moon https://goo.gl/QilqqT
Animating static images
48 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Challenges
49 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Starting a ConversationLanguage Problems
•Finding the intersection…
•Misunderstood words–Access–Collections–Content–Crowdsourcing
•Different cultures
interestsDigital
Collections
This is where Labs works
50 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Messy data[stuff goes in here]
•Metadata isn’t as clean as many
•Square brackets to indicate inferred information
•Code to plot when a record had square brackets by Ben O’Steen
51 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
19th Century holdings
52 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Messy dataOptical Character Recognition
Real problems to solve, needs innovation!
53 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Simple Data structures (if only)
•Everything has a link
•links to page which tells you about the thing
•Link to other things
•Links readable by machine not just a human
•Not there yet!
•Not easily searchable
54 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Get the data to them however
•Internet / APIs (not there yet completely)
•Post hard drives
•Don’t worry about cleaning it up, it will never be perfect!
•Just get them in…or go to them!
55 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Training / Teaming up with Expert?•Many have the domain knowledge but lack the technical skills to use Digital methods
•Should our support be more focused on training?
•There are plenty of computational experts looking for problems to solve
•Should they be teamed up with those that have problems that need solving?
56 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Why is the Library doing this?
57 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
SupportingDigital Experiments better
BL Labs Git Hub Site Re-OCRing Newspapers Flickr API
BL Explore – Search Catalogue Python Code
Library is a place of Digital tooNot just books!
58 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
only in Reading
Rooms due to ©
only on site due to
© or ethical
not online / available –
various storage devices,
personal data
online and open
British Library
online behind paywall
Digital access at the Library
Labs Residency ModelLet them in!
https://goo.gl/tvNVRB
http://goo.gl/ii0XHG
59 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Lessons…1
•Huge appetite to use digital content & data (e.g. Flickr Commons stats)
•Identifying / bridging gaps for who wants to use data, digital collections.
•Can help navigate through the Library to get the data they want.
60 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Lessons…2
• Start conversations, first small / simple, but think big!
• Let those with interest, skills and willing to accept a little pain (sometimes) i.e. mindset in!
• Embrace serendipity, work fast, give it energy.
• Learn the lessons, tell positive stories, move forward!
• Experiment and fail!
• Reject perfectionism, enemy of progress!
61 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Fear…
• Focus too much on perfection, never get anything done!
• Letting go of the emotional and psychological connection to “my” collection
• If collections are not used, what is the point?
• Incredible opportunities just by opening the door!
• Fear of failure seen as a negative thing.
62 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
Fail fasterSmall experiments!
https://goo.gl/Vlv3Yu Let yourself reboot!
63 @BL_Labs #bldigital http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
Engaging and Supporting Researchers who want to use the British Library’s Digital Collections and DataExamples and Lessons from the British Library Labs ProjectMahendra Mahey
1400 – 1440, Tuesday, 14th June 2016,Meeting Room H, British Library, London.Presentation to students of Michigan State University,Part of ‘Technology, Humanities, and the Arts in London’
http://goo.gl/KRkTLc
