OF LIBRARIES & LABS: EFFECTING USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION

11-12 April 2016

Alex Humphreys, JSTOR Labs@abhumphreys

UKSG Annual Conference 2016

JSTOR is a not-for-profit digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

Ithaka S+R is a not-for-profit research and consulting service that helps academic, cultural, and publishing communities thrive in the digital environment.

Portico is a not-for-profit preservation service for digital publications, including electronic journals, books, and historical collections.

ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization that helps the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the

scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.

JSTOR Labs works with partner publishers, libraries and labs to create tools for researchers, teachers and students that are immediately useful – and a little bit magical.

CASE STUDY #1: JSTOR SNAP

ONE WEEK IN ANN ARBOR…

https://vimeo.com/120185616

labs.jstor.org/snap

CASE STUDY #2: JSTOR SUSTAINABILITY

ONE WEEK IN SEATTLE…

https://vimeo.com/140958596

labs.jstor.org/sustainability

WORKING WITH TOPICS

• JSTOR Thesaurus: a controlled vocabulary w/ 48,000+ unique terms

• Subject matter experts reviewed and extended the branches dealing with Sustainability

• With their input, we created ~750 topic pages, ranging fromacid rain to zoogeography

• Next up: incorporate into primary JSTOR site

• New “Sustainability collection” for libraries, consisting of new-to-JSTOR journals and research reports

• Extend beyond Sustainability

https://public.tableau.com/profile/beth.dufford#!/vizhome/JSTORSustainabilityTopics/Story1

CASE STUDY #3: UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE

PARTNERSHIP WITH FOLGER

• Open, collaborative partnership with Folger Shakespeare Library

• Folger had:- Shakespeare Quarterly- Folger Digital Texts- Scholars and students

• JSTOR had:- Full run of SQ- 2,000 more journals- A new Labs team

• Flash Build - September, 2014: - From ideation to working site- One week at the Folger in DC

labs.jstor.org/shakespeare

MATCHMAKER ALGORITHM

• Quotation-finding algorithm that powers Understanding Shakespeare

• Open and public API to all Understanding Shakespeare data

• In progress: - Apply Matchmaker to other texts (e.g. U.S. Constitution, Divine Comedy) - Generic Matchmaker API

labs.jstor.org/developers

HOW WE DO IT

Understand what innovation looks like

Feasible Usable

Desirable

Image source: http://uxtraordinary.com/venn-pie-agram/

Create a safe space to innovateImage source:

http://www.therisktoolboxshop.com/_blog/The_Risk_Management_Tool_Box_Blog/post/Funny_Safety_Sign/

Show work to users early and often

[need a pic of some sort here]

Still taken from http://labs.jstor.org/blog/#!labs_week-building_jstor_snap

Iterayte. Iterrate. Itterate.Iterate.Iterate!

(rapidly)

Prior to the Flash Build

1. User interviews

2. Create the data & infrastructure

During the Flash Build

3. Design jam

4. Paper prototypes

5. Low-fi prototypes

6. Working site

After the Flash Build

7. Polish & clean up

8. Release & measure

WHAT WE LEARN, WHEN

User Input!

Who are they?

What can we do that will help them?

How can we make our implementationeven better?

How should weimplement it?

How’d we do?

LESSONS FOR LIBRARIES(AND MAYBE PUBLISHERS TOO)

1. Doing something is better than talking about it.

2. It’s nice to hear someone say,

“Ohmigod, this is amazing!”

3. If you go fast enough, you can help people break out of old patterns.

4. This work suggests better ways to support digital humanities: - tools and content together - a model for partnering with scholars - lower barrier of entry to DH - start your own lab, adopt these practices in an existing team, or find a partner*

* Like JSTOR Labs!

THANK YOU

Alex HumphreysDirector, JSTOR LabsITHAKA

http://labs.jstor.org@abhumphreysalex.humphreys@ithaka.org

Further Reading• The Lean Startup, Eric Ries• Business Model Generation,

Osterwalder & Pigneur• Marty Cagan’s Blog: svpg.com/articles• Sprint, Knapp, Zeratsky, & Kowitz

APPENDIX ADETAILS ONJSTOR’S FORTHCOMING SUSTAINABILITY COLLECTION

THE SUSTAINABILITY COLLECTION

» A new curated multidisciplinary collection of 100 new-to-JSTOR journals drawn from more than 20 disciplines

» Enhanced by research reports from over 40 leading think tanks around the world

» Tested and built in partnership with librarians and scholars

» Complemented by the strong base of content already in JSTOR – more than 200,000 articles from roughly 45 publications in the JSTOR Corpus that address various issues in sustainability

» Enriched by specialized tools geared to the interdisciplinary research

TOPIC COVERAGE»Sustainable Business Practices»Environmental Engineering»Environmental Studies»Environmental Science»Environmental and Natural

Resources Law»Energy Policy and Economics»Urban Planning and the Built

Environment»Development Studies»Climatology and Atmospheric

Science

»Human Ecology»Green Energy»Transportation and

Infrastructure»Land Conservation»Environmental History»Food Security»Agricultural Economics»Public Health and Population

Studies»Water Management»Waste Management

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS BY DISCIPLINE

• EconomicsEnergy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural & Applied Economics Association

• Architecture / Built Env.

APT Bulletin, Association for Preservation Technology International

CTBUH Journal, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

Built Environment (1978-), Alexandrine Press

• Public HealthJournal of Public Health Policy Sustainability, Palgrave Macmillan Journals

Environmental Health Perspectives, Brogan & Partners

Occupational and Environmental Medicine, BMJ Publishing Group

• Aquatic / Env. Sciences

Journal, American Water Works Association

Opflow, American Water Works Association

Water Environment Research, Water Environment Federation

Waterlines, Practical Action Publishing

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS BY DISCIPLINE• LawNatural Resources & Environment, American Bar Association

Carbon & Climate Law Review, Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH

Ecology Law Quarterly, University of California, Berkeley

Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law, Florida State University College of Law • Sociology

Environmental Values, White Horse Press

Nature and Culture, Berghahn Books

Environment & Society, Berghahn Books

• Urban StudiesUrban Studies, Sage Publications, Ltd.

Ekistics, Athens Center of Ekistics

• EcologyEcological Applications, Ecological Society of America

Ecological Restoration, University of Wisconsin Press

Human Ecology, Springer Science + Business Media

Conservation Biology, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc.

APPENDIX BOPEN IN CASE OF NO INTERNET CONNECTION