Radical Collections Conference 3 March 2017

The Library & Information History Group is offering a student bursary to attend the Radical Collections Conference (organised by Senate House Library, Institute of English Studies and Institute of Historical Research) at Senate House, London, 3 March 2017. Libraries and archives have a subtle but powerful impact on the dissemination of knowledge through selection, accession and collection development, to cataloguing and arrangement. These are important topics for students of the information professions and the conference organisers hope for a high attendance from students of British library schools to encourage reflection amongst the next generation of librarians and archivists on the responsibilities they will hold as well as the opportunities. Within the contexts of rapidly changing technology and library use, the discussion of who works in libraries, who uses libraries, what is being collected and how it is being organised, attendees to the conference can consider and help to create a vision for the future of the profession. 

To apply for this bursary, please send a one page CV and a statement outlining why you would like to attend the conference to the Group's Chair, Renae Satterley: r.satterley@middletemple.org.uk by Monday 9 January 2017. The recipient will be required to write a report of the conference for the LIHG newsletter. Preference will be given to members of CILIP and/or LIHG. Membership to CILIP is free for students on library, information and knowledge related courses in the UK and overseas, and to graduate trainees on a library, information and knowledge work-based scheme. Membership to LIHG as group-only member costs £39 - click here for more details. 

Information and its Communication in Wartime 25-26 July 2017

The Library and Information Group is offering a student bursary to attend Information and its Communication in Wartime at The School of Advanced Study, Senate House, London on 25-26 July 2017.  The bursary will cover the conference fee and up to £150 towards travel and accommodation costs.  Anyone interested in applying should send a one-page CV and a paragraph explaining his or her interest in the subject to Simon Eliot at simon.eliot@sas.ac.uk.  The successful candidate will be invited to write a report on the conference for the Committee's newsletter. 

As part of the AHRC-funded project, 'A Publishing and Communications History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-1946', The School of Advanced Studies is holding an international conference on the subject of information and its communication in wartime. Although we have a particular interest in the Second World War, we wish to set this in a much larger context, so would welcome papers discussing the theme in any period and in any area.  Among the subjects that might be addressed are:

Reporting from the frontline

The home front

Mobilising writers

Control of news

Censorship

The uses of religion

Rumour

Representing the enemy

Graphic and other non-textual means of communication

Slogans and icons

The periodical press

Ephemera

Distribution in wartime

Anticipating a post-war world

Please send proposals (maximum 300 words) for papers of twenty minutes length, along with a short biographical note (maximum 100 words) to Professor Simon Eliot (simon.eliot@sas.ac.uk) by 15 December 2016.

The Library and Information History Group is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2016 Library History Essay Award is Craig Robertson for his essay, 'Paper, Information and Identity in 1920s America' published in Information & Culture, vol. 50, no. 3 (2015), pp. 392-416.

Is there really ‘no way to guarantee that internet use at the library will remain private’, and have librarians ‘got the whole privacy thing wrong’, asks Paul Pedley, as he considers what the information profession can and should be doing to protect the privacy of its users.

MELANIE Schlosser writes that ‘libraries have a mission to educate users about copy­right’ 1 It got me thinking about whether the information profession considers that it has a similar mission to educate users about digital literacy, and more specifically how they protect their privacy in the online world.

In this article, I want to ask four key questions:

1. are librarians able to guarantee the privacy of their users?

2. what are the risks of a data breach?

3. what can and should librarians be doing to protect the privacy of their users? And finally

4. does it matter?

Are librarians able to guarantee the privacy of their users?

Librarians cannot provide an absolute guarantee to protect the privacy of their users. As Matt Beckstrom says: ‘There is no way to guarantee that internet use at the library will remain private. There are just too many ways for someone to lose their privacy, and too many ways for the advertisers, governments and hackers on the internet to steal that privacy’.

Marshall Breeding makes a similar point: ‘One of the realities of the internet lies in the ability for any third party to intercept the transmissions of information as it travels among devices and servers. Wireless networks are an especially easy target. It has to be assumed today that any information transmitted as clear text across a local network or the internet will be intercepted and used’. For me, that leads on ­naturally to the issue of encryption. Does your library website, for example, use https://? One resource worth looking at is https://letsencrypt.org which is a free certification authority.

In a recent webinar Mike Robinson said librarians have done a good job of protecting privacy in the print world, but that in the online world they are somewhat lacking (I am paraphrasing, hopefully conveying the sentiment intended).

In a tweet dated 26 June 2016, TJ Lamanna said: ‘We keep talking about how libraries are heralds of privacy, but we are terrible at it’. Meanwhile, Hugh Rundle says: ‘Librarians talk good talk about user privacy but continue to use (and build) software that provides no protection from snooping librarians, contractors or ­police’, explaining that ‘librarians have tended to prioritise functions that make our lives easier rather than those that make library users’ lives easier’.

Joseph Esposito says: ‘Libraries have, with the best of intentions in the world, taken a strong position on privacy, and they have lost. They got the whole privacy thing all wrong. Rather than participate in the policies of their institutions and the many organisations that interact with them, they have abdicated their role and are now watching as their institutions are being colonized by commercial interests, which are no longer answerable to libraries’.

One thing is clear, copyright and intellectual property rights are far better covered in the literature than data protection and privacy. The analysis in Fig 1 found that copyright was covered 4.5 times more often than privacy.

Figure 1: The chart illustrates the number of articles on ProQuest Library Science as at 26 June, based on the following searches: TI,AB (librar*) AND TI,AB(privacy OR data ­protection); and TI,AB(librar*) AND TI,AB (copyright OR intellectual property).

Figure 2 is based on the following search on Proquest ­Library Science: librar* AND (data OR privacy) AND breach*).

What are the risks of a data breach?

There are a number of things which can cause a data breach. I have gathered some examples of incidents affecting libraries in which a data breach did occur, or where the incident could have led to a data breach, and these were attributable to the following causes:

• software upgrade glitch (which left personally identifiable information unintentionally exposed after the upgrade had taken place)
• misconfigured database
• insider threat (for example, an ­employee stole information about other library ­employees)
• a hacking attack
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks are becoming a routine strategy used by cybercriminals intent on committing fraud or extortion
• human error
• ransomware.

There are examples of data breaches from the LibraryPrivacyBlog. Vendors serving the library and information sector have also been responsible for a number of data breaches. A few examples include:

• In 2005 Reed Elsevier – owner of LexisNexis reported that social security numbers, drivers license information and addresses of 310,000 people may have been stolen
• There were reports in 2013 that reporters at Bloomberg News used a function that tracks how recently a Bloomberg client has logged in as a way of generating story leads about personnel changes.
• In autumn 2014 there were a number of reports that Adobe Digital Editions was sending back to the Adobe servers in plain (unencrypted) text details including a list of books read
• A tie-in between Overdrive and Amazon led to accusations that their library lending program was ‘anti-user, anti-intellectual freedom, anti-library’ and that libraries have been ‘screwed‘. This was because of concerns over the data about library users’ borrowing practices being in the hands of a corporation

My research has identified other types of example:

• should library users fear that their use of the library will lead to ridicule, or public humiliation? Nearly a decade ago, a library employee, using a pen name, wrote a book  based on a number of library users. The names of the individuals weren’t used, but detailed descriptions of their unique characteristics and mannerisms were said to have made them easily identifiable within their small community[i].
• is it right for library users to have anything they search for on the library’s website beamed to the world in real-time? According to the Toronto Metro, the city’s public library uses Google Analytics, pulls the search topics together in a single place and shows this information in real time.

One question that libraries and their parent organisations need to ask is whether they have an internal data breach reporting procedure in place, and if not they should put one in place as a matter of priority. ­Doing so can help them meet the data breach notification requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation which is due for implementation by May 2018.

What can and should librarians be doing to protect the privacy of their users?

Here are just a few examples of practical steps that librarians can take in order to protect the privacy of their users.

1. Default search engine

Bookmark a search engine which respects user privacy as the home page, such as StartPage or Duckduckgo

2. Default browser

Use a browser which respects privacy such as Firefox rather than Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge

3. https

Websites that don’t use secure protocols such as https expose their users to surveillance and intrusion in the network. The Library Freedom Project had a campaign – the Library Digital Privacy Pledge – to encourage libraries to implement https on their web services.

4. Licence agreements

Check licence agreements and terms of service for privacy statements. When negotiating licences for new products, or organising the renewal of existing licences, use the opportunity to check the wording of privacy clauses and if necessary negotiate for them to be suitably amended.

5. Ad-blocking software

Install ad-blocking software. Some privacy campaigners advise against using Ghostery, whose parent company (Evidon) sells data to advertisers which helps them better formulate their ads to avoid being blocked.

6. Organise a cryptoparty

In May 2016, Newcastle City Library held a cryptoparty. ‘A cryptoparty is an informal gathering of individuals where people discuss, learn and share their knowledge of tools and systems to protect their privacy and electronic communications’. Cryptoparties can cover things like the use of the Tor Browser, PGP and full disc encryption.

7. Area on website dedicated to privacy issues

Create a dedicated area on the website about privacy (see San José Public Library's Virtual Privacy Lab).  

8. Digital literacy training

Develop digital literacy training sessions for your users including information on how to protect one’s privacy whilst browsing the web. Matt Beckstrom says ‘teaching patrons how to use the internet, but not how to use it safely is like showing someone how to drive a car, but not where the seatbelt is.’

9. Automatically return library PCs to their native state

Use software such as Clean Slate which lets users simply log off in order to discard unwanted user changes to the desktop, programs, and documents. Another alternative would be Deepfreeze.

10. Carry out a cyber security risk management audit

A recent write up of a cyber security risk management audit, and the criteria used can be found in Code{4}Lib.

11. Privacy impact assessment

When new services are introduced, or any changes are made to the way those services are delivered, and/or when libraries switch technology provider, do they automatically think about the privacy implications.

Does it matter?

In short, yes it does matter. CILIP members are required to abide by the institute’s ­ethical principles as well as its code of professional practice. Respecting the privacy of our users is one example of how our ethical principles mark us out as being information professionals.

Here are the views of three commentators:

• Privacy is important if the library is to remain a vibrant marketplace of ideas
• Public libraries are among the last protectors of privacy in contemporary society
• If we cannot (or do not) protect the intellectual privacy of our users, then we are failing as professionals.

In the late 18th century, Jeremy Bentham designed the Panopticon, a prison with a watchtower, where prisoners could be watched from above, but where the prisoners could never be sure when or whether anyone was actually watching them. The mere thought that they MIGHT be being watched had a chilling effect which led them to behave differently. Here are two examples in a library context:

• A study at Central Michigan University’s Park Library found that LGBT material was borrowed 20 per cent more if done by self-check than using the traditional circulation desk
• A young woman stopped short of printing out her research on sexually transmitted diseases when she learnt that the printer was at the front desk [ii]. 

Privacy and behavioural change

What occurs to me, though, is that privacy does indeed change behaviour, but not just the behaviour of the person who knows or who thinks that they are being watched, or that their searches and borrowing activity is being closely scrutinised and shared with third parties. What if those who know something about you change their behaviour ­because they know something that you would rather they didn’t. What if they behaved in a discriminatory manner towards you, all because of what they know (for example, the willingness to offer you a product or service, or if they were to use price discrimination based on the personally identifiable information that they hold about you).

Update Magazine

This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, November 2016.

There are lots of ways for CILIP members to access the full range of articles published in Update, including

• A monthly print version of the magazine
• A digital version of each new publication
• The full archive of previous editions
• Downloading the Update app on Android or Apple.

Non-CILIP members can subscribe to the digital version of the magazine or join CILIP to get access to the full range of benefits.

Read Update Magazine

http://communicatoremail.com/E...

CILIP, the library and information association, has issued a statement outlining serious concerns about Swindon Council's library proposals and the way in which they have been reached. The proposals include closing ten out of fifteen libraries unless community groups come forward to run them.

In a statement Nick Poole CILIP Chief Executive said:

CILIP operates under a Royal Charter which requires us to intervene to promote the adequate provision of library and information services to meet the needs of the public.

We have therefore taken the extraordinary step of issuing this statement expressing our serious concerns at the proposals set out by Swindon Borough Council in the paper Securing a sustainable future for Swindon’s Library Services and the process by which they have been reached.

In summary, the Council’s proposals are to:

• Reduce the complement of libraries in Swindon to a ‘core service’ of five
• Further reduce the staffed hours of these libraries to fifteen hours a week
• Transfer the remaining ten libraries to community ownership
• Discontinue all mobile library services
• Discontinue the deposit and collection service currently provided to residential care homes
• Continue the existing ‘home library’ service

We note that these proposals are less severe than the model originally put forward to public consultation. However, given that one of the five ‘core’ libraries, Park Library, is completely unfunded and the remainder will be operating on severely limited staff, we feel that the proposed model falls far short of any reasonable definition of a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service. 

Having reviewed the publicly-available documentation, we feel that there are serious concerns to be addressed about the public consultation conducted on behalf of the Council. We note that the financial decision concerning the level of budget reduction had been made prior to the consultation – in effect rendering the consultation meaningless, given that insufficient funds were allocated to provide for anything other than the model now put forward to Council Cabinet.

We note in the Cabinet papers that the concerns that were voiced by thousands of Swindon residents have not been addressed and are instead dismissed under the overall context of affordability. Similarly, we note that a staff-led proposal to establish an independent trust – a model that is seeing some success elsewhere in the country – has been dismissed without appropriate consideration on the grounds of affordability.

Again, we consider this prejudicial to the appropriate conduct of public and staff consultation as required under the terms of the 1964 Public Libraries Act as set out in the Government’s own guidance:

“Local authorities have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 ‘to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons’ in the area that want to make use of it (section 7). In considering how best to deliver the statutory duty each library authority is responsible for determining, through consultation, the local needs and to deliver a modern and efficient library service that meets the requirements of their communities within available resources.”

We note that the Council is considering the transition, with some support, of ten libraries to community-led models. The paper asserts that similar models in neighbouring Wiltshire are ‘working well’, but makes no qualitative assessment of the viability of these models for Swindon. We note that up to 400 individuals have expressed an interest in being involved in the running of these libraries, but would strongly caution the Council to be aware that this fits a general pattern of significant initial interest which tapers away sharply in the first 2-3 years of operation. We also caution the Council to be fully aware of the limitations of community-led libraries, which cannot in all cases offer the full range of library services to which taxpayers are entitled.

We have reviewed the publicly-available financial papers considered by Council, and specifically the document 2016-17 Budget Management and 2017-18 Draft Budget to be laid before Cabinet on the 7 December 2016.  

It is clear that the Council is in a very challenging financial position, and we understand and appreciate the consideration and effort that has gone into budget management. However, we also note that other Councils, facing similar budget reductions, have been able to do more to preserve their paid and staffed library services. We note from the accompanying Peer Review that the Council is commended on their efforts in managing the impact of significant reductions in centrally-distributed grant. However, the Peer Review focuses more on managing the potential negative reputational fallout than it does on seeking to protect frontline services to the greatest extent possible.

In short, we believe from the papers that rather than entering into the process of consultation without prejudice, a highly prejudicial decision was made concerning budget allocation to the library service and that the end result is a service that has been hollowed-out to the point at which it can no longer be considered ‘comprehensive and efficient’.

We believe that there are three potential routes for the Council to follow:

• The first is to re-engage with the proposal put forward by staff and to seek to negotiate a solution which fulfils more of the criteria they have set out, as reflected in the public consultation.
• The second is to place the burden of responsibility for this situation back onto Central Government. If Central Government has placed the Council in an impossible position in respect of paying for statutory services, then the Council ought to declare its position and petition the Government for a remedy.
• The third is for the Secretary of State to exercise his powers to intervene in the development of library services, where there is any “serious doubt or uncertainty as to whether the local authority is (or may cease to be) complying with its legal obligation to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service.” Given the severity of the proposed service reductions we fail to see how these proposals can be interpreted otherwise.

We are fully aware of the challenges confronting Local Authorities across the country and are committed to working with Councils to secure the best outcome. The proposals put forward by Swindon Council are the most damaging we have seen to any library service anywhere in the country. We therefore urge the Council either to reconsider the proposals or to take corresponding action before continuing on this path, which calls into doubt both the execution of their duties and the right of Swindon’s residents to benefit from a statutory library service.

-ends-

Press contact

Mark Taylor
Director of External Relations, CILIP
mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
020 7255 0654
07792 635 305

Notes for editors      

CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. Visit cilip.org.uk 

           Regional Training Day in Kent.  A reprise of the day on 26th October 2016, by popular demand.                  

Course providing participants with a background to mentoring witha framework for conducting mentoring short and long term mentoring programmes and is a requisite for those of you looking to become a CILIP Mentor.

This one-day workshop gives an overview of developments in openness in Open Science, Open Data, Open Access and Open Monographs, framed within the context of a disruptive technology. 

Who should attend?

Research, information and library professionals keen to understand the impact of Open Science, Open Data and Open Access on their work, their institutions and the current and future services they provide for their users.

CILIP’s Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB)

2. Knowledge and information management: 2.2 Information management
2. Knowledge and information management: 2.3 Data management
2. Knowledge and information management: 2.5 Knowledge transfer
4. Research skills: 4.1 Understanding research
5. Information governance and compliance: 5.1 Information governance
5. Information governance and compliance: 5.3 Copyright, intellectual property and licensing
7. Collection management and development: 7.1 Collection management
7. Collection management and development: 7.3 Selection of materials and resources
12. IT and communication: 12.2 Library, information and knowledge technologies
?

CILIP, the library and information association, is excited to announce that Dr Carla Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress will be the opening speaker at the CILIP Conference 2017. The first African American and first female to be appointed to the prestigious role, Dr Hayden was nominated by President Barack Obama in February and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2016.

Listed by Fortune Magazine in the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders Dr Hayden heads the Library of Congress as it moves to grow its influence and reach through digital transformation and opening up access.  

“This is an amazing opportunity to connect with library professionals around the globe to generate ideas and build relationships,” said Librarian of Congress Carla D. Hayden.  “When librarians get together something great happens. So I’m looking forward to attending the CILIP Conference in Manchester.”

Only the third trained librarian to head up the Library of Congress in its 216 year history, Dr Hayden has held numerous high profile information roles and recently oversaw a $112 million restoration of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. As head of the Baltimore system of twenty-two Pratt libraries Dr Hayden won praise for community outreach and developing services that met the diverse needs of Baltimore’s residents. During civil unrest in Baltimore she received recognition for keeping the libraries open citywide to provide essential information services and safe havens. She served as President of the American Library Association in 2002/3.

The largest library in the world, the Library of Congress holds more than 162 million items, including many unique items from America’s history. It oversees the U.S. Copyright Office and the Congressional Research Service.

The CILIP Conference takes place 5-6 July 2017 in Manchester and will bring information, library and knowledge professionals together to discuss, understand and share insight into the key issues for the sector. Previous conference speakers include co-founder of the Open Data Institute Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, civil rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, author of The Atlas of New Librarianship R.D Lankes and editor of Inside Time Erwin James.

New for the 2017 conference will be the introduction of a Future Trends strand aimed at Heads of Service, Senior Managers and decision makers, and will focus on the key changes we face in the future, how they will impact us and what we can do to prepare and influence the outcome. The conference will also include a range of expert-led workshops to encourage discussion, knowledge sharing and cross-sector learning to provide delegates with the practical skills and knowledge to positively influence the future. Book your place at the CILIP Conference 2017 for an early-bird discount. The call for papers is now open.

-ends-

Press contact

Mark Taylor
Director of External Relations, CILIP
mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
020 7255 0654
07792 635 305

Notes for editors      

1. Photograph, Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress, credit Shawn Miller

2.CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. Visit cilip.org.uk 

In 2010, author and professor Clay Shirky delivered a rousing TED talk in which he used the phrase ‘cognitive surplus’ to describe the one trillion hours of leisure time humans collectively have each year (a great deal of which is spent watching television), which could be harnessed to advance human knowledge through civic engagement. He concluded that: ‘free cultures get what they celebrate. [...If we] celebrate and support and reward the people trying to use cognitive surplus to create civic value [...] we’ll be able to change society’. One way that Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums (GLAMs) can harness cognitive surplus is through web-based crowdsourcing.

What can Crowdsourcing offer GLAMs?

Academic crowdsourcing invites members of the public to work with specialists to conduct research, for example, to transcribe documents or add metadata to a collection of images, video or audio clips. This data is used in real science, social science, or humanities investigations and should, ideally, lead to publication. Crowdsourcing within GLAMs may not be oriented around a specific research question or publication, but around making collections more accessible for future research and accessibility. GLAM crowdsourcing can be the seedbed of future scholarly research.

Zooniverse is the world leading research crowdsourcing platform, hosting over sixty bespoke projects in diverse subject areas, and provides a free platform where anyone can build their own project. The non-profit platform was founded at the University of Oxford in 2007 with a single crowdsourcing project called Galaxy Zoo. We now have branches at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Zooniverse has since partnered with academics and GLAM professionals around the world to produce projects in a range of STEM subjects (from astrophysics to ecology to climatology) and more recently in GLAM and humanities subjects (from papyrology to art history to renaissance English literature). Initiatives in the library sector include the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s move to classify illustrations from early periodicals and a joint initiative with the New York Public Library to transcribe historic mortgage and bond ledgers from immigrants to the city.

GLAMs have been engaging volunteers with their collections for well over a century, usually by inviting select individuals into an institution and training them to do work that cannot be done by staff due to time or money constraints. On site volunteers often build up valuable knowledge and skills and contribute a great deal to their chosen institutions, but training and supervising them also poses challenges. There is a limit to how many volunteers can be trained, supported on site, and indeed attracted and retained in the first place. Online volunteering enabled by crowdsourcing platforms, such as Zooniverse.org offer an alternative or complementary form of engagement that has many benefits. Online projects can reach a wider range of individuals—including those who are less able-bodied or unable to travel. Such projects require less training and time commitment from volunteers and typically attract a larger number of participants than on site programs.They also enable GLAMs to open up rare collections to the public without concern for their material safety and security.

How does Zooniverse work?

All bespoke Zooniverse projects, including those built on the free project builder have a few core components that differentiate them and the platform as a whole from other crowdsourcing projects and platforms. Each image, audio or video file (data point) is independently assessed by multiple individuals, whose responses are then aggregated using a variety of algorithms to determine what is in a given image. With relatively quick tasks, such as animal identification in Snapshot Serengeti, upwards of 70 people will see each image, whereas with more complex text transcription tasks, three to 10 people will do each line or page (depending on the project). Studies have found that non-expert classifiers are nearly as good as experts, with Zooniverse data used in well over 100 publications.[i] All projects have an object-oriented discussion forum called Talk. Here volunteers can ask questions, interact with researchers and fellow volunteers, create their own ‘collections’, and use hashtags to group together areas of interest. An example of the latter is #female from the Science Gossip project, which indicates mention of female proto-citizen scientists of the nineteenth century.

Another important feature is the ability to address project datasets where they are too large to be processed in house. The Zooniverse platform offers the chance to engage people with a large-scale dataset that might otherwise be neglected. In the GLAM context this offers the chance to profile collections that are unlikely ever to be transcribed or analysed in greater detail by existing staff.

Zooniverse in Action

The first Zooniverse humanities project was Ancient Lives, which invited volunteers to transcribe ancient papyri one letter at a time using a clickable keyboard on their screen. Volunteers only needed to character match and did not have to be fluent in ancient Greek. Real time translation of transcriptions gave volunteers the chance to understand the texts they were working on, and flag up discoveries of unknown works by ancient writers. A blog kept volunteers up to date with the research team’s work and explained how the crowdsourced data was being used. The team of 250,000+ volunteers made more than 1.5 million transcriptions between 2011 and 2014.

The next Zooniverse humanities project was Operation War Diary, launched in 2014 to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War. This partnership between the National Archives (UK), the Imperial War Museum, and Zooniverse invites users to tag and transcribe dates, times, places, and names found in British WWI field diaries. Volunteers are also asked to interpret the diaries by adding tags from a drop down list, such as coming under fire, recuperation, eating, sport, and so on. Historian Richard Grayson has used the data to penetrate more deeply than ever before into records of soldiers’ daily lives on the front.[ii]

All of the project metadata will eventually be integrated into the National Archive catalogues, although not as soon as hoped due to character length limitations in the free text field originally designated to hold the material. This limitation raises an important for any GLAM specialist seeking to harness crowdsourcing at their institution: does your content management system (CMS) support the storage of extra metadata and if not where can you make the results of a crowdsourcing project available? Github is a viable option, as is a bespoke website maintained by your institution, but be sure to investigate this before embarking on a crowdsourcing project. 

In the case of project AnnoTate, a partnership between Tate archives and museums and Zooniverse, a new CMS is able to accommodate the large amounts of free text and extra metadata. Tate wanted to create a crowdsourcing project as a means of democratizing access to their collections of artists’ sketchbooks, letters, diaries and other papers: documents that are not typically accessible to non-specialists. As of November 2016 the project has attracted 1,323 registered volunteers and many unregistered visitors, who have retired 10,464 pages. Retirement in this case means that each line has been transcribed by at least three people whose transcriptions concur on 95% of the characters in the line with anaverage agreement of 97%.

In developing AnnoTate and Shakespeare’s World, my driving research question was: how could we simplify the rather difficult task of full text transcription? This was particularly the case for the early modern English manuscripts from the Folger Shakespeare Library (our Shakespeare’s World partner). I drew inspiration from Ancient Lives and Operation War Diary, as well as the less likely muse: Penguin Watch. 

Ancient Lives taught me that it’s possible to make hard tasks accessible through the right interface design. What could have been a project targeted at specialists became instead, a project for anyone capable of pattern recognition. In Shakespeare’s World volunteers transcribe using their keyboard, but can also click buttons on their transcription box on the screen to capture frequently occurring brevigraphs (handwritten abbreviations) such as ‘ye’ for the, or wch for which, etc. This approach blends the Ancient Lives functionality with regular typing. 

 

Operation War Diary is too complex and asks too much time of users. My advice to you is to keep your project workflow concise and compelling and focus on the most important aspect of the data for your institution or researchers? A successful crowdsourcing project does not attempt to gather all of the available information, but to gather a comprehensive and meaningful strand of information about a given collection. The free project builder means you can readily launch another project to tackle different aspects of the same dataset. 

Penguin Watch, which just asks you to click on individual penguins, taught me the beauty (and addictiveness) of simplicity. I wanted to bring simplicity and brevity to transcription, and so both AnnoTate and Shakespeare’s World allow users to transcribe a single line or short phrase at a time, by clicking on either side of a line or phrase and transcribing it into a pop-up box. Although a page might be complex, long or hard to read, most people can spare a minute or less to transcribe a line. Grey dots appear around lines that are deemed complete by our algorithms, which redirect people’s efforts to unfinished lines. To date Shakespeare’s World has 2,479 registered volunteers as well as non-registered people who have submitted 87,433 lines of transcription and retired 2,819 pages. 

The tools underlying projects such as Penguin Watch and Galaxy Zoo are already available on the free project builder, while full text and audio transcription tools are currently under development with the generous support of an Institute of Museums and Libraries grant. Text transcription will probably be available in 2017, followed by audio transcription tools in 2018 and 2019. 

Get Involved 

GLAM organizations keen to develop their own crowdsourcing projects should explore the available documentation on how to build a project, and best practices), which guide you through the design, launch and long term phases of a project. While building a project is easy and requires relatively little technical support from Zooniverse or your institution, make sure you have the time to support your volunteers. Zooniverse’s Talk, social media such as blogging, Twitter, Instagram, and indeed in person or on site events all provide important channels for engaging volunteers with your collections. Crowdsourcing projects, like puppies and kittens, are not just for Christmas. 

In 2010, author and professor Clay Shirky delivered a rousing TED talk in which he used the phrase ‘cognitive surplus’ to describe the one trillion hours of leisure time humans collectively have each year (a great deal of which is spent watching television), which could be harnessed to advance human knowledge through civic engagement. He concluded that: ‘free cultures get what they celebrate. [...If we] celebrate and support and reward the people trying to use cognitive surplus to create civic value [...] we’ll be able to change society’. One way that Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums (GLAMs) can harness cognitive surplus is through web-based crowdsourcing.

What can Crowdsourcing offer GLAMs?

Academic crowdsourcing invites members of the public to work with specialists to conduct research, for example, to transcribe documents or add metadata to a collection of images, video or audio clips. This data is used in real science, social science, or humanities investigations and should, ideally, lead to publication. Crowdsourcing within GLAMs may not be oriented around a specific research question or publication, but around making collections more accessible for future research and accessibility. GLAM crowdsourcing can be the seedbed of future scholarly research.

Zooniverse is the world leading research crowdsourcing platform, hosting over sixty bespoke projects in diverse subject areas, and provides a free platform where anyone can build their own project. The non-profit platform was founded at the University of Oxford in 2007 with a single crowdsourcing project called Galaxy Zoo. We now have branches at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Zooniverse has since partnered with academics and GLAM professionals around the world to produce projects in a range of STEM subjects (from astrophysics to ecology to climatology) and more recently in GLAM and humanities subjects (from papyrology to art history to renaissance English literature). Initiatives in the library sector include the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s move to classify illustrations from early periodicals and a joint initiative with the New York Public Library to transcribe historic mortgage and bond ledgers from immigrants to the city.

GLAMs have been engaging volunteers with their collections for well over a century, usually by inviting select individuals into an institution and training them to do work that cannot be done by staff due to time or money constraints. On site volunteers often build up valuable knowledge and skills and contribute a great deal to their chosen institutions, but training and supervising them also poses challenges. There is a limit to how many volunteers can be trained, supported on site, and indeed attracted and retained in the first place. Online volunteering enabled by crowdsourcing platforms, such as Zooniverse.org offer an alternative or complementary form of engagement that has many benefits. Online projects can reach a wider range of individuals—including those who are less able-bodied or unable to travel. Such projects require less training and time commitment from volunteers and typically attract a larger number of participants than on site programs.They also enable GLAMs to open up rare collections to the public without concern for their material safety and security.

How does Zooniverse work?

All bespoke Zooniverse projects, including those built on the free project builder have a few core components that differentiate them and the platform as a whole from other crowdsourcing projects and platforms. Each image, audio or video file (data point) is independently assessed by multiple individuals, whose responses are then aggregated using a variety of algorithms to determine what is in a given image. With relatively quick tasks, such as animal identification in Snapshot Serengeti, upwards of 70 people will see each image, whereas with more complex text transcription tasks, three to 10 people will do each line or page (depending on the project). Studies have found that non-expert classifiers are nearly as good as experts, with Zooniverse data used in well over 100 publications.[i] All projects have an object-oriented discussion forum called Talk. Here volunteers can ask questions, interact with researchers and fellow volunteers, create their own ‘collections’, and use hashtags to group together areas of interest. An example of the latter is #female from the Science Gossip project, which indicates mention of female proto-citizen scientists of the nineteenth century.

Another important feature is the ability to address project datasets where they are too large to be processed in house. The Zooniverse platform offers the chance to engage people with a large-scale dataset that might otherwise be neglected. In the GLAM context this offers the chance to profile collections that are unlikely ever to be transcribed or analysed in greater detail by existing staff.

Zooniverse in Action

The first Zooniverse humanities project was Ancient Lives, which invited volunteers to transcribe ancient papyri one letter at a time using a clickable keyboard on their screen. Volunteers only needed to character match and did not have to be fluent in ancient Greek. Real time translation of transcriptions gave volunteers the chance to understand the texts they were working on, and flag up discoveries of unknown works by ancient writers. A blog kept volunteers up to date with the research team’s work and explained how the crowdsourced data was being used. The team of 250,000+ volunteers made more than 1.5 million transcriptions between 2011 and 2014.

The next Zooniverse humanities project was Operation War Diary, launched in 2014 to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War. This partnership between the National Archives (UK), the Imperial War Museum, and Zooniverse invites users to tag and transcribe dates, times, places, and names found in British WWI field diaries. Volunteers are also asked to interpret the diaries by adding tags from a drop down list, such as coming under fire, recuperation, eating, sport, and so on. Historian Richard Grayson has used the data to penetrate more deeply than ever before into records of soldiers’ daily lives on the front.[ii]

The next Zooniverse humanities project was Operation War Diary, launched in 2014 to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War. This partnership between the National Archives (UK), the Imperial War Museum, and Zooniverse invites users to tag and transcribe dates, times, places, and names found in British WWI field diaries. Volunteers are also asked to interpret the diaries by adding tags from a drop down list, such as coming under fire, recuperation, eating, sport, and so on. Historian Richard Grayson has used the data to penetrate more deeply than ever before into records of soldiers’ daily lives on the front.  

All of the project metadata will eventually be integrated into the National Archive catalogues, although not as soon as hoped due to character length limitations in the free text field originally designated to hold the material. This limitation raises an important for any GLAM specialist seeking to harness crowdsourcing at their institution: does your content management system (CMS) support the storage of extra metadata and if not where can you make the results of a crowdsourcing project available? Github is a viable option, as is a bespoke website maintained by your institution, but be sure to investigate this before embarking on a crowdsourcing project. 

In the case of project AnnoTate, a partnership between Tate archives and museums and Zooniverse, a new CMS is able to accommodate the large amounts of free text and extra metadata. Tate wanted to create a crowdsourcing project as a means of democratizing access to their collections of artists’ sketchbooks, letters, diaries and other papers: documents that are not typically accessible to non-specialists. As of November 2016 the project has attracted 1,323 registered volunteers and many unregistered visitors, who have retired 10,464 pages. Retirement in this case means that each line has been transcribed by at least three people whose transcriptions concur on 95% of the characters in the line with anaverage agreement of 97%.

In developing AnnoTate and Shakespeare’s World, my driving research question was: how could we simplify the rather difficult task of full text transcription? This was particularly the case for the early modern English manuscripts from the Folger Shakespeare Library (our Shakespeare’s World partner). I drew inspiration from Ancient Lives and Operation War Diary, as well as the less likely muse: Penguin Watch. 

Ancient Lives taught me that it’s possible to make hard tasks accessible through the right interface design. What could have been a project targeted at specialists became instead, a project for anyone capable of pattern recognition. In Shakespeare’s World volunteers transcribe using their keyboard, but can also click buttons on their transcription box on the screen to capture frequently occurring brevigraphs (handwritten abbreviations) such as ‘ye’ for the, or wch for which, etc. This approach blends the Ancient Lives functionality with regular typing. 

 

Operation War Diary is too complex and asks too much time of users. My advice to you is to keep your project workflow concise and compelling and focus on the most important aspect of the data for your institution or researchers? A successful crowdsourcing project does not attempt to gather all of the available information, but to gather a comprehensive and meaningful strand of information about a given collection. The free project builder means you can readily launch another project to tackle different aspects of the same dataset. 

Penguin Watch, which just asks you to click on individual penguins, taught me the beauty (and addictiveness) of simplicity. I wanted to bring simplicity and brevity to transcription, and so both AnnoTate and Shakespeare’s World allow users to transcribe a single line or short phrase at a time, by clicking on either side of a line or phrase and transcribing it into a pop-up box. Although a page might be complex, long or hard to read, most people can spare a minute or less to transcribe a line. Grey dots appear around lines that are deemed complete by our algorithms, which redirect people’s efforts to unfinished lines. To date Shakespeare’s World has 2,479 registered volunteers as well as non-registered people who have submitted 87,433 lines of transcription and retired 2,819 pages. 

The tools underlying projects such as Penguin Watch and Galaxy Zoo are already available on the free project builder, while full text and audio transcription tools are currently under development with the generous support of an Institute of Museums and Libraries grant. Text transcription will probably be available in 2017, followed by audio transcription tools in 2018 and 2019. 

Get Involved 

GLAM organizations keen to develop their own crowdsourcing projects should explore the available documentation on how to build a project, and best practices), which guide you through the design, launch and long term phases of a project. While building a project is easy and requires relatively little technical support from Zooniverse or your institution, make sure you have the time to support your volunteers. Zooniverse’s Talk, social media such as blogging, Twitter, Instagram, and indeed in person or on site events all provide important channels for engaging volunteers with your collections. Crowdsourcing projects, like puppies and kittens, are not just for Christmas. 

Facet Publishing have announced the release of Practical Tips for Developing Your Staff

Part of the Practical Tips for Library and Information Professionals series, this new book offers a compendium of innovative tips and tried-and-tested best practice to enable library and knowledge workers to take control of professional development regardless of the budget and time available to them.

Continuing professional development (CPD) is a key component of a successful and satisfying career and this book, written by Tracey Pratchett and Gil Young with Carol Brooks, Lisa Jeskins and Helen Monagle, offers a wide range of ideas and methods for all library and information professionals to manage the development of those who work for and with them. The flexible tips and handy implementation advice cover everything from appraisals and goal setting to using social media and networking.

The authors explain that the book “has been designed to be dipped into as and when required. Each tip or activity comes with an overview and detail, guidance on timing and some issues to think about when trying out the techniques. The important ‘more’ sections provide the reader with further suggestions and ideas to extend each tip.”

Tracey Pratchett has worked in the health sector for 9 years and many of the tips in this book have been used by her to develop her role and to benefit her team.

Gil Young is the NHS LKS Workforce Development Manager for the Health Care Libraries Unit North. She is a CILIP Fellow and associate member of the CIPD.

Carol Brooks has over 30 years’ experience in training and development and is the founder of Chrysalis Development.

Lisa Jeskins is a freelance training consultant who loves creating and delivering interactive, memorable learning experiences.

Helen Monagle is a Serials Librarian at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is one of the co-founders of NLPN.

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Notes:

Link to the cover image: https://www.booksonix.co.uk/facetpublishing/9781783300181.jpg

Practical Tips for Developing Your Staff | Nov 2016 | 224pp | paperback: 9781783300181 | £49.95 | hardback: 9781783301805 | £89.95 | eBook: 9781783301812| £49.95

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.

This course will provide an introduction to the basic principles of search usability with a focus on the development of faceted navigation schemes that deliver both search effectiveness and user satisfaction.

Who should attend?

Intranet/web managers, information architects, search specialists, developers and managers of search projects, or anyone who either has implemented or is planning to implement a search application and wants to maximise the usability and effectiveness of their investment. 

Feedback from previous workshop

 “Really useful, informative”

“One of the best courses I’ve attended”

CILIP’s Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB)

1. Organising knowledge and information: 1.3 Classification schemes and taxonomies
3. Using and exploiting knowledge and information: 3.2 Understanding information seeking behaviour

The ever-popular bursaries to the LILAC Conference are on offer once more, so if you would like to join a few hundred of your Information Literacy allies in the beautiful surroundings of Swansea’s Bay campus look no further.

2017’s LILAC promises to be as exciting, innovative and collaborative as ever. With 3 enthusing keynotes, 70 enlivening parallel sessions, 2 entertaining social events and the world’s one and only Lagadothon it promises to be an absorbing 3 days.

The bursary scheme is open to those working in sectors which are traditionally under-represented at LILAC and the 4 free places cover those working in the UK in the following sectors:

• Schools
• Further Education
• Public
• Health (NB: those working in HE supporting health courses are not eligible)

The conference place includes 3 days attendance of all LILAC sessions and our social events (networking evening and conference dinner). Accommodation and travel expenses up to the value of £250 are also available if required.

To be eligible for a place you must be a librarian or information professional working in the above mentioned sectors in the UK. You will have to show your commitment to information literacy by writing a short personal statement and explaining what benefits you would gain from attending the conference and how you intend to use your conference experience in your work.

The bursary application form can be found here: http://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2017/bursary

Closing date for applications is Wednesday 30th November 17:00 (GMT)

Nick Poole Chief Executive of CILIP, the library and information association, has responded to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, which sets out HM Government's spending and tax plans:

“The Autumn Statement was a missed opportunity to invest in innovation and growth through the library network. To deliver the Chancellor’s aim of increasing the UK’s long-term global competitiveness addressing the country’s literacy and skills crisis is essential. To thrive in an Information Society and Knowledge Economy people, businesses and communities need advanced skills. Yet with a third of firms report concerns with school leavers’ literacy or use of English and the UK ranks at the bottom of teenage literacy league-tables amongst twenty-three developed nations developing basic skills remains a stubborn issue.

"Libraries play a unique role in local communities and economies supporting skills development and lifelong learning. In major cities across the country public libraries support the establishment of new businesses through The British Library’s Business and IP Centre network. Support for innovation in local economies is essential, and as trusted places libraries are uniquely placed to support growth in a way that works for everyone. 49% of the businesses started with the help of the London Business and IP Centre are owned by women and 32% by black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, compared with 20% and 8% across the UK respectively.

"We will continue to campaign and advocate for quality library and information services and the value they provide to communities, businesses, in education and across the economy.”

-ends-

Press contact

Mark Taylor Director of External Relations, CILIP
mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
020 7255 0654
07792 635 305

Notes for editors

CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014.

This newsletter, the last for 2016, has reports of the latest conference from our wonderful bursary candidates. Other articles include two pieces from “Reconstructing Nicholas Crouch”, a Wellcome Trust funded project to bring to light the library of a seventeenth-century physician.  We also have the report of a visit to the Weston Library from Jeremy Crumplin who works at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The Antiquarian Booksellers Association visited York Minster Library with students from their annual rare books seminar and have written about the experience. There is also the second part of James Carley’s fascinating exploration of the library at Rochester. Enjoy!

An introduction to the role of librarians and information professionals in supporting Research Data Management (RDM).

Feedback from previous workshops

“Excellent workshop”

“Very useful course.  Knowledgeable and friendly trainers.  Good networking opportunity”

 Who should attend?

• Information professionals and librarians with an interest/responsibility for supporting research, especially RDM
• Any professional wishing to keep their skills up to date

CILIP’s Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB)

This course supports the following elements of CILIP’s PKSB:
2. Knowledge and Information Management: 2.3 Data Management
4. Research Skills: 4.1 Understanding Research

The publication of our latest white paper on digital ethics yesterday was very much of the minute!

In the wake of discussions about misleading news on Facebook and Google - see for example, BuzzFeed News: 'This Analysis Shows How Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook', EndGadget's news item 'Study: most students can't spot fake news' or  Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook is fighting fake news - Karen Blakeman has shown that, although we frequently castigate Facebook and Google for publishing or promoting bad news, the fault may not be all theirs. As Karen's blog shows in  'How to Write Totally Misleading Headlines for Social Media' the cause originates with the source article - in the case of her example, with The Independent. Hidden in the metadata of the original article is a headline to be used by social media, and that headline is far more sensational than the paper's own much more accurate headline. And the cause? Probably the need to get as many 'shares' and 'click throughs' as possible. 

As David McMenemy notes in his White Paper, " There are fundamental values that information professionals stand to protect, and the reality is that some digital solutions to service delivery may challenge those values" ... Lawrence Lessig argued that code can be used to restrict access (... and in the context of this news item,  I would suggest that it can clearly also be used to enhance access). David quotes Spinello who noted that the issue of content control “has emerged as arguably the most contentious moral problem of the nascent Information age.” I imagine that most of us would agree that the publication of misleading headlines simply in order to garner readers - in effect, to make money - is not ethical.

Of some relevance too, is the NISO KBART (Knowledge Bases And Related Tools). A National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Standing Committee manages and supports KBART Recommended Practice (NISO RP-9-2014) - a publication that provides all parties in the information supply chain with straightforward guidance about metadata formatting to ensure the exchange of accurate metadata between content providers and knowledge base developers.

On the same day that UKeiG published its Digital Ethics White Paper, NISO announced that five publishers are now supplying metadata that conforms to phase two of the recommended practice. I wonder how long it will be before news organisations sign up to the KBART standards.

Meanwhile, members can read David's White Paper at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-einformation-group/members-area/member-resources/ukeig-white-papers

Facet Publishing have announced the release of Engaging with Records and Archives: Histories and theories

Engaging with Records and Archives showcases the myriad ways in which archival ideas and practices are being engaged and developed and offers a selection of original, insightful and imaginative papers by emerging and internationally renowned scholars, taken from the Seventh International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (I-CHORA 7).

The book, edited by Fiorella Foscarini, Heather MacNeil, Bonnie Mak and Gillian Oliver, reveals the richness of archival thinking through compelling examples from a wide variety of views of records, archives and archival functions, spanning diverse regions, communities, disciplinary perspectives and time that will captivate the reader.   Examples include the origins of contemporary grassroots archival activism in Poland, the role of women archivists in early 20th century England, the management of records in the Dutch East Indies in the 19th century, the relationship between Western and Indigenous cultures in North America and other modern archival conundrums.

The editors said,

"Today, more than ever before, everyone, not only archives specialists, would benefit from a deeper and better informed engagement with archival objects and practices as they become increasingly engrained in our daily lives, from the pervasiveness of archival materials on the web, to the use of archive-based knowledge in all sciences, to the uncertainty about the preservation of our digital memories that we may all experience sooner or later. The 11 essays selected for inclusion in this book explore different ways of historicizing and theorizing record making, recordkeeping and archiving practices from a range of disciplinary perspectives and through the eyes of creators, custodians and users."

Fiorella Foscarini PhD is an associate professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. She is Co-editor in Chief of the Records Management Journal and co-author of Records Management and Information Culture (Facet 2014)

Heather MacNeil PhD is a professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto where she teaches courses in the areas of archival theory and practice and the history of record keeping.

Bonnie Mak PhD is an associate professor at the University of Illinois, jointly appointed in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and the Program in Medieval Studies. She teaches courses in the history and future of the book, reading practices, and knowledge production.

Gillian Oliver PhD is an associate professor at Victoria Univeristy of Wellington. She is the co-author of Records Management and Information Culture (Facet 2014) and Digital Curation, 2nd edition (Facet 2016) and is Co-editor in Chief of the journal Archival Science.

Ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Notes:

Link to the cover image: http://www.booksonix.co.uk/facetpublishing/9781783301584.jpg

Engaging with Records and Archives: Histories and theories | Nov 2016 | 256pp | paperback: 9781783301584 | £59.95 | hardback: 9781783301591 | £89.95 | eBook: 9781783301607| £59.95

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.

UKeiG is today pleased to announce the publication of its latest White Paper. Digital Ethics has been prepared by David McMenemy of the University of Strathclyde, and considers the topic within the background of theories on ethics and how they apply within the digital realm.  It explores the issues of internet governance, net neutrality, freedom of expression, and privacy and considers how they impact on the work of the information profession and wider society. 

UKeiG 2016/02: Digital Ethics
Published in November 2016
Series: UKeiG White Paper: 2016/02
ISBN: 978-1-870254-17-5

The Author
David McMenemy is a Lecturer in Information Science and Course Director for the MSc in Information and Library Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. His research interests include ethical issues in library and information science, the philosophy of information, public library development, and the societal impact of information and information law. He is author or co-author of several books, including Librarianship: an introduction, The Library and Information Professional’s Internet Companion, A Handbook of Ethical Practice, and The Public Library. His forthcoming work, Information Ethics: reflection and practice, will be published by Facet in October 2017. Before working in academia he spent over a decade in public libraries.

Members can find White Papers at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-einformation-group/members-area/member-resources/ukeig-white-papers

All UKeiG White Papers are available as open access publications three months after original publication to members.

Wendy Morris explains how a joint reading project at Kingston ­University to make students feel part of their new community has raised the profile of library services and is growing into partnerships in the community and with other universities.

SOMETIMES something comes along with such an unexpected impact that it takes your breath away. It turns out that the shared reading project at Kingston University was one of those things. I had heard of similar schemes on the big college campuses in the US, where every student is sent the same book to read before they enrol. The cynic in me said it could never work here. But you know what? It was sensational. The ‘KU Big Read’ took Kingston by storm. Students loved receiving a book as a gift and it gave them an instant topic of conversation with fellow first years. Academic staff used the book to establish a relationship with their students and for imaginative teaching and formative activities in subjects ranging from nursing to engineering, and support staff based entire teambuilding exercises around its themes. But perhaps most significantly, the university began to reach out into the community to encourage reading together in groups – working to empower local women struggling with literacy and boosting confidence in the homeless.  It also stimulated that most rare of occurrences. A regular collaboration between library professionals working in different sectors. Public meets academic. With homemade cake.

Big start

The original funding was for a student/staff development project in 2014 – through Kingston’s Student Academic Development Research Associate Scheme (Sadras) scheme, aiming to improve the prospects of those who have not traditionally thrived at university. It was proposed and led by Associate Professor Alison Baverstock – a long-term advocate for the benefits of shared reading and founder of Well Worth Reading (now part of The Reading Agency) and resulted in overwhelmingly positive feedback. The book chosen for the pilot year was About a Boy by Nick Hornby – an alumnus of Kingston. Bespoke editions of the book were sent out in July or given on arrival to every undergraduate, postgraduate, home and international student starting with us in the autumn. We encouraged them to discuss the book when they got here, attend author events and join reading groups. It was an instant success. Over 86 per cent of student responders to a follow-up survey said they felt it was an effective initiative for new students. Heart-warmingly, one international student said she had never received a book as a gift before. Many said it helped them feel ­included and made them more likely to enrol.

Academics were asked to try to embed the book in the early weeks of teaching, providing a common link across all faculties. We didn’t know whether they would buy into this. The themes of the book – adolescence, bullying and depression – lent themselves easily to areas such as social work and education and it was always going to be easy to discuss a novel in languages or journalism. But civil engineering? Really? I kid you not. What also wasn’t predicted was the way support staff threw themselves into the scheme with LRC staff playing a leading role as KU Big Read champions during information literacy sessions, using the book as an example when introducing the catalogue, searching databases or managing references.

A balloon debate followed – chaired ­enthusiastically by our University Chancellor Bonnie Greer – where representatives from different sectors of the university talked about the relevance of the book to their professional and personal interests. The KU Big Read gave our Welcome Week a real buzz; a joined-up ‘wired’ feeling with heaps of books constantly disappearing.

Big decisions

About a Boy had been chosen quickly so the scheme could be implemented as soon as possible. But this year the research team wanted the selection of the new book to be owned by the whole university community and a request for suggestions from students and staff resulted in over 100 titles. With a nod to Man Booker they produced a shortlist. With a nod to Amazon they adopted an algorithm.

Again developing the project as staff-student research, they discussed what key criteria the chosen book must meet:

• accessible to all
• short book
• short chapters
• an author (or representative) who was willing to come and meet the students
• gender neutral cover.

They were not looking for a worthy and challenging tome but rather a well-written page-turner with contemporary issues to generate lively discussion. They weighted criteria according to priority and ran the list through some innovative software devised by a data analyst working with them and ta dah! A shortlist of six. LRC management agreed to fund multiple copies of the shortlisted titles into all campus libraries and in a cloak and dagger operation, we got them prepped and loanable five minutes after the VC’s public announcement of the list without anyone finding out beforehand. Everyone had two months to read the titles and feed back via posts on social media and LRC noticeboards. The Selection Committee (a mix of staff and students from all faculties and directorates) then chose the final title – The Humans by Matt Haig. Themes: surviving in an alien environment, depression and adolescent angst. Ideal.

Big profile

Chances are you think that the LRC would be embedded in a reading project like this right from the get go. And you’d be right. But what we didn’t anticipate was how it would raise the profile of library services right across the institution. LRC involvement in this project began because the research team, on advice from communications colleagues, thought that asking staff to collect a book, rather than simply receive one, would encourage participation. The library was an ideal pick up point and our cross-faculty presence was invaluable, enabling us to network the scheme through subject boards and staff-student committees. The invisible matchmaking role we often play between the movers and shakers became more apparent – particularly to our academics. It never does any harm for library professionals to help out with the odd pan-organisational operation.

Big collaborations

Our second year also saw huge spin-offs in terms of collaborative partners. Edinburgh Napier University had seen a conference presentation on the project and asked to participate, joining us at the Selection Committee stage. An institution like our own with large numbers of students not living in residential halls, they valued an inclusive project which would make students feel part of their new community. With our differing demographics, we are now looking forward to analysing the possible effects shared reading has had on student enrolment, engagement and retention. The University Design team created customised copies of The Humans for both institutions, mailed with an inspirational letter from Matt Haig inside – pointing out that they were on the cusp of the biggest adventure of their lives. The see-through package meant that parents of prospective students noticed the book and regularly joined in discussions within the family before their putative scholar jumped ship. So we ended up in pretty frequent contact with our library colleagues in Edinburgh and we were stealing (I mean sharing) ideas about marketing and promulgation quick as a wink.

But one of the most valuable professional collaborations took place much nearer to home. We contacted the borough’s public library service to see how they might help promote ‘big reading’. It transpired that our Royal Borough of Kingston colleagues were based in an office not 500 metres from our own. A brisk walk and we could rendezvous in about five minutes. So we started with a joint library staff seminar looking at shared reading initiatives on both sides. We invited speakers from each service to reflect on best practice and then had small group breakout sessions mixing up the public and academic representatives. We had a lot in common. We were both independently running separate reading groups, but our public service colleagues were much more experienced in rolling out stock and discussion material, so we were tremendously grateful for their expertise and advice. Likewise they were more than happy to be part of the publicity events surrounding The Humans and we soon had KU Big Read talks in place at branch libraries.

Big communities

Spreading the word out into the community was also tremendously important to us. Throughout 2016 we have worked with local schools, colleges, youth groups and U3A to promote the shared reading experience. But one particular outreach initiative really stands out. Alison Baverstock, by now Project Director, approached a homeless organisation in Kingston – the Joel Community – and asked whether their residents might be interested in taking part. We discovered that on average 30 per cent of their guests experiencing homelessness are still in full-time employment. They just need a roof over their head. They are often well-educated and – along with those without a job at present – may be keen to engage with a sociable activity which ­involves intellectual input. They invited us to come and talk to them and hand out copies of The Humans. Following a lively discussion of reading preferences, we asked them whether they would like their next session to be led by the author himself. A regular supporter of World Book Night, Matt Haig was already involved in promoting reading for the homeless by handing out free books and he was delighted to be involved at Joel. We began to see how shared reading could actually change lives. How being part of a reading group run by the local university might just give you the confidence to apply for a new job and is likely to be seen by a prospective employer as an asset on your CV. And how the collective energy of a support group has a hugely positive effect.

Big future

This is going to run and run. We already have at least two further universities interested in coming on board for 2017 – any other takers? We are also unifying all the reading projects at Kingston to encompass smaller groups already in place using KU Race Equality Charter Mark funding, operating in schools, youth organisations, and places such as Hillcroft College underpinning improvements in women’s literacy. Kingston’s retention rate has improved and a longer-term impact study will look at the influence so far on encouraging student enrolment and engagement, not to mention the potential of another development project on the need for a national reading charity for the homeless.

So let me just finish by saying this. Because I am amongst friends. We all know – don’t we – that some people are inclined to think that there’s not much in librarianship which actually transforms lives. But the KU Big Read? It’s really making a difference. Boom! 

Update Magazine

This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, November 2016.

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Read Update Magazine

As the UK faces the most significant post-war skills and literacy crisis Philip Hammond faces calls from CILIP, the library and information association, and a group of cross-party Peers led by The Big Issue founder Lord Bird to provide emergency relief funding for public libraries in England.

Nick Poole, CILIP Chief Executive said “The Chancellor has an opportunity to distance this Government from toxic austerity policies. Unthinking cuts continue to damage frontline services rather than seeing them as an investment in our communities and economy. Not only does austerity threaten community cohesion, it makes little fiscal sense as cuts to library budgets cost the public purse more elsewhere, across employment, educational attainment and healthcare.”

“Delivering economic growth during Brexit means the Chancellor must avoid the of trap of investing in big infrastructure while failing to develop the skilled workforce we need. Improving life chances for everyone needs investment in life-changing library services, which are the building blocks for strong communities and successful local economies.”

Public libraries have been disproportionately affected by austerity policies. Since 2010 over 340 libraries have closed according to BBC data and the number of qualified librarians has reduced by a quarter. Expenditure on public libraries in England fell by £69.1m in three years and the number of books has reduced by 20.5m in five years. 

The UK faces a significant literacy and skills crisis. In order to compete in the global economy the UK’s success hinges on a workforce with advanced skills. Yet the country is failing to develop basic literacy skills amongst young people. Over a third of UK firms report concerns with school leavers’ literacy or use of English. The country ranks at the bottom of teenage literacy league-tables amongst twenty-three developed nations. However the UK’s senior citizens have some of the highest literacy levels in the developed world.

In addition to emergency relief funding CILIP has called on HM Government, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Communities and Local Government, Arts Council England and the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce to provide greater leadership and support for libraries by strengthening national development support for libraries and creating a robust national plan for improving libraries with accepted quality standards and strategic investment.

-ends-

Press contacts

Mark Taylor
Director of External Relations, CILIP
mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
020 7255 0654
07792 635 305

Cat Cooper
Communications and Campaigns Manager, CILIP
cat.cooper@cilip.org.uk
020 7255 0653

Notes for editors

1. Peers who have called for emergency relief funding for public libraries in England in the Autumn Statement:

• Lord Bird (Crossbench)
• Lord Beecham (Labour)
• Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench)
• Baroness Hollins (Crossbench)
• Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green)
• Lord Judd (Labour)
• Baroness Pinnock (Lib Dem)
• Lord Tope (Lib Dem)

2. CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. Visit www.cilip.org.uk for more information.

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