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 9#bl_labs labs@bl.uk

Flickr coverage in the media!

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!

http://labs.bl.uk 16#bl_labs labs@bl.uk

Work with us!

Labs is more than a competition, we work on other projects too!

mahendra.mahey@bl.uk

Twitter @mahendra_mahey

ben.o‘steen@bl.uk

Twitter @benosteen