Transcript JudeEnglandMar2009

Playing an ACE
Access, Collaboration and Engagement
in the British Library
Jude England
Head of Social Science Collections and
Research
March 2009
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Once upon a time…….
“Extraordinary, mummified
late-Victorian world” - Angus
Wilson
Top hats in the Round
Reading Room as late as
1929
Restricted access and little
collaboration
Gatekeepers to Collections
©The British Library Archives
Superintendent, L C Wharton
caricature from The British Library Archives
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Abracadabra……
“ We exist for everyone who wants to do
research – for academic, personal or
commercial purposes”
150 million items, 625 km, 12 km pa: books,
journals newspapers, magazines, comics, oral
history, maps, IGOs, IOR, mss, world
collections,
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©British Library Photographic
Some attitudes persist…….
From The Times April 21, 2008
When Karl Marx created the tenets of Marxism in the
British Library’s Reading Room and Charles Dickens
worked at one of its desks, they did not have to
endure queues, a lack of chairs and tables, and
rooms closed by crowd control……
Speaking to The Times yesterday, Lady Antonia said:
“I had to queue for 20 minutes to get in, in freezing
weather. Then I queued to leave my coat for 20
minutes [at the compulsory check-in]. Then half an
hour to get my books and another 15 minutes to get
my coat. I’m told it’s due to students having access
now. Why can’t they go to their university libraries?”
…………
Ms Tomalin described the crowds as intolerable: “It’s
full of what seem to be schoolgirls giggling. I heard
one saying, ‘I’ve got to write about Islam. Can I have
your notes?’ It’s what you expect to hear in a school.”
©The British Library Archives
Newspaper cuttings from a scrapbook complied by George
Knottesford Fortescue (1847-1912), Keeper of Printed Books,
1899-1912.
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External context
Scope of Social Science and growth in multi-disciplinary research
UK Research Council and Government themes
Funding regimes = competitive and time-poor researchers
Concern about cost and value of research; emphasis on re-use of
research
Wide range of researchers, behaviours and expectations
Long-term research capacity
More emphasis on dissemination, public value and economic
impact
The future is digital……
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Researchers’ attitudes

Google, Google, Google and our digital lives

Distant from libraries - actual and metaphorical

Access and availability: ‘need for speed’

Competitive and selfish

Focus: primary data gathering, remote access, contemporary
material

Need for ethics, authenticity, trusted sources

Forgotten relevance, usefulness and potential of libraries and
archives
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Social Science Collections and Research:
Aims and Strategic Priorities
Aims:
Strategic priorities:
 Provision, management,
transfer, generation of info
 Team creation and
development
 Ideas hub
 Defining and developing a
social science collection
 Capacity building, especially
for new researchers
 Build, develop, exploit
content and collections
 Promote value of research
 Relationship and
awareness building
 Improving accessibility
 Working with the research
community to build capacity
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Issues…….
 Counter-cultural to BL: collecting and keeping vs connecting and
using
 Building internal relationships and awareness
 Getting the team right: IPS, professional skills, digital
understanding
 Interest and enthusiasm varies by discipline; can be hard to
reach, find, talk to
 Heterogeneous audience: academics, third sector, government
 Defining content: format, discipline, theme, location?
 Managing scale and finding a way in…… and partners……
 Catalogues and digital issues (local vs corporate
responsibilities)
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Lessons learned….
 Seed, seed and seed again
 Network, network and network again
 Persuasive, patient, adaptable, tenacious, flexible, innovative,
passionate, ambitious team members are essential
 Need awareness of world of researcher and access to a common
language; ideally understand research methodology
 Need awareness of digital world and digital skills, plus IP, copyright and
permissions
 Find doable and manageable tasks, and many ‘hooks’: entice, inspire,
excite
 Social scientists ‘do’ history…….
 Support dissemination and knowledge exchange
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In practice……
©Clive Sherlock
 Linking with social science research community: academic,
government, third sector
 Developing tailored resources e.g. Business and Management studies
website personalised portal; Olympics web resource; Welfare Reform on the Web;
collection guides and bibliographies; mapping resources
 Partnerships (formal and informal): ESRC; LSE and OUSSL; ESDS; TNA
 Research collaborations: Voices of the UK; Children’s play in the media age;
henstock; second wave feminists
 Active support to knowledge exchange e.g. ESRC-funded CSR and
multi-modal seminar series; University of Sheffield SERX; ESRC Interns;
collaborative Phd
 Hub: Welfare Reform on the Web at 10; TNA/BL events programme; ESDS
seminars; ESRC Festival of Social Science; hosting events (SRA, UKES, SCOLMA,
GLIG, AcSS, BSA, ESRC)
 Capacity building: Postgraduate training days; census 2011; public events
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An ACE invitation and challenge!
The oldest profession or the ladies of the night: complied by
Richard Cullen, 1993
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An Oral History of Prostitution
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The words of the respondents…
• Lauren
• Karl
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Conclusion and Contact
Jude England (0)20 7412 7670
Alt extn: 7487
Email: [email protected]
Head-Social Science Collections & Research
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
©British Library Website
Available at www.bl.uk
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