“A desire of the Living with Machines project (and indeed an AHRC ‘gold standard’) is to release as many of the newspapers we digitised as we can (subject to copyright) in forms that other researchers can access and interrogate. The digitisation process undertaken jointly by the British Library and FindMyPast for Living with Machines has resulted in a series of newspaper images and related automatically transcribed (OCR) text, which have been released in various ways. …”
Category Archives: oa.british_library
Open and Engaged 2022: Climate research in GLAM, digital infrastructure and skills to open collections – Digital scholarship blog
“As part of International Open Access Week, the British Library is delighted to host its annual Open and Engaged event online on 24 October, Monday from 13:00 to 16:30 BST.
Since 2018 the British Library has organised the Open and Engaged Conference to coincide with International Open Access Week.
In line with this year’s #OAWeek theme: Open for Climate Justice; Open and Engaged will address intersections between cultural heritage and climate research through use of collections, digital infrastructures and skills.
A range of speakers from cultural heritage and higher education institutions will answer these questions to shed a light on the theme:
What is the role of library collections, historical datasets to understand the impact of climate change?
How to use digital infrastructure for more equitable knowledge sharing?
What roles and skills are needed to make research from heritage organisations openly available?…”
Medieval and Renaissance Women – Medieval manuscripts blog
“We are delighted to announce a major new project relating to Medieval and Renaissance Women. Thanks to generous funding from Joanna and Graham Barker, over the coming year the British Library will be digitising some of our manuscripts, rolls and charters connected with women from Britain and across Europe, which were made in the period between 1100 and 1600. At the same time we will enhance the catalogue records and we will engage with researchers working in this field and with the wider public. We are very excited by the prospect of bringing these works to broader attention, by making new discoveries, and by supporting research on a variety of topics….”
Endangered archives blog: New online – December 2021
“This project digitised photographs from the Kovats Photographic Museum and Studio in Romania. The vast majority of the photos represent the work of several generations of photographers from the Kovats family. A small part of the photographic archive consists of images created by collaborators of the Kovats studio, and of donations of photographic materials from the local population of Odorheiul Secuiesc…”
Three crowdsourcing opportunities with the British Library | Digital scholarship blog @ BL
Digital Curator Dr Mia Ridge writes, In case you need a break from whatever combination of weather, people and news is around you, here are some ways you can entertain yourself (or the kids!) while helping make collections of the British Library more findable, or help researchers understand our past. You might even learn something or make new discoveries along the way!
Repository Services – The British Library
“The British Library’s open access Research Repository makes it easy to discover the amazing range of research undertaken by our staff. From published articles about our intricate ancient manuscripts to complex datasets resulting from digitisation programmes, our research takes many forms.
Our Shared Research Repository brings our own research into a shared platform with other UK museums, galleries and heritage organisations. A single search across the combined content reveals collaborative research projects and interesting parallels between our separate specialist research fields.
Our new Repository Service for other organisations extends the Shared Repository concept to new partners, broadening the range of research outputs included. Partners can take advantage of our expertise in metadata, publications, discovery, data management and much more.”
Assistant Repository Services Specialist
“Applications are invited for an exciting and interesting role working with the British Library’s Shared Research Repository, to support UK heritage organisations in sharing their research. The Shared Research Repository allows galleries, libraries, archives and museums in the UK to make their publications and data openly available. Currently five partners use the repository, and over the next 12 months the Assistant Repository Services Specialist will support more partners to join the platform.
This role forms part of the Repository Services team, which sits within our Research Infrastructure Services department. You will work alongside team colleagues to help new partner organisations joining the service to identify their research content, and use appropriate routes to create the metadata and load the content to their new repository. You will also support training and professional development of our colleagues at partner organisations, allowing transfer of ongoing responsibility for their repository administration after the on-boarding period. This is an exciting opportunity to help set up new repositories for a range of partners and support heritage organisations in making their research more discoverable….”
Open and Engaged 2021: Understanding the Impact of Open in the Arts and Humanities Beyond the University – Digital scholarship blog
This blog post was written by Susan Miles, Scholarly Communications Specialist, part of the Research Infrastructure Services team.
In Higher Education contexts, discussions around openness are often focused on the pathways to make publications, data or cultural objects openly available online. It is often not known what impact open resources can have for various communities beyond the research community.
The speakers at Open and Engaged 2021 will explore the different impacts that open resources can have on people. They will seek to question how openness enhances the ability to engage with communities, how projects can be sustainable and make positive changes in the long-term, as well as some of the downsides to current approaches to open engagement.
Many of the speakers come from the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sector, and we will learn about ways cultural organisations generate, measure and report on impact, and seek useful connections across the higher education and cultural sectors.
This online conference will address key questions of:
How does openness enhance (or restrict) the ability to engage with communities?
What can the higher education sector learn from people involved in research and research-related activities that is conducted outside of universities?
What are some of the ways in which GLAM organisations generate, measure and report on impact?
How can universities work with the wider GLAM sector to enhance the impact of scholarly research?
Are projects geared towards making positive changes in society sustainable?
Programme:
25 October 2021, Monday – British Summer Time (UTC+1)
09:50 – 10:00 Opening remarks
10:00 – 11:00 Session I: Increasing engagement with cultural heritage collections
11:00 – 11:20 Q&A
11:20 – 11:40 Break
11:40 – 12:40 Session II: Measuring and evaluating impact of open resources beyond journal articles
12:40 – 13:00 Q&A
13:00 – 13:05 Closing remarks
Registration Detail:
Registration is free and open now. The sessions will be recorded and made publicly available in November 2021.
Participation:
We encourage you to participate in discussion with other attendees and speakers by using the Twitter hashtag #OpenEngaged. By registering for this conference and participating in the Twitter hashtag, we ask that you treat all organizers, speakers and other participants with respect.
Please email any access requirements or other question to openaccess@bl.uk
Posted by Digital Research Team at 10:00 AM
Assistant Repository Services Specialist
“Applications are invited for an exciting and interesting role to support UK heritage organisations in sharing their research. The British Library’s Shared Research Repository allows galleries, libraries archives and museums in the UK to make their publications and data openly available. Currently five partners use the repository, and over the next 12 months, the Assistant Repository Services Specialist will enable more partners to join the platform.
As the Assistant Repository Services Specialist, you will work within the Repository Services Team to manage the shared repository, and take responsibility for bringing in a number of new partner organisations, helping them to identify and load theirresearch content, while ensuring best practice and repository policies are followed. You will also support training and professional development of our colleagues at partner organisations, allowing transfer of ongoing responsibility for repository administration after the on-boarding period….”
BL Scholarly Communications Toolkit // British Library Research Repository
Five leaflets:
A Guide to Publishing Research
A Guide to Sharing Your Research Online
A Guide to Research Data Management
A Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons in Research
A Guide to Open Access
A Guide to Open Access | British Library
“A Guide to Open Access
British Library, 2021
Find out what open access means, how to publish research on an open access basis, and discover the resources and tools that enable free, online access to publications….”
https://doi.org/10.23636/g6fm-dx07
BL Scholarly Communications Toolkit | British Library Research Repository
A series of introductory guides to different aspects of scholarly communications, and editable files so you can adjust the content to one’s own organisation’s needs.
Includes:
A Guide to Publishing Research
A Guide to Sharing Your Research Online
A Guide to Research Data Management
A Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons in Research
A Guide to Open Access
George III’s maps and views: 32,000 images released on Flickr Commons – Maps and views blog
“In October 2020 we released 17,000 images of maps and views from George III’s Topographical Collection on the images-sharing site Flickr Commons, which seems to have kept you busy.
Well, from today, you can find an additional 32,000 images, comprising George III’s collection of atlases and albums of views, plans, diagrams, reports and surveys, produced between 1550 and 1820. These have been uploaded to Flickr with a Public Domain attribution for you to search, browse, download, reuse, study and enjoy….”
Job: Scholarly Communications Lead @ British Library
Scholarly Communications Lead
SALARY £39,000 (London) / £35,750 (Yorkshire)
FULL TIME
PERMANENT
London, St Pancras or Boston Spa, Yorkshire
The British Library is seeking to appoint a Scholarly Communications Lead to help redefine its role as a provider of open access services to its global research audience and its partners in the UK and beyond. The post holder will maintain our scholarly communications strategy and work with colleagues across the Library and with external partners to implement it, in particular with regards to open access services (including preservation, discovery and enhanced analytics/text and data mining). While the focus of the British Library is on the UK, the scholarly communications is global and we areseeking new ways to contribute and sustain it in partnership with relevant national and international organisations. Working closely with the BL’s Head of Content and Research Services, the post holder will represent the Library internationally, offering an exciting opportunity to influence the development of the global scholarly communications and open access ecosystem. The post is be part of a team that includes similar roles focusing on data, discovery and repository services.
The ideal candidate will have in-depth knowledge and experience of the scholarly communication environment, in particular with regards to open access. They will have experience in interpreting the national and international scholarly communications landscape into policies with consideration of their impact on researchers and research organisations. The successful applicant will also have recent experience of scholarly communications workflows, and a broad understanding of the wider ecosystem, including relevant sector bodies and organisations, infrastructures and systems. The ability to confidently represent the British Library externally are as relevant to this position as the ability to work collaboratively and constructively in a matrix environment, including strong communication and influencing skills.
The British Library has a positive approach to working flexibly to accommodate the work/life balance and wellbeing of its employees by offering hybrid or remote working agreements alongside the Library’s flexible working hours scheme. The flexible working scheme itself could allow you to work your hours flexibly over the week and to take up to 5 days flexi leave in each 3 month period.
Other benefits include:
Employee Assistance Programme
Health Care Plan
Interest Free Season Ticket Loans
Cycle to Work Scheme
Subsidised staff restaurant
In return we offer a competitive salary and a number of excellent benefits. Our pension scheme is one of the most valuable benefits we offer, as our staff can become members of the Alpha Pension Scheme where the Library contributes 20.9%. Another significant benefit the Library provides is the provision of a flexible working hours scheme which could allow you to work your hours flexibly over the week and to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3 month period. This is on top of 25 days holiday from entry and public and privilege holidays.
More about the British Library
As one of the world’s great libraries, our duty is to preserve the nation’s intellectual memory for the future. At the moment we have well over 150 million items, in most known languages, with three million new items added every year. We have manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents. We operate the world’s largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world. What matters to us is that we preserve the national memory and enable knowledge to be created both now and in the future.
For further information and to apply, please visit www.bl.uk/careers quoting vacancy ref: 03730
Making two million images freely available online – Living Knowledge blog
“Ten years ago the British Library and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development started exploring possible areas of collaboration. For some time the British Library had been working on an international engagement strategy to make our collections more accessible in partnership with other organisations.
Fast forward to 2021, and our partnership with the Qatar Foundation and Qatar National Library has gone from strength to strength, this week hitting the major milestone of making our two millionth image freely available online via the Qatar Digital Library.
Under the British Library’s Living Knowledge strategy we have sought new partnerships and collaborations, particularly when it comes to digitisation and digital scholarship. Our aim is to open up the collections to a global audience and the British Library Qatar Foundation Partnership is a prime example of this endeavour….”