Supporting Researchers at the British Library

Dr Joanna Newman, Head of Higher Education

Centre for Distance Learning Conference

27 October 2010

2

Introduction to the British Library

“We exist for everyone who wants to do research – for academic, personal or commercial purposes”

Our collections cover all known subject areas; sciences, technology, medicine, arts & humanities, social sciences…

We have a copy of every item published in the UK

Our collections cover all formats; sound, images, video, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, databases, books and journals, much more…

Researchers from Higher Education

30.5%

25.2%

14.6%

8.9%

8.9%

4.5%

2.7%

2.3%

1.6%

0.8%

UndergraduatesPostgraduatesAcademic staffSMEsPersonal researchersCreative industry researchersFurther education studentsCorporate researchersAuthors and writersPublic sector researchers

HE sector makes up 70.3% of BL Readers (UGs, PGs, academic staff).

Source: BL British Library internal reader admissions data for period Oct-06 to June-07.

44

Supporting Higher Education

Partnership Projects:EthOSUK Research Reserve

Access to Collections:Archival Sound RecordingsBritish Library Newspapers Online

Understanding researcher behaviour:Google Generation reportResearchers of Tomorrow studyGrowing Knowledge Exhibition

55

Supporting research

Social Sciences

Science, Technology & Medicine

Arts & Humanities

Document Supply service provides 1.4m articles/year primarily to scientists

Renewed engagement with researchers using digital content and online services

In-depth focus on biomedicine and energy/environment Collection includes journals, patents, theses and more, and

is updated by some 9,000 articles every day

A significant and underexploited international collection of books, journals, reports, theses, official publications and other materials

A unique collection of grey literature, of special interest to practitioners and theoreticians

Research collaboration with ESRC

Greatest research collection of its kind in the world World-class curatorial expertise by subject, medium and geographical area BL has been developing world-leading e-innovations for past decade (e.g. International

Dunhuang Project) and building a significant corpus of digitised texts Research collaboration with AHRC, British Academy and HEIs

Global changes affecting the research environment

New Technologies

New research methods

Growth of UK knowledge economy

Changes to researcher

expectations

Proliferation of information

1

2

3

• Web 2.0/3.0• Mobile & interoperability• Display technologies

• Born digital• Mass digitisation• Rights management• Information & media literacy

• Want contact anytime, anywhere• Store, personalise, manipulate,

repurpose, share info with peers• New ways of relating to each

other and information• Different attitude to Intellectual

Property

• Entrepreneurialism & innovation• Creative Industries• Science, Media & Technology

• New subjects• Greater collaboration• Multiple formats, mash-up• Creative theory & creative

practice• Importance of ephemera• Students learn in a different

way to their teachers

TextText

VideoVideo

SoundSound

ImagesImages

Cross-disciplinaryCross-disciplinary

Cross-borderCross-border

Multi-authoringMulti-authoring

Non-linearNon-linear

EphemeraEphemera DynamicDynamic

Digital Literacy and changing researcher behaviour

The Google Generation study published in January 2008 claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web. It aslo concluded that -

All age groups revealed to share so-called ‘Google Generation' traits

Libraries still have to adapt to the digital mindset

Young people are seemingly lacking in information skills; strong message to the government and society at large

Researchers of Tomorrow:A three year JISC-BL study tracking the research behavior of ‘Generation Y’ doctoral students

Generation Y

Born 1982 – 1994Education partly

non-digital

Generation Z The ‘Google’ Generation

Born 1995 onwardsEducation digital

from start

A 3 year study into the information seeking and research behaviour of UK doctoral students born between 1982 and 1994

Builds on the findings of the ‘Google Generation’ report published in 2008

Focusing on behaviour of ‘Generation Y’ – unlike ‘Google Generation’, their school education was partly non-digital and internet-free

Commissioned by the British Library and the JISC

Education for Change Ltd and The Research Partnership commissioned to undertake the research

Study commenced February 2009 and will report in February 2012

Researchers of TomorrowPurpose of the report

Report conclusions and

recommendationswill…

Allow BL and JISC to determine how best to meet current and future needs of academic researchers

Provide guidance to libraries and information specialists on how to best meet research needs of Generation Y scholars and their immediate successors

Establish a benchmark for research behaviour against which subsequent generations of scholars can be measured

Reveal potential impact of changing research behaviour on HE institutions

1010

Results so far:The Wider Context Setting Survey – Key Findings

July 2009: 6,500 responses from 68 HEIs

38% of these were from Generation Y researchers

July 2010: 6,500 responses from 70 HEIs (results being analysed now)

Students are turning to their peers and supervisors for support rather than librarians and information specialists

Only a small proportion of respondents in any age group say they use ‘emergent technology (e.g. Web 2.0 applications) in their research

Interesting attitudes to Open Access More Generation Y than older scholars are likely to be working from office

space, laboratory or in their own institution, rather than their own home. Far fewer respondents have received any training in using more advanced

technology-based research resources and tools such as e-research methods, finding and using online datasets or working in virtual research environments.

Results confirmed by recent BL/HEPI report on the postgraduate landscape – www.bl/news/pgreport

Skills for the Future - National Postgraduate Training Days

Objectives

Promote awareness of the Library amongst postgraduate students

To introduce varied relevant collections to researchers

Remove perceived anxieties about the Library

Involve students and researchers from outside London

Provide valuable networking for students

Contribute to Robert’s skills agenda

305

532

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2007-8 2008-9

Over 1000 participants since Training Days began

Who attends National Postgraduate Training Days?

Attendees by location

Other

England (outsideLondon)

London

Scotland

Wales

Open uni

NI

Bursaries provided to encourage participants from outside London,

thanks to funding from key partners.

36% from London universities

64% from universities outside London

Institute for

Historical Research

Institute of

English Studies

Institute of Germanic

and Romance Studies

Key Funding Partners

Economic & Social

Research Council

What impact to National Postgraduate Training Days have?

38%

24%

77%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

1

Already had a reader pass Currently use the BL ("Yes" only) Would use th BL in the future

38% of participants already had a readers pass

24% of participants currently use the Library

77% of participants said they would use the Library in the future.

What participants had to say about Postgraduate Training Days…

Exploring the collections

Networking opportunities

“Today has demolished a mental wall for me as I had (wrongly) felt too unimportant to use the BL. Thank you very much indeed for arranging the day and making it clear that ALL researchers are welcome. I shall acquire a Readers card and return immediately!”

“The facilities really are fantastic and an eye opener for me at the potential avenues for further research.”

“The programme was excellent, all staff involved were very interesting

and the event was well worth attending.”

“Everybody was down to earth and flexible in their approaches to using library resources. This I found to be particularly helpful as BL can seem intimidating.”

Is digital different? Digital resources for researchers: Ethos

EThOS: Provides free access to the research contained in doctoral

theses Offers a one-stop electronic shop for all UK theses Improves postgraduate knowledge transfer to students Creates an international showcase for the best of UK

research Enriches the UK and global knowledge pool Ensures a sustainable service for the future.

Ethos – Benefits

Benefits of e-theses online

For thesis authors: Your research is easily

available to the wider scholarly community.

E theses over 100 times more likely to be read than paper ones

You can present your research in more creative ways – using multimedia, incorporating datasets to support results.

For institutions: Provides a ‘shop

window’ highlighting your research outputs

Usage stats indicate who is using your research outputs

The Online Toolkit provides guidance on establishing e-thesis repositories and participating in EThOS.

Is digital different? Digital resources for researchers: Archival Sound Recordingswww.sounds.bl.uk

Available for

playback and

download

284institutions

signedup

Free to UKhigher and

furthereducation

Tens of thousands

of recordings

Browse, search,

locate on map

Over 21,000 recordingsselected from the

British Library Sound Archive Music,spoken word, environmental

sounds

Archival Sound RecordingsCollection highlights

Oral histories

World and traditional music

Classical Music

Wildlife vocalisationsSoundscapes

Sound Recording History

Archival Sound RecordingsSpecial Features

Browse recordingsby map

Add contextual comments

Mark favourite recordings

Add tags

20

Archival Sound RecordingsEscaping Google

• Martine Franck

Martine Franck, interviewed by Amanda Hopkinson, Paris 1998Source: Archival Sound Recordings

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0459X0104XX-0300V0.xml

“I found the audio fantastic to work with. The realism of it inspired students and encouraged them to source other material beyond Google searches.

As a tutor I maybe too often stand there and give my opinion about somebody’s work. Listening to interviews allows students to hear from the photographer themselves what’s behind the images.”

Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor, Joseph Priestley College

Archival Sound RecordingsPreserving global culture

Amakondere players: Samuel Kahunde 2008

“I found the audio fantastic to work with. The realism of it inspired students and encouraged them to source other material beyond Google searches. As a tutor I maybe too often stand there and give my opinion about somebody’s work. Listening to interviews allows students to hear from the photographer themselves what’s behind the images.”

Amanda Broadley, Photography Tutor, Joseph Priestley College

“The Wachsmann Uganda Recordings are extremely useful. In Bunyoro kingdom for example, an official recently told me that they had instruments that are not played because nobody knows the skills and their music. I feel that the music can be restored through listening to the digital sounds that are in the British Library archives.”Samuel Kahunde, PhD ethnomusicology

student, Sheffield University

“The Oral History of Recorded Sound collection provides valuable interviews with those directly involved in the development

of stereo recording technique and commercial decision making. As periods of

technical experimentation, the processes are often poorly documented and these first hand accounts provide an invaluable insight

into the methods employed,”Ewan Gordon, PhD music technology

student, University of York

Archival Sound Recordings

For teachers Full of engaging, thought-

provoking material to provide enhance pedagogy

A valuable tool for teaching key skills to students

For researchers A rich collection of cross-

disciplinary, primary source material

A large selection of rare and unpublished material

Is digital different? Digital resources for researchers: British Library Newspapers Online

Online access to milliions of pages from the British Library’s unique collections

Free to licensed UK higher and further education

Pay-per-view model available for the public

Search entire text using advanced OCR (optical character recognition) technology

View scanned images of original newspapers and download pages

Bibliographic head notes for each title

Contextual essays by academic experts

Chronological timeline overviewDetail from ‘Latest incidents in Connection with the Doings of Jack the Ripper’ The Illustrated Police News 27 October 1888

17th to 18th Century Burney Collection

Titles include:

The Boston Gazette

The Bath Journal

Dawk’s Newsletter

Craftsman or Say’s Weekly Journal

The Calcutta Chronicle and General Advertiser

700 or so bound voulmes of newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Doctor Charles Burney (1757-1817)

1 million fully text-searchable pages

Newspapers, newsbooks, Acts of Parliament, addresses, broadsides, pamphlets and proclamations

Titles from London, British Isles and Colonies

Highlights:

The Great Fire of London

The French Revolution

The Boston Tea Party

Engraving from A Continued Journal of All the Proceedings of the Duke of Buckingham30 August 1627

Engraving from His Majesties declaration to all his subjects20 December 1647

19th Century British Library Newspapers

Titles include:

The Graphic

The Poor Man’s Guardian

The North Wales Chronicle

The Manchester Times

The Chartist

48 titles displaying history as it unfolded through newspapers the day

2.2 million fully text searchable pages

National and regional papers from England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland

Titles in specialist areas such as Victorian Radicalism and Chartism

Highlights:

War: The Battle of Trafalgar

Crime: Jack the Ripper

Science: Responses to Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’

Sports: The cricket match that started the Ashes

Literature: serialisations by Charles Dickens

‘Murder and Suicide at TintagelThe Illustrated Police News2 February 1867

‘A Remarkable Railway Accident in Dublin’The Graphic27 February 1900

19th Century British Library Newspapers

One undergraduate tracked the early weeks of the newspaper reception of Darwin's Origin of Species, the first time this had been attempted for half a century. I used to spend much of my time showing students how to find things; now there is more time for them to think.

Prof. James A. Secord, History and Philosophy of Science, University of

Cambridge

The well chosen geographical range of provincial newspapers and the sophisticated search facility could well change the face of British historiography over the coming decades, as genuinely national treatments of topics are now much more manageable.

Andrew J. Hobbs, PhD student, University of Central Lancashire

19th Century British Library Newspapers gives us an invaluable new perspective on the way Victorian Britain came to understand itself as a community of citizens, consumers and commentators. It is hard to imagine any researcher with nineteenh-century interests to whom it does not offer important insights on their subject: and it is dangerously addictive!

Prof. Arthur Burns, Kings College London

‘War Between France and Prussia’The Illustrated Police News30 July 1870

27

Blending digital and physical environments: Growing Knowledge: the evolution of research12 October 2010 – 16 July 2011

Our new exhibition of innovative digital tools and technologies

Visit onsite in the British Library or online and tell us what you think

Join one of our evaluation sessions specifically for researchers

www.bl.uk/growingknowledge

#blgk

For evaluation sessions contact - infostudies-survey@ucl.ac.uk

28

Any questions?

Contact us…

Higher Education TeamThe British Library96 Euston RoadLondon

T 020 7412 7218highereducation@bl.uk