Post on 15-Jul-2015
http://labs.bl.uk 1#bl_labs labs@bl.ukFunded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation
Open House for CollectionsFoyle Suite, British LibraryThursday 23rd October, 2014, 1500 - 1530
Mahendra Mahey Manager
Ben O’SteenTechnical Lead
http://labs.bl.uk 2#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
The winners of the Labs 2013 competition
Pieter Francois (left) and Dan Norton (right) and each received a cheque for £2000 in November 2013as winners of the first British Library Lab Competition 2013
Two entries chosen in June 2013
They both worked in residence from July to October 2013with Labs to complete their projects
Pieter Francois (left) and Dan Norton (right)
with Adam Farquhar (middle) Head of Digital
Scholarship
http://labs.bl.uk 3#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Pieter Francois – Sample Generator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK80Jy0ijkA
• Interest in European travel in the 19th Century
• Uses statistical methods to support text analysis
• Tool produces representative samples of texts based on any search criteria
http://goo.gl/YFnZmu
http://labs.bl.uk 4#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Mixing the Library: The DJ & the Digital CollectionDan Norton, Living Lab: Library of the Future, see: http://alturl.com/284zw
http://labs.bl.uk 5#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Story of one digital collection…
What can 68,000books tell us?
Image: Artwork by Alicia Martin
http://labs.bl.uk 6#bl_labs
Snipping out images and face recognition
6
Digitisation
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
- <mets:mets xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSche
ma-instance" xmlns:mets="http://ww
w.loc.gov/METS/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/MET
S/ http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/version1
8/mets.xsd info:lc/xmlns/premis-
v2
Optical
Character
Recognition Image snipped outAlgorithmically
From ALTO XML
Image snipped out
ALTO XML
The face-recognition algorithm worked better for female faces than men’s
http://labs.bl.uk 7#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
The Mechanical Curator
http://mechanicalcurator.tumblr.com
• #similar_to_77576796197_published_date• #similar_to_77576796197_slantyness
• #similar_to_77576796197_bubblyness_x• #similar_to_77576796197_bubblyness_y
• #new_train_of_thought
Image from ‘A Lost Estate, by Mary E.Mann,Volume: 02, Page: 91, 1889, London, Bentley & Son
http://labs.bl.uk 8#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
1,020,418 images!1 million steps…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/Since Dec 13 > 200 m views > 5% taggedLots of creative uses!
Creative Uses: http://goo.gl/qPPgxX
http://labs.bl.uk 10#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Increasing traffic to Library services
You can purchase a ‘High Res’ Copy
View in the Library Item Viewer
Download .pdfAll illustrations
in book
Other illustrations in booksPublished in same year
View the item in the Library Catalogue Tags auto generated
User generatedTag
Grouping for image
http://labs.bl.uk 11#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Winners of 2014 Competition
Victorian Meme Machine
Bob Nicholson of Edge Hill University
Blog posting http://goo.gl/iJy0aTYouTube: http://goo.gl/mBTlk2
Anna Gerber and Desmond Schmidt from Queensland University
Blog: http://goo.gl/ofpNoslYouTube: http://goo.gl/iseHTE
Text to Image Linking Tool (TILT)
http://labs.bl.uk 12#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Anna Gerber and Desmond Schmidt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl4bjZSJ4cY&feature=youtu.be
Text to Image Linking Tool (TILT)
http://labs.bl.uk 13#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Blog posting http://goo.gl/iJy0aTYouTube: http://goo.gl/mBTlk2
Bob Nicholson
Victorian Meme Machine
http://labs.bl.uk 14#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Victorian Humour!
• Twitter: @VictorianHumour
• Work in progress…
• Mechanical Comedian: http://victorianhumour.com/
• http://victorianhumour.com:5000/joke/715
http://labs.bl.uk 15#bl_labs labs@bl.uk
Labs events
• Halloween Map tag-a-thon, 31 October, Foyle– http://goo.gl/0DS4om
• Labs Symposium 2014 - Monday November 3, Conference Centre, BL, London
– http://goo.gl/YfBrJ2
– Almost full house, a few tickets left!
– See the winners’ work
– Other projects using the Library’s digital content!
– Enjoy a music performance connecting the old to the new!