1 playing an ace access, collaboration and engagement in the british library jude england head of...
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Playing an ACEAccess, Collaboration and Engagement in the British Library
Jude England Head of Social Science Collections and Research
March 2009
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Once upon a time…….
“Extraordinary, mummified late-Victorian world” - Angus Wilson
Top hats in the Round Reading Room as late as 1929
Restricted access and little collaboration
Gatekeepers to Collections
©The British Library Archives
Superintendent, L C Wharton
caricature from The British Library Archives
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Abracadabra……
“ We exist for everyone who wants to do research – for academic, personal or commercial purposes”
150 million items, 625 km, 12 km pa: books, journals newspapers, magazines, comics, oral history, maps, IGOs, IOR, mss, world collections, ©British Library Photographic
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Some attitudes persist…….
©The British Library Archives
Newspaper cuttings from a scrapbook complied by George Knottesford Fortescue (1847-1912), Keeper of Printed Books, 1899-1912.
From The Times April 21, 2008
When Karl Marx created the tenets of Marxism in the British Library’s Reading Room and Charles Dickens worked at one of its desks, they did not have to endure queues, a lack of chairs and tables, and rooms closed by crowd control……Speaking to The Times yesterday, Lady Antonia said: “I had to queue for 20 minutes to get in, in freezing weather. Then I queued to leave my coat for 20 minutes [at the compulsory check-in]. Then half an hour to get my books and another 15 minutes to get my coat. I’m told it’s due to students having access now. Why can’t they go to their university libraries?” …………Ms Tomalin described the crowds as intolerable: “It’s full of what seem to be schoolgirls giggling. I heard one saying, ‘I’ve got to write about Islam. Can I have your notes?’ It’s what you expect to hear in a school.”
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External context
Scope of Social Science and growth in multi-disciplinary research
UK Research Council and Government themes
Funding regimes = competitive and time-poor researchers
Concern about cost and value of research; emphasis on re-use of research
Wide range of researchers, behaviours and expectations
Long-term research capacity
More emphasis on dissemination, public value and economic impact
The future is digital……
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Researchers’ attitudes
Google, Google, Google and our digital lives
Distant from libraries - actual and metaphorical
Access and availability: ‘need for speed’
Competitive and selfish
Focus: primary data gathering, remote access, contemporary material
Need for ethics, authenticity, trusted sources
Forgotten relevance, usefulness and potential of libraries and archives
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Social Science Collections and Research: Aims and Strategic Priorities
Aims:
Provision, management, transfer, generation of info
Ideas hub
Capacity building, especially for new researchers
Build, develop, exploit content and collections
Promote value of research
Strategic priorities:
Team creation and development
Defining and developing a social science collection
Relationship and awareness building
Improving accessibility
Working with the research community to build capacity
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Issues…….
Counter-cultural to BL: collecting and keeping vs connecting and using
Building internal relationships and awareness
Getting the team right: IPS, professional skills, digital understanding
Interest and enthusiasm varies by discipline; can be hard to reach, find, talk to
Heterogeneous audience: academics, third sector, government
Defining content: format, discipline, theme, location?
Managing scale and finding a way in…… and partners……
Catalogues and digital issues (local vs corporate responsibilities)
Resources: staff and finance
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Lessons learned….
Seed, seed and seed again
Network, network and network again
Persuasive, patient, adaptable, tenacious, flexible, innovative, passionate, ambitious team members are essential
Need awareness of world of researcher and access to a common language; ideally understand research methodology
Need awareness of digital world and digital skills, plus IP, copyright and permissions
Find doable and manageable tasks, and many ‘hooks’: entice, inspire, excite
Social scientists ‘do’ history…….
Support dissemination and knowledge exchange
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In practice……
Linking with social science research community: academic, government, third sector
Developing tailored resources e.g. Business and Management studies website personalised portal; Olympics web resource; Welfare Reform on the Web; collection guides and bibliographies; mapping resources
Partnerships (formal and informal): ESRC; LSE and OUSSL; ESDS; TNA
Research collaborations: Voices of the UK; Children’s play in the media age; henstock; second wave feminists
Active support to knowledge exchange e.g. ESRC-funded CSR and multi-modal seminar series; University of Sheffield SERX; ESRC Interns; collaborative Phd
Hub: Welfare Reform on the Web at 10; TNA/BL events programme; ESDS seminars; ESRC Festival of Social Science; hosting events (SRA, UKES, SCOLMA, GLIG, AcSS, BSA, ESRC)
Capacity building: Postgraduate training days; census 2011; public events
©Clive Sherlock
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An ACE invitation and challenge!
The oldest profession or the ladies of the night: complied by Richard Cullen, 1993
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An Oral History of Prostitution
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The words of the respondents…
• Lauren
• Karl
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Conclusion and Contact
Jude England (0)20 7412 7670
Alt extn: 7487
Email: [email protected]
Head-Social Science Collections & Research
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Available at www.bl.uk
©B
ritish Lib
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