RIDE 2010 presentation - Supporting researchers at the British Library
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Transcript of RIDE 2010 presentation - Supporting researchers at the British Library
Supporting Researchers at the British Library
Dr Joanna Newman, Head of Higher Education
Centre for Distance Learning Conference
27 October 2010
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Introduction to the British Library
“We exist for everyone who wants to do research – for academic, personal or commercial purposes”
Our collections cover all known subject areas; sciences, technology, medicine, arts & humanities, social sciences…
We have a copy of every item published in the UK
Our collections cover all formats; sound, images, video, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, databases, books and journals, much more…
Researchers from Higher Education
30.5%
25.2%
14.6%
8.9%
8.9%
4.5%
2.7%
2.3%
1.6%
0.8%
UndergraduatesPostgraduatesAcademic staffSMEsPersonal researchersCreative industry researchersFurther education studentsCorporate researchersAuthors and writersPublic sector researchers
HE sector makes up 70.3% of BL Readers (UGs, PGs, academic staff).
Source: BL British Library internal reader admissions data for period Oct-06 to June-07.
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Supporting Higher Education
Partnership Projects:EthOSUK Research Reserve
Access to Collections:Archival Sound RecordingsBritish Library Newspapers Online
Understanding researcher behaviour:Google Generation reportResearchers of Tomorrow studyGrowing Knowledge Exhibition
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Supporting research
Social Sciences
Science, Technology & Medicine
Arts & Humanities
Document Supply service provides 1.4m articles/year primarily to scientists
Renewed engagement with researchers using digital content and online services
In-depth focus on biomedicine and energy/environment Collection includes journals, patents, theses and more, and
is updated by some 9,000 articles every day
A significant and underexploited international collection of books, journals, reports, theses, official publications and other materials
A unique collection of grey literature, of special interest to practitioners and theoreticians
Research collaboration with ESRC
Greatest research collection of its kind in the world World-class curatorial expertise by subject, medium and geographical area BL has been developing world-leading e-innovations for past decade (e.g. International
Dunhuang Project) and building a significant corpus of digitised texts Research collaboration with AHRC, British Academy and HEIs
Global changes affecting the research environment
New Technologies
New research methods
Growth of UK knowledge economy
Changes to researcher
expectations
Proliferation of information
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2
3
• Web 2.0/3.0• Mobile & interoperability• Display technologies
• Born digital• Mass digitisation• Rights management• Information & media literacy
• Want contact anytime, anywhere• Store, personalise, manipulate,
repurpose, share info with peers• New ways of relating to each
other and information• Different attitude to Intellectual
Property
• Entrepreneurialism & innovation• Creative Industries• Science, Media & Technology
• New subjects• Greater collaboration• Multiple formats, mash-up• Creative theory & creative
practice• Importance of ephemera• Students learn in a different
way to their teachers
TextText
VideoVideo
SoundSound
ImagesImages
Cross-disciplinaryCross-disciplinary
Cross-borderCross-border
Multi-authoringMulti-authoring
Non-linearNon-linear
EphemeraEphemera DynamicDynamic
Digital Literacy and changing researcher behaviour
The Google Generation study published in January 2008 claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web. It aslo concluded that -
All age groups revealed to share so-called ‘Google Generation' traits
Libraries still have to adapt to the digital mindset
Young people are seemingly lacking in information skills; strong message to the government and society at large
Researchers of Tomorrow:A three year JISC-BL study tracking the research behavior of ‘Generation Y’ doctoral students
Generation Y
Born 1982 – 1994Education partly
non-digital
Generation Z The ‘Google’ Generation
Born 1995 onwardsEducation digital
from start
A 3 year study into the information seeking and research behaviour of UK doctoral students born between 1982 and 1994
Builds on the findings of the ‘Google Generation’ report published in 2008
Focusing on behaviour of ‘Generation Y’ – unlike ‘Google Generation’, their school education was partly non-digital and internet-free
Commissioned by the British Library and the JISC
Education for Change Ltd and The Research Partnership commissioned to undertake the research
Study commenced February 2009 and will report in February 2012
Researchers of TomorrowPurpose of the report
Report conclusions and
recommendationswill…
Allow BL and JISC to determine how best to meet current and future needs of academic researchers
Provide guidance to libraries and information specialists on how to best meet research needs of Generation Y scholars and their immediate successors
Establish a benchmark for research behaviour against which subsequent generations of scholars can be measured
Reveal potential impact of changing research behaviour on HE institutions
1010
Results so far:The Wider Context Setting Survey – Key Findings
July 2009: 6,500 responses from 68 HEIs
38% of these were from Generation Y researchers
July 2010: 6,500 responses from 70 HEIs (results being analysed now)
Students are turning to their peers and supervisors for support rather than librarians and information specialists
Only a small proportion of respondents in any age group say they use ‘emergent technology (e.g. Web 2.0 applications) in their research
Interesting attitudes to Open Access More Generation Y than older scholars are likely to be working from office
space, laboratory or in their own institution, rather than their own home. Far fewer respondents have received any training in using more advanced
technology-based research resources and tools such as e-research methods, finding and using online datasets or working in virtual research environments.
Results confirmed by recent BL/HEPI report on the postgraduate landscape – www.bl/news/pgreport
Skills for the Future - National Postgraduate Training Days
Objectives
Promote awareness of the Library amongst postgraduate students
To introduce varied relevant collections to researchers
Remove perceived anxieties about the Library
Involve students and researchers from outside London
Provide valuable networking for students
Contribute to Robert’s skills agenda
305
532
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2007-8 2008-9
Over 1000 participants since Training Days began
Who attends National Postgraduate Training Days?
Attendees by location
Other
England (outsideLondon)
London
Scotland
Wales
Open uni
NI
Bursaries provided to encourage participants from outside London,
thanks to funding from key partners.
36% from London universities
64% from universities outside London
Institute for
Historical Research
Institute of
English Studies
Institute of Germanic
and Romance Studies
Key Funding Partners
Economic & Social
Research Council
What impact to National Postgraduate Training Days have?
38%
24%
77%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
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Already had a reader pass Currently use the BL ("Yes" only) Would use th BL in the future
38% of participants already had a readers pass
24% of participants currently use the Library
77% of participants said they would use the Library in the future.
What participants had to say about Postgraduate Training Days…
Exploring the collections
Networking opportunities
“Today has demolished a mental wall for me as I had (wrongly) felt too unimportant to use the BL. Thank you very much indeed for arranging the day and making it clear that ALL researchers are welcome. I shall acquire a Readers card and return immediately!”
“The facilities really are fantastic and an eye opener for me at the potential avenues for further research.”
“The programme was excellent, all staff involved were very interesting
and the event was well worth attending.”
“Everybody was down to earth and flexible in their approaches to using library resources. This I found to be particularly helpful as BL can seem intimidating.”
Is digital different? Digital resources for researchers: Ethos
EThOS: Provides free access to the research contained in doctoral
theses Offers a one-stop electronic shop for all UK theses Improves postgraduate knowledge transfer to students Creates an international showcase for the best of UK
research Enriches the UK and global knowledge pool Ensures a sustainable service for the future.
Ethos – Benefits
Benefits of e-theses online
For thesis authors: Your research is easily
available to the wider scholarly community.
E theses over 100 times more likely to be read than paper ones
You can present your research in more creative ways – using multimedia, incorporating datasets to support results.
For institutions: Provides a ‘shop
window’ highlighting your research outputs
Usage stats indicate who is using your research outputs
The Online Toolkit provides guidance on establishing e-thesis repositories and participating in EThOS.
Is digital different? Digital resources for researchers: Archival Sound Recordingswww.sounds.bl.uk
Available for
playback and
download
284institutions
signedup
Free to UKhigher and
furthereducation
Tens of thousands
of recordings
Browse, search,
locate on map
Over 21,000 recordingsselected from the
British Library Sound Archive Music,spoken word, environmental
sounds
Archival Sound RecordingsCollection highlights
Oral histories
World and traditional music
Classical Music
Wildlife vocalisationsSoundscapes
Sound Recording History
Archival Sound RecordingsSpecial Features
Browse recordingsby map
Add contextual comments
Mark favourite recordings
Add tags
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Archival Sound RecordingsEscaping Google
• Martine Franck
Martine Franck, interviewed by Amanda Hopkinson, Paris 1998Source: Archival Sound Recordings
http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0459X0104XX-0300V0.xml
“I found the audio fantastic to work with. The realism of it inspired students and encouraged them to source other material beyond Google searches.
As a tutor I maybe too often stand there and give my opinion about somebody’s work. Listening to interviews allows students to hear from the photographer themselves what’s behind the images.”
Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor, Joseph Priestley College
Archival Sound RecordingsPreserving global culture
Amakondere players: Samuel Kahunde 2008
“I found the audio fantastic to work with. The realism of it inspired students and encouraged them to source other material beyond Google searches. As a tutor I maybe too often stand there and give my opinion about somebody’s work. Listening to interviews allows students to hear from the photographer themselves what’s behind the images.”
Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor, Joseph Priestley College
“The Wachsmann Uganda Recordings are extremely useful. In Bunyoro kingdom for example, an official recently told me that they had instruments that are not played because nobody knows the skills and their music. I feel that the music can be restored through listening to the digital sounds that are in the British Library archives.”Samuel Kahunde, PhD ethnomusicology
student, Sheffield University
“The Oral History of Recorded Sound collection provides valuable interviews with those directly involved in the development
of stereo recording technique and commercial decision making. As periods of
technical experimentation, the processes are often poorly documented and these first hand accounts provide an invaluable insight
into the methods employed,”Ewan Gordon, PhD music technology
student, University of York
Archival Sound Recordings
For teachers Full of engaging, thought-
provoking material to provide enhance pedagogy
A valuable tool for teaching key skills to students
For researchers A rich collection of cross-
disciplinary, primary source material
A large selection of rare and unpublished material
Is digital different? Digital resources for researchers: British Library Newspapers Online
Online access to milliions of pages from the British Library’s unique collections
Free to licensed UK higher and further education
Pay-per-view model available for the public
Search entire text using advanced OCR (optical character recognition) technology
View scanned images of original newspapers and download pages
Bibliographic head notes for each title
Contextual essays by academic experts
Chronological timeline overviewDetail from ‘Latest incidents in Connection with the Doings of Jack the Ripper’ The Illustrated Police News 27 October 1888
17th to 18th Century Burney Collection
Titles include:
The Boston Gazette
The Bath Journal
Dawk’s Newsletter
Craftsman or Say’s Weekly Journal
The Calcutta Chronicle and General Advertiser
700 or so bound voulmes of newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Doctor Charles Burney (1757-1817)
1 million fully text-searchable pages
Newspapers, newsbooks, Acts of Parliament, addresses, broadsides, pamphlets and proclamations
Titles from London, British Isles and Colonies
Highlights:
The Great Fire of London
The French Revolution
The Boston Tea Party
Engraving from A Continued Journal of All the Proceedings of the Duke of Buckingham30 August 1627
Engraving from His Majesties declaration to all his subjects20 December 1647
19th Century British Library Newspapers
Titles include:
The Graphic
The Poor Man’s Guardian
The North Wales Chronicle
The Manchester Times
The Chartist
48 titles displaying history as it unfolded through newspapers the day
2.2 million fully text searchable pages
National and regional papers from England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland
Titles in specialist areas such as Victorian Radicalism and Chartism
Highlights:
War: The Battle of Trafalgar
Crime: Jack the Ripper
Science: Responses to Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’
Sports: The cricket match that started the Ashes
Literature: serialisations by Charles Dickens
‘Murder and Suicide at TintagelThe Illustrated Police News2 February 1867
‘A Remarkable Railway Accident in Dublin’The Graphic27 February 1900
19th Century British Library Newspapers
One undergraduate tracked the early weeks of the newspaper reception of Darwin's Origin of Species, the first time this had been attempted for half a century. I used to spend much of my time showing students how to find things; now there is more time for them to think.
Prof. James A. Secord, History and Philosophy of Science, University of
Cambridge
The well chosen geographical range of provincial newspapers and the sophisticated search facility could well change the face of British historiography over the coming decades, as genuinely national treatments of topics are now much more manageable.
Andrew J. Hobbs, PhD student, University of Central Lancashire
19th Century British Library Newspapers gives us an invaluable new perspective on the way Victorian Britain came to understand itself as a community of citizens, consumers and commentators. It is hard to imagine any researcher with nineteenh-century interests to whom it does not offer important insights on their subject: and it is dangerously addictive!
Prof. Arthur Burns, Kings College London
‘War Between France and Prussia’The Illustrated Police News30 July 1870
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Blending digital and physical environments: Growing Knowledge: the evolution of research12 October 2010 – 16 July 2011
Our new exhibition of innovative digital tools and technologies
Visit onsite in the British Library or online and tell us what you think
Join one of our evaluation sessions specifically for researchers
www.bl.uk/growingknowledge
#blgk
For evaluation sessions contact - [email protected]
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Any questions?
Contact us…
Higher Education TeamThe British Library96 Euston RoadLondon
T 020 7412 [email protected]