• Andrew Beeken has been exploring the Cambridge COMET data via its SPARQL endpoints and has already blogged about the process of using SPARQL to “build kind of a ‘Hello World’ of open data querying”. He’s now looking at the recently-released Harvard open bib data and comparing the speed, the use of matching namespaces, and the use of JSON vs RDF/XML.
• This work is leading up to unified search and presentation of records from several sources (Cambridge/COMET, Harvard, Lincoln/Jerome, OpenLibrary, etc.). Andrew and Trevor Jones are collaborating on drawing up a high-level architecture for CLOCK, and a strategy for expressing Linked Data, which will be shared with the rest of the project team (and publicly) for discussion.
• To support this, Alex Bilbie in ICT services at Lincoln is helping to get the original Jerome application up and running on the CLOCK server (jerome.library.lincoln.ac.uk), where it can be used as a stable platform for developing and RDF-ifying Lincoln’s own bib data.
• Trevor Jones and Ed Chamberlain will work together on developing the work with users (in parallel, at the University of Lincoln and the University of Cambridge) to clarify their requirements for bibliographic data:
• For cataloguers, based around a rethink of copy cataloguing workflows, we will try to tease out requirements from talking to cataloguers (and associated subject librarians) asking to be ‘positively disrupted’: what do they need to do? What is missing from their data?
• For researchers, we will build on some initial user walkthrough analysis done by Trevor and Andrew in Lincoln, with performing arts students in LPAC (the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre). What are the research questions that users are trying to answer? How does bib data help them answer those questions? What’s missing? Ed and Trevor will agree on a set of questions and tasks;
• These requirements will be used to feed the remainingcycles of platform development for CLOCK.
• Ed Chamberlain will act as the conduit between CLOCK and related projects in the Discovery strand, looking for points of shared interest/technology, and blogging (or asking others to blog) about aspects of one project which can inform the others. The other projects in which Ed is involved are: the Open Education Metadata UK (OEM-UK) project at the Institute of Education (shared interest in new user interfaces for cataloguing – possibly use screencasts to demonstrate alternative workflows?) and the Open Bibliography 2 project (lots of potential technical overlap – BibJSON, JSON-LD, BibSoup.net, expression in RDF container formats).
• Ed and I (Paul Stainthorp) will work on developing the ‘business case’ / sustainability of CLOCK and data.*.ac.uk, following up on themes discussed in the recent Discovery event, and thinking not only about institutional funding / high-level support for open bib data, but also what it takes to move open bib data publishing from a development environment into an institutionally-supported, ICT-run service.
• Finally, PS is arranging a couple of internal CLOCK ‘hack days’ (to take place on 17th-18th May, in Cambridge) – more details to follow.

~~~

1. CILIP UC&R Members’ Day: Making an Impact

De Montfort University, Leicester. 28 June, 2011

• I gave a presentation.

This workshop for CILIP members was looking at various ways in which libraries can have (and can measure) their ‘impact’. I spoke first about Lincoln’s involvement in the University of Huddersfield’s Library Impact Data Project (LIDP), and how that project is trying (successfully, it seems) to measure the relationship between students’ library use and their degree ‘success’.

Then DMU subject librarian Jason Eyre talked about his PITSTOP project, which built a mediated forum for online discussion between Social Work students on placement, their lecturers, and their practice educators (in the NHS and local authorities). Jason explained that while the online discussion forum itself was not very well used, the impact of the project was that is acted as a catalyst for building a better relationship between students, academics, practice educators, and the library.

After a very well-run World Café session, where we moved around between different tables, each themed with a different aspect of ‘impact’ in libraries – and then lunch, information management consultant David Streatfield presented on the difficulties of measuring and evaluating the impact that academic libraries can have. He outlined some of the different approaches that have been taken in the past, and how those approaches can be less than successful in an environment of government pressure to control public service provision.

Lastly, Maria Cotera, former president of the CILIP Career Development Group, told us several anecdotes about the ways she has seen library workers make an impact themselves, through their involvement in staff development, social, and extra-professional activities. In an exercise, all the delegates came up with an example of a shared pressure or circumstance in our home institutions that could be turned into an opportunity for staff development.

Thanks to Marie Nicholson and the UC&R East Midlands committee for inviting me to speak! Twitter hashtag: #UCREMimpact.

~~~

2. EMALINK event on collection development

University of Lincoln. 29 June, 2011

• I gave a presentation.

This was another East Midlands event, and the first EMALINK event held in Lincoln since we joined that network. It was organised, jointly, by the University of Lincoln, our neighbours Bishop Grosseteste University College, and Nottingham Trent University (NTU). The theme was the lifecycle of collection management: from selection and acquisition, through analysis and review of collections, and finally disposal.

NTU kicked off with a look at their work to incorporate Talis Aspire into the DNA of their library: they’re building a set of resource selection and allocation processes that are strongly driven by the resource lists built by academics using Aspire. Lincoln responded with two short presentations about collection analysis: our project to compare the strengths and weaknesses (in size, breadth, and age) of the various subject collections in our physical bookstock with the relative sizes of the student body in different subject areas; and our work to determine value for money in ‘Big Deal’ database subscriptions. Finally, Susan Rodda from Bishop Grosseteste talked about the options for disposing of unwanted physical library stock, and how BG have managed, for several years, to weed their collection without sending any paper to landfill.

~~~

3. JISC Managing Research Data Programme (#jiscmrd) community briefing event

Goodenough College, London. 1 July, 2011

On Friday, I attended this briefing event for the current JISC research data funding call for proposals, on Joss Winn‘s behalf. The JISC programme manager ran through the requirements and expectations for the various strands of this current call. Kevin Ashley of the Digital Curation Centre also presented: about how the DCC can support and work with institutions who are running research data management projects. See hashtag: #jiscmrd for information about the programme.

~~~

4. JISC Innovations in Activity Data workshop

The Open University, Milton Keynes. 4 July, 2011

After a long, Sunday-afternoon train journey to Milton Keynes, I paid my first ever visit to the OU’s Walton Hall campus for another activity data-related event, this time organised and hosted by the team behind the JISC-funded RISE (“Recommendations Improve the Search Experience”) project.

The day began with three presentations from projects funded under the current JISC activity data strand:

1. Joy Palmer of MIMAS and the SALT project (“Surfacing the Academic Long Tail”: MIMAS working with the John Rylands University Library of the University of Manchester);
2. RISE themselves (Richard Nurse of the OU) talking about how they are using EZProxy log data to power a recommendation service (“…users who looked at this, also looked at these…“);
3. Via video link, live from Huddersfield: Dave Pattern talking about LIDP.

Then, another World Café-type exercise (two in one week!). We moved about the room, scribbling on the tablecloths, making notes about: [a] what activity data universities have at their disposal; [b] what use we might put it to; and [c] what barriers are in our way.

In the afternoon: two more presentations. The OU’s Tony Hirst (a.k.a. @psychemedia), rattling and rambling through various techniques for visualising activity data. This is really valuable stuff… what I’m less clear about is: where’s the first rung of the dataviz ladder? How does a muggle start thinking about data visualisation? Tony says that many of the techniques he writes about are things he “didn’t know how to do a couple of hours before…“, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the rest of us will find them as easy to pick up! Tony’s coming to Lincoln soon, so I’m going to try and talk to him about data visualisation a bit more then.

Last of all, David Kay (of SERO and the JISC activity data Synthesis Project: kind of an umbrella for all of these separate activity data initiatives) summed things up nicely: including an excellent slide listing the kinds of skills library workers are going to have to develop in order to do justice to activity data: including data visualisation, again! I’ll post that slide here, if and when I can find it.

There was a little bit of activity on Twitter for this workshop: look for the hashtag #iad11.

~~~

A colleague (Acquisitions Librarian, Di Walker) and I are giving a presentation about how we’ve used e-resources usage data to help make collection decisions about ‘Big Deal’ databases. Our slides are online.

We’re hosting this EMALINK workshop jointly with Bishop Grosseteste University College and Nottingham Trent University.

 

University of Lincoln

The Library

EMALINK event on 29^th June 2011, 2pm

Meetings room 1, 1^st floor, enterprise@lincoln building (adjacent to the University Library)

2.00                             Introduction, arrangements – Lys Ann Reiners

2.05                             All change at NTU:  new ways of building and managing collections           Helen Adey and Heather Shaw

2.20                             Is the library collection fit for purpose?         Philippa Dyson

2.35                             What’s it worth?  Getting value for money from e-resources

Di Walker and Paul Stainthorp

2.50-3.30                     Breakout and refreshments

Discussion topic:  “What information do we need to support collection management decisions”

3.30-3.45                     Feedback from groups

3.45                             Green disposals          Susan Rodda

4.00                             Disperse

 

Is that it? Or are there more permutations?

1. Lincoln_GD (@Lincoln_GD)
2. Lincoln Projects (@LincolnProjects)
3. Student as Producer (@studentproducer)
4. Uni Lincoln Cal (@unilincolncal)
5. UniLincolnAAD (@FacultyofAAD)

That is all.

A couple of things have reminded me recently that it might be useful to describe how I use libraries.

Historical interlude: my first experience of libraries would have been in visting Cullercoats/North Tyneside Central public libraries in the ’80s. After moving down to Lincolnshire, I borrowed books from Horncastle public library (more on which later), and used my secondary school’s Jobson Library (named after local benefactor George Jobson).

As an undergraduate, I didn’t use APU’s university library all that much. I remember, vaguely, a library induction talk in a large lecture theatre. I used to cycle in to campus early and read their newspapers before my first lecture. Over three years, I might have borrowed a handful of books (not really course-related) and a few music scores. And occasionally used the study carrels to work on maths assignments, when I really needed to concentrate.

Overall, looking back, it was a bit of a missed opportunity. I didn’t understand the value of the campus library: at the time I was much more excited by our course lab and studio facilities, and by the Sinclair computing centre, which gave me my first taste of the Internet, email, IM, Yahoo! and Lycos, web design and HTML, and which stayed open until 9pm (I remember being surprised and impressed by that; just as I was by the first 24-hour garage I found in Cambridge. Such things did not exist in rural Lincolnshire).

After having worked as a librarian at the University of Lincoln for a few years, I made a slightly better stab at using the services of the Robert Gordon University’s Georgina Scott Sutherland Library while I was studying there for my MSc. Because Aberdeen is a long way away, I never actually visited the library in person (I still haven’t), but I made heavy use of both their e-resources and their postal loans service.

Now, in 2010, I regularly use the services of four libraries:

1. Horncastle public library, which is ten minutes’ walk from my front door. My children go there every week for storytime and activities. From time to time, I check my LibraryThing wishlist against the Lincolnshire County Council ‘Virtual Library‘, and reserve books to read on the bus. (What would be really nice would be if I could point my LCC library account at an RSS feed of my LibraryThing wishlist, and be alerted when a new title becomes available). And I’ve recently been getting into researching my family history, for which the public library’s online access to Ancestry is invaluable. Horncastle library has also been a great place to work ‘from home’ when the roads have been bad this winter. I’ll be pleased when they upgrade from IE6, though.
2. I’ve also joined Essex public libraries. I was tipped off about them by a colleague: they don’t require that you be resident in Essex to join, and they have a very good collection of e-books (Lincolnshire public libraries don’t do e-books, yet). I think I might also still be a member of East Riding Libraries, from when I lived in Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
3. As I mentioned last week, I often base myself in the British Library when I’m in London: because it’s so close to King’s Cross and St Pancras railway stations; because they offer decent, free wi-fi; because there’s always an exhibition to see; and because there’s plenty of coffee to hand.
4. Last but not least, the 5 libraries of the University of Lincoln – because that’s where I work.

Libraries I’d like to visit include the Ward Library, Henry Bloom Noble Library, and Castletown Library (all on the Isle of Man), the Lit & Phil in Newcastle, and Cambridge University Library.

Special commendation to The Lincolnite (@thelincolnite) for doing a proper number on the various disruptions and cancellations. Great use of user-generated content, too. Frankly, they’ve put a number of more established media outlets in the shade. Only @BBCLincolnshire have been half as much use or as entertaining.

And on the subject of Twitter accounts: does anyone know why the University of Lincoln has sprouted so many? Some are “official”, others “unofficial” (heavy scare quotes – I don’t think ‘official’ really means anything on Twitter in the same way that it even does on Facebook – on Twitter, you’re only as reputable as your followers deem you to be). Others are very specialist (e.g. our Repository‘s Twitter feed), belong to the Students’ Union or to individual student societies (and are therefore editorially independent of the University), or are joke accounts.

But it does seem a lot for one modestly-sized university. Is this just the natural ecology of the thing – that accounts will proliferate and go extinct as needs and interests wax and wane? Or is it possible we’ve all got a bit carried away…? (Declaration of interest: I’m responsible for at least one of these.)

1. Uni. of Lincoln (@unilincoln)
2. Uni of Lincoln (@ULopendays)
3. Uni of Lincoln Comms (@WhatsOnLincoln)
4. UL Press Office (@lincolnlatest)
5. UL Update (@ulupdate)
6. Lincoln ISC [International Study Centre] (@lincolnisc) - edit: added 1 December 2010 @ 20:09; thanks, @jamesdoc
7. Riseholme College (@riseholmecolleg)
8. Uni of Lincoln Blogs (@ulblogs)
9. Lincoln Repository (@eprintslincoln)
10. Lincoln Media (@LincolnMedia)
11. Lisma Lumni [LSM alumni] (@LSMAlumni) – edit: added 1 December 2010 @ 20:09; thanks, @jamesdoc
12. Audio Production (@AudioProd_LSM) – edit: added 2 December 2010 @ 20:09; thanks, @AudioProd_LSM
    
13. LSJ [Lincoln School of Journalism] News (@LSJTweets)
14. [Lincoln Performing Arts Centre] (@lincolnLPAC)
15. UL Computing Society (@ulcomputing)
16. ULO [University of Lincoln Orchestra] (@ulorchestra)
17. Lincoln CU [Christian Union] (@ulcu)
18. Lincoln Sci-Fi [Society] (@lincolnscifi)
19. The Drama Society (@thedramasociety)
20. Lincoln SU [Students' Union] (@lincolnSU)
21. Bullet Magazine (@BulletMagazine)
22. The Linc (@thelinc)
23. Marie (@mht_marie), Jane (@mab_jane), and Sheila (@mab_sheila) …the voices of the lifts in two of our campus buildings. Yeah.

Any more for any more?