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Cultural Data and the British LibraryExperience of Residencies at the British Library Labs ProjectMahendra Mahey

1515 - 1525, Friday, 9th September 2016,Launch of the Elastic System, Internet of Cultural Things,Foyle Centre of Conservation, St Pancras, British Library.

http://goo.gl/ZNybNe

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http://www.bl.uk/projects/british-library-labsFunded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

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Not just Researchers…

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

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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

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Beta launch this month!

http://data.bl.ukOfficial launch November 7, 2016

Cultural Data

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BL Labs & Artistic / Creative Works

http://goo.gl/dM8ieA

Mario Klingeman

http://www.crossroadsofcuriosity.com

David Normal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GRgj7Q5OM0

Rob Walker

http://goo.gl/bNxGZZ

Kris Hoffman

https://goo.gl/QilqqT

Jiayi Chong

Ling Low

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcOP1E5bRE0https://www.facebook.com/RealmlandStory/

Paul Rand Pierce

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Lessons Learned from Residences

• Everything starts from an idea and conversation!

• Need to have several conversations with several stakeholders and tap into their tacit knowledge that isn’t written down.

• Expectations change when researchers see the data, systems and experience the ‘culture’ of the organisation

• We tend to work with researchers who can be ‘flexible with their research’ questions and are willing to embrace challenges

• Often misunderstandings because of jargon & different meaning of words

• Embrace dirty data, it may never be perfect!

• People like the ‘kudos’ of the Library

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Lessons Learned from Residences (2)

• Many researchers have the domain knowledge but lack the technical skills to use Digital Research methods. Should they be teamed up with those that have problems that need solving (Computing) or get trained?

• Identifying / bridging gaps for researchers to use data, help them navigate through the Library to get the data they want

• Huge appetite to use digital content & data (e.g. Flickr Commons stats)

• Start small and simple, but think big!

• Embrace serendipity, work fast, give it energy.

• Learn the lessons, tell the positive stories and move on!

• Fail faster (don’t be afraid), small experiments, reject perfectionism