british library labs: using the library's digital collections and data

1 #HebrewProject @BL_Labs @BL_DigiSchol #bldigital https://goo.gl/jUMBfI

British Library LabsUsing the Library’s Digital Collections and DataMahendra Mahey

1145 – 1205, Monday, 21st November 2016,Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts: British Library and Beyond,Bronte Room, Conference Centre, British Library, London, NW1 2DB.

https://goo.gl/jUMBfI

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjwvK_xo-7LAhXE0RQKHWv0BYgQjRwIBw&url=http://lki.dromhci.top/c/twitter-logo-png-transparent-background/&bvm=bv.118443451,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNGeXUakaBEdmMJt6-d3SjDDAUlbJQ&ust=1459628972017062


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

http://www.bl.uk/projects/british-library-labs



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 in research, artistic, commercial and learning and teaching

categories

Talk to us about working on collaborative projects



Cultural Heritage DatasetsDatasets about our collections Bibliographic datasets relating to our published and archival holdings

Datasets for content mining Content suitable for use in text and data mining research

Datasets for image analysisImage collections suitable for large-scale image-analysis-based research

Datasets from UK Web ArchiveData and API services available for accessing UK Web Archive

Digital mapping Geospatial data, cartographic applications, digital aerial photography and scanned historic map materials http://data.bl.uk

Launch November 7, 2016

Discussion list: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CULTURAL-HERITAGE-DATASETS

http://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/datasets-about-our-collections

http://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/datasets-for-content-mining

http://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/datasets-for-image-analysis

http://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/datasets-from-uk-web-archive

http://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/digital-mapping

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CULTURAL-HERITAGE-DATASETS



The Magic of Openness!

• By opening collections up we are creating the possibility to have them used in ways only restricted by human imagination.

• Need to work hard to tell people about it especially if not easy to find, creating serendipity and opportunities for use!

• Give plenty of examples to inspire use!

• Support and celebrate the use!



Labs Engagement 2016• 18 institutions visited

• 5000 miles travelled

• 50 presentations & 25 workshops

• 900 researchers

• 400 expressions of interest

• 40 researchers, artists, entrepreneurs & educators supported

• 60TB of data via post

• 9TB of data via data.bl.uk (Nov 16)

• Nearly half a billion views on BL Flickr Commons since launch in Dec 2013


http://a7.typepad.com/6a01a73da1a4dc970d01bb08b1e53f970d-pi


Wider…not just Researches

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

https://goo.gl/WutNyi

http://goo.gl/nNKhQ2

https://goo.gl/9NWZUW

https://goo.gl/7QQ5Tf

https://goo.gl/x7b4tg

https://goo.gl/qh01Mi


http://labs.bl.uk/

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjVxK_PgvDLAhWG7BQKHZmrBGUQjRwIBw&url=https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/students-experiences-and-expectations-of-the-digital-environment-23-jun-2014&bvm=bv.118443451,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNF-TGRsXGUyNipl29gRq9Ctq1DXsQ&ust=1459688766360665

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4n4vngvDLAhVCyRQKHa7mBFIQjRwIBw&url=http://gilar666.deviantart.com/art/Bob-Dylan-PopArt-WPAP-456487085&bvm=bv.118443451,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNFq1HK9H9bWT8Il7lf1ddxwgC13Pg&ust=1459688810530297

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwixw5OghPDLAhXB8RQKHR8fAgUQjRwIBw&url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/64204416@N02/5865284029&bvm=bv.118443451,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNGLkpdYpg4p1mdINIPZW3b88mkv_w&ust=1459689220725118

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjZlNC3g_DLAhWBxRQKHcy4BKcQjRwIBw&url=https://pixabay.com/en/photos/programming/&bvm=bv.118443451,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNHO1wex2sL_pEsMiCdHiSyvUJerKw&ust=1459688992858427

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiFm97Vg_DLAhUHOBQKHawmDggQjRwIBw&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project&bvm=bv.118443451,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNE6LE17EHFAIkog61UDT0p8tVeipA&ust=1459689058496095

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiz772ag_DLAhVMvRQKHexsBW8QjRwIBw&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computers_in_the_classroom&bvm=bv.118443451,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNFK-ORJvNFKcyEgoYjoUbHDbxZvbw&ust=1459688927923110


Why are doing this?

• Working closely with and listening to those who want use our digital collections and data for their work and helping to build services, tools and processes to support them

• We can learn how we are and should be supporting them.– Is the access to digital collections we provide sufficient?– Do we have the right tools?– Do we provide the right support?– Where are the gaps between what they want and what we can

give?– How do we build the bridges to overcome them?– Many more reasons…



Some Lessons Learned so far…

• Everything starts from an idea and conversation!

• Need to have several conversations with several stakeholders and tap into their tacit knowledge that isn’t always 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!



Some Lessons Learned so far…(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



Ideas?



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



Victorian Meme Machine (2014)Bon Nicholson

https://goo.gl/HMqDt3

http://victorianhumour.tumblr.com/

https://goo.gl/HMqDt3

http://victorianhumour.tumblr.com/



Political Meetings Mapper (2015)Katrina Navickas

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

http://politicalmeetingsmapper.co.uk/

https://goo.gl/Qq78Oa

https://goo.gl/BSA3be

http://goo.gl/vOLSnH


http://a5.typepad.com/6a01a73da1a4dc970d01b8d127b885970c-pi


Black Abolitionist Performances & their Presence in Britain (2016) – Hannah-Rose Murray

FrederickDouglass

EllenCraft

JosiahHenson

Ida B Wells

A Performance by Joe Williams &

Martelle Edinborough

http://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/

http://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/



SherlockNet: Competition Winner 2016Karen Wang, Luda Zhao and Brian Do

Using Convolutional Neural Networks to Automatically Tag and Caption the British Library Flickr Commons 1 million Image Collection

Classify into one of 12 categories

>15 million tags added (total now 15.5 million overall)>100,000 captions

bit.ly/sherlocknet

Pooled surrounding Optical Character Recognised

text on page from similar images

Used Microsoft COCO (photographs) & British Museum Prints and Drawings

collections as training sets.

Tags Captions



Artistic / Creative Works

http://goo.gl/dM8ieA

Mario Klingeman (2015)

http://www.crossroadsofcuriosity.com

David Normal 2014 and 2015

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

Rob Walker 2014

http://goo.gl/bNxGZZ

Kris Hoffman (2016)

https://goo.gl/QilqqT

Jiayi Chong 2016Ling Low 2016

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

Paul Rand Pierce 2016

http://www.crossroadsofcuriosity.com/

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

https://goo.gl/QilqqT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcOP1E5bRE0

https://www.facebook.com/RealmlandStory/



Mario Klingemann 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgnxnmqnR7YGoogle Arts and Culture Lab – Experiments with Machine Learning

https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/



New Jerusalem (2014)Michael Takeo Magruder

Papyrus 46, one of the oldestNew Testament papyri, showing 2 Cor 11:33-12:9

De/coding the Apocalypse, Somerset House, London, UK, 2014http://www.takeo.org/nspace/2014-dta-new-jerusalem/



New Jerusalem (2014)Michael Takeo Magruder

http://www.takeo.org/nspace/2014-dta-new-jerusalem/



13th Station of the Cross (2016)Lamentation of Christ – Michael Takeo Magruder

http://ststephenwalbrook.net/ http://www.coexisthouse.org.uk/magruder.html



Lamentation of Christ (2016)The Art Work – Michael Takeo Magruder

http://www.coexisthouse.org.uk/magruder.html



Imaginary Cities – BL Labs Project 16-17Michael Takeo Magruder

Exploring the British Library’s digital collection of historic urban maps to create provocative fictional cityscapes for the Information Age

https://goo.gl/4ARwTy



Data-mining verse in 18th Century newspapersBL Labs Project 16-17, Jennifer Batt

https://goo.gl/5Akthd



What subjects are you interested in?



More BL Labs ideas for inspiration!

http://labs.bl.uk/Ideas+for+Labs http://labs.bl.uk/Other+Uses+of+Collections



Contact us

Mahendra MaheyManager of BL Labs

[email protected]@bl.uk


british library labs: using the library's digital collections and data

Engineering