On 13th September 2016 CILIP Ireland hosted an event for current and prospective candidates for Professional Registration. Organised by Alex McIlroy (Candidate Support Officer , CILIP Ireland) and facilitated by Matthew Wheeler (Development Officer, CILIP), the event was held in the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, and was attended by a range of candidates from different sectors across Ireland.

The course was extremely useful for any candidate considering one of the three strands of Professional Registration – Certification, Chartership or Fellowship. Matthew distinctly explained the differences in the three routes before running through the processes involved – choosing a pathway, finding a mentor, using the PKSB, developing a portfolio of evidence, accessing and uploading to the VLE and finally submitting.

Although a short course taking only a morning to complete, it was invaluable to any candidate. The Professional Registration routes were explained clearly and those present were given the opportunity to ask Matthew questions on every stage of the process; his answers were both helpful and allayed any concerns from those attending. It was also extremely useful to meet and discuss the process with other candidates and both the Candidate Support Officer and CILIP Ireland Development Officer who also attended.   

If you are considering Professional Registration or would like further information please contact the Candidate Support Officer Alex McIlroy.

Ross McDonald, Librarian Victoria College Belfast

The relatively new exception to copyright law that we enjoy in the UK, permitting text and data mining (TDM) for the purposes of non-commercial research, offers potential to further knowledge and make scientific and medical breakthroughs. Importantly, the new exception states that any contractual clause which purports to restrict this exception is automatically null and void. Librarians who manage electronic resources and datasets can assist researchers greatly. However, in order to do this they need a robust understanding of the law and to be assertive in their ­relationships with publishers when negotiating or interpreting licence agreements. This article examines the ways in which librarians can facilitate the work of researchers who want to use TDM. It also argues that librarians need to encourage researchers to exploit the new copyright exceptions as key partners in the research process.

Walls come tumbling down

As Seth Godin told us back in 2011, librarians are no longer the gatekeepers to knowledge, they are gate-openers; the walls have come tumbling down and researchers can get access to vast amounts of data and knowledge without ever needing to step into a library. However, as librarians we are well aware that open access and data sharing do not currently deliver all the resources an academic might require to undertake research in almost all disciplines. Although debate continues to rage over how to optimise and sustain systems of scholarly communication, advocates for libraries and research successfully argued for changes to the law to allow researchers to make full use of information they have already paid for access to. In 2014, amendments to UK copyright legislation following the Hargreaves Review of intellectual property law, removed legal barriers for researchers who wish to perform text and data mining (TDM) for non-commercial research purposes, providing they have legitimate access to the materials they wish to mine. This change holds the promise of being able to answer entirely new research questions that were previously not amenable to enquiry. 

Exploiting copyright exceptions requires librarians to be bold about the advice they give researchers, to encourage them to use the facilities such as TDM. This may at times mean challenging or ultimately contravening the terms and conditions of a licence with an electronic resource supplier. However, it is possible to do this responsibly through considered institutional approaches and working with colleagues to share best practice. 

Data sharing: panacea or holy grail 

The concept of data sharing is gaining a lot of attention currently as being a way of potentially offering solutions to many of the world’s problems, from transport to healthcare. Data sharing is strongly linked to, but not synonymous with, the concept of open data which is defined as data or ­content that can be 'freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose’. It is not always possible for all data to be open for ethical, practical or commercial reasons, but the principles behind data sharing are to encourage re-use of research outputs as widely as possible. Just as we increasingly have open access to publicly-funded research outputs, advocates of the open data movement such as Nigel Shadbolt, who keynoted at the CILIP 2016 conference, believe that open data will eventually become the norm. However, many researchers recognise that much of the world’s data is not open or available for sharing, but owned by commercial organisations and kept behind paywalls. Licensing and copyright are potentially restricting our ability to use data in new and interesting ways which is why the text and data mining exception is so important. 

Content Mine, is a project led by Peter Murray-Rust that is doing a lot of work to highlight the TDM issue. They strongly advocate that publishers who restrict researcher’s ability to mine through technical protection measures should be challenged. Content Mine have been leading the way with a number of TDM projects, for example a project to mine the research literature for information about the Zika virus. They offer software, which allows you to interrogate the research literature and process it to search for keywords or phrases. They also run workshops and training which include more information about copyright law and the TDM exception.

What might researchers want to mine?

TDM is generally performed on corpora of text or data in electronic form. For example, a body of chemistry research literature might be mined by running TDM software on it to discover then create a database of molecular structures, a valuable resource for molecular chemists, crystallographers and other scientists. Another example is the 'Robots Reading Vogue' project at Yale which uses the ProQuest licensed archives of Vogue magazine to provide fascinating insights into the changing use of imagery and language in fashion throughout the 20th century. 

What problems might researchers encounter?

There are various problems associated with TDM where researchers might call on librarians for advice. These include:

• Reaching a download limit (often arbitrary and relating to contractual stipulations made by the publisher) for papers from a particular publisher or database, at which point access to a resource might be cut off.
• Being served with an ‘unusual behaviour’ report from publishers, for example when systematically downloading large amounts of material.
• Encountering Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies that prevents them using TDM methods, which then require a request for permission to have the DRM removed. 

In the first instance, librarians can deal with these issues on a case-by-case basis, but as the library builds up more expertise in this area they might consider writing FAQs or  developing toolkits to assist researchers.

How else can librarians help?

There are a number of additional things that librarians can do to assist with TDM, including:

• Highlighting the relevance and application of the TDM exception as part of any copyright training they offer to researchers and advertising TDM support as a service. This could be promoted alongside related research support services. 
• Encouraging the development of partnerships with academic colleagues to work on TDM projects, through highlighting institutional collections that might be suitable for mining.
• Being clear about licensing and terms & conditions under which resources are made available to colleagues at your institution, and ensuring they fully understand the copyright exception that permits TDM for non-commercial research regardless of contractual stipulations.
• Being firm with publishers and other content suppliers in the case of ‘unusual behaviour’ reports or DRM blocks to protect the legitimate interests of researchers, as defined by law.
• Advising on next steps should local support not be enough, up to and including appealing to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) if a rights-holder will not remove DRM locks. Information on making a complaint can be found on the IPO’s website. 
• Being aware of data protection issues: TDM is not exempted from data protection law, so content identifying a living individual must be processed in compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998).
• Being mindful of clauses in any new licence agreements for resources that might restrict TDM activities. 

TDM, copyright risk and anxiety

Librarians understandably might feel ­anxious about sanctioning or undertaking action that is legally ambiguous. The nature of UK copyright exceptions is that they are defences to accusations of infringement rather than rights, and this puts the onus of responsibility on the person doing or facilitating the copying to ensure it is legal. Similarly, the hard-won changes to the law that mean that contracts cannot override exceptions are fundamental to equal access to information in today’s digitally connected world. However, these require reviewing a legal contract drawn up by a well-funded commercial organisation and deciding to ignore parts of it.

It is essential that information professionals are supported by senior managers to take a measured, yet assertive approach to use of TDM. This requires a mature attitude to risk, which balances the institution’s reputation and continuity of its business against its ultimate mission. Allowing a situation where the default position is to acquiesce to the demands of commercial publishers because of a lack of institutional capacity (for example not having a properly resourced copyright support provision) potentially creates a bottleneck in the system.

In 2015 The Publishers Licensing Society undertook research which suggested that the TDM exception had brought ­little value to researchers and that commercial publishers had responded to the challenge by ­creating innovative licensing solutions. These findings seem premature and the research question and methodology also ­appears to be framed to reinforce their members’ commercial interests rather than seek an objective view. However libraries should ask themselves what role they are playing (or not playing) in changing the ­status quo and advancing the research agenda.

The Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (Laca) and Universities UK have been collecting evidence of problems researchers run into when trying to use the TDM exception and in September 2015 Laca appealed to the IPO on behalf of a UK academic to have DRM removed from a site he wished to mine. In this instance the academic was trying to mine a publicly accessible website, which used Captcha technology that prevented him from downloading more than a few records at a time.

The case was eventually referred to the IPO who, after some deliberation, decided the case was not within scope of the exception. They argued the exception did not apply to work ‘made available to the public on agreed contractual terms in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.’ You can read more about the case on the Laca website, however it seems likely then that this would apply to any web-based resource.  Although the outcome of the application was not successful, it is hoped that with continued referral of similar cases the library community will be able to create an environment where publishers ­respect the new exception and researchers are more easily able to access the information they need.

As Lauren Smith said in the closing keynote of this year’s CILIP conference (in the context of public library closures), it is important to keep fighting battles even if you think it’s unlikely you will win. Without further applications to government to address this issue on a case-by-case basis there will be no possibility to change the status quo.

Exploring strange new worlds

Researchers will increasingly look to librarians for assistance with TDM, and they should be ready and willing to assist with these projects, and actively promoting the opportunities that technology provides. Librarians are well placed to help with rights issues and to create case studies which can influence the legislative reform required to use TDM for the wider benefit of society. The Hague Declaration is a powerful statement, which advocates removal of legal barriers to knowledge creation in the digital age and the declaration web site includes a number of case studies from across Europe. The future of the UK’s involvement in efforts to further harmonise TDM laws across the EU may now be in a state of legislative limbo following Britain’s EU referendum result but there are still moves afoot to bring member countries in line with the recent UK legislation. This may still allow use of TDM in multi-national research partnerships across Europe, something not currently permitted where licences are not available or practical to acquire.

Ultimately, librarians should be mindful of the right to mine, and recognise the ­important role they can play in liberating data and knowledge. Their continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to support research and discovery of new scientific breakthroughs, to boldly go where no one has gone before. 

Update Magazine

This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, September 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

The Book: History, Knowledge & Technology. The Voyage. Nov 2-3, Limerick

The 5th International Summit of the Book will take place on 2-3rd November 2016 in the Strand Hotel, Limerick City, Ireland.

The Summit is run in conjunction with the US Library of Congress, Library Association of Ireland (LAI), the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), Libraries Northern Ireland, the National Library of Ireland, the Society of National, College and University Libraries (SCONUL), the Consortium of National and University Libraries (CONUL) and other partners.

The  “International Summit of the Book” is a US Library of Congress initiative . The Summit discusses the development of books into electronic formats and its impact on reading; the challenges facing books and the publishing industry and the role of books and reading in societies. The Summit also discusses key issues on technology and manuscripts, including the role of translation in the preservation and transmission of culture, and books as an important tool in cultural exchange.

Papers submission deadline: 30th September 2016. Registration is now open! To Register or for further information: please visit the 5th International Summit of the Book website.

Please keep an eye on our Facebook page and follow LIT Library Twitter page and hashtag #BookSummitIRL for updates on our speakers and further details on the event.

SOURCE: Jerald Cavanagh, Institute Librarian, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland.

Speaker: Dr Tessa Webber

This is a joint meeting with the Friends of Lambeth Palace Library. Those wishing to attend should send their names in advance to archives@churchofengland.org, or tel: 020 7898 1400, not later than Friday 26th February.  Admittance not before 5.15 p.m. via the main gatehouse of Lambeth Palace.

Details TBC

Speaker: Professor Alistair Black (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s the built-form of the public library in Britain underwent a renaissance. However, contrary to what one might expect, librarians' support for a large-scale building programme, their adoption of light-rich architectural modernism and the new internal spaces they fashioned were less a reflection of a progressive turn in librarianship than an embodiment of certain of its traditional and conservative traits.

The lecture is part of a series of research seminars, which are freely open for anyone to attend, organized by the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Seminar convenors: Giles Mandelbrote (Lambeth Palace Library); Dr. Keith A. Manley (National Trust); Dr. Raphaële Mouren (Warburg Institute); Professor Isabel Rivers (Queen Mary). The seminars are jointly sponsored by the Institute of English Studies, the Institute of Historical Research, the Warburg Institute, and the Library & Information History Group of CILIP.

Speaker: Helen Kemp (University of Essex)

The lecture is part of a series of research seminars, which are freely open for anyone to attend, organized by the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Seminar convenors: Giles Mandelbrote (Lambeth Palace Library); Dr. Keith A. Manley (National Trust); Dr. Raphaële Mouren (Warburg Institute); Professor Isabel Rivers (Queen Mary). The seminars are jointly sponsored by the Institute of English Studies, the Institute of Historical Research, the Warburg Institute, and the Library & Information History Group of CILIP.

Details TBC

Speaker:  Jill Dye (University of Stirling)

Innerpeffray is Scotland's first free public lending library, founded c.1680. Situated in the heart of rural Perthshire, the library houses a continuous record of borrowers (1747-1968) and retains almost all its original collections, making it an unparalleled resource for studying book borrowing in context. This talk on the early history of the library, its books and its borrowers, is based on the speaker’s research undertaken by as part of a SGSAH-funded Applied Research Collaboration with the library and the universities of Stirling and Dundee.

The lecture is part of a series of research seminars, which are freely open for anyone to attend, organized by the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Seminar convenors: Giles Mandelbrote (Lambeth Palace Library); Dr. Keith A. Manley (National Trust); Dr. Raphaële Mouren (Warburg Institute); Professor Isabel Rivers (Queen Mary). The seminars are jointly sponsored by the Institute of English Studies, the Institute of Historical Research, the Warburg Institute, and the Library & Information History Group of CILIP.

A recent European Court of Justice decision has provoked a flurry of comments about the legality of putting URLs into a published piece, and whether this constitutes any kind of copyright infringement. Judging by some of the comments made on this case, this is the end of the Internet (at least in the EU), but I don’t agree. The case in question is known as GS Media, and follows a decision by the same Court some years ago called Svensson, which was decided in 2012. Together they provide a statement of current EU (and therefore UK – at least for the time being!) law in regard to the legality of inserting links.  The decisions help clarify the law, and are particularly relevant to library and information professionals who either hold, or have been considering taking out a licence with the Newspaper Licensing Agency, as the NLA has been pressing claims that ALL linking to newspapers it is responsible for is potentially infringement, and therefore requires a licence.

The details of both cases are complex, so I have supplied references to discussions on both cases at the end of this piece. It is, of course, my view that providing such URLs is not illegal.

The legality of linking depends on whether it leads to a communication to the public, which is a restricted act and therefore requires permission of the rightsholder. However, if that material has already been made available to the public by means of placing on a freely accessible web site, and therefore potentially available to anyone with internet connectivity, then a third party putting a link to that material is often not infringing because there is no “new” public to which the information is being communicated, but a lot depends on whether the content linked to itself infringes. This is a fine example of the convoluted logic used by the European Court! Anyway, one can now classify links and their likelihood of being infringement. The Table below is based on one created by Eleonara Rosati as a result of the two Court cases [1].  
 

The first column, accessibility, refers to whether one can get access to the linked content at no charge, i.e., is it on a web site without paywall or other barriers? The second refers to whether the content in the website being linked to infringes copyright.  For example, a website containing unauthorised reproductions of documents would be considered to have infringing content.  Of course, in some cases, a website contains a mixture of infringing and non-infringing content.  In such cases, one has to consider the two types of content separately in the Table.  The third column refers to the commercial activity of the person or organisation providing the link; it is nothing to do with the commercial or otherwise activities of the site being linked to. The fourth column asks the question is the person creating the link aware that the material in the site they are linking to is, or is likely to be, infringing?  As noted in the Table, in some cases, both this question, and the question of commercial activity of the person doing the linking, is irrelevant to the final outcome.  The final column confirms whether the proposed linking is lawful or not (though there are special circumstances noted by the Court and not discussed further here that may affect this column). If it is not, then a licence should be sought from the owner of the web site being linked to, or from someone acting on the owner’s behalf; either that, or don’t include the link!

Why am I not so alarmed as other commentators?  Because in the majority of cases relevant to library and information professionals, there will be no potential infringement. Yes, I can think of circumstances where there may be a problem, e.g., a link to Edward Snowden’s web site, which includes unauthorised reproductions of confidential documents, or a link to the Sci-Hub service, which contains unauthorised reproductions of scholarly articles. This is why I have not provided URLs to these Web sites!

The question of commercial is controversial.  Many library and information professionals work for academic institutions or charities, and arguably their activities will not be deemed commercial.  On the other hand, if a member works for a clearly commercial organisation, such as a pharmaceutical company, or one that earns income from adverts on its web pages, then arguably anything it publishes which includes links might be deemed to be commercial activity.  Readers who work in such organisations are advised to exercise caution in regard to including links on their web pages.

The question of whether someone knew, or should have known that the content being linked to includes infringing material is open for argument, though clearly if the organisation was explicitly warned that the linked site contains infringing materials, that would be considered decisive if a case came up.

To sum up:  the reasoning of the European Court is byzantine and complicated, and goes against the ethos of the Web and the fact that URLs are merely signposts, but nonetheless, I feel that the majority of UKEIG members, who are unlikely to provide links to obviously infringing sites, are unaffected by these rulings.
 

Some of you may remember a paragraph in CILIP Update last autumn requesting resources for refugees, in the form of:

• dictionaries (any language)

• printed language teaching resources

• stationary (pens, pencils, paper to write on)

I responded to the request and have subsequently collected materials from groups with whom I am involved; individuals; schools sorting out their language teaching textbooks; and even the odd library where former colleagues put out the word as to what was needed. I was able to deliver resources to the organiser, and on one occasion, help her to transport them to Calais for use in the Jungle Books Library.

We are still collecting these resources and it is now time to send out a request to other CILIP Members who might be able to help in any way to gather more dictionaries, language books and stationary.

With all the issues rampaging around Brexit and immigration, whatever your position, there are still refugees out there who need immediate help, in whatever country they may end up building a life.

If you can help to gather material, please contact Rachel on wanderinglibrarian56@gmail.com.

If you are in the Cambridge area, we can collect.

With thanks,

Dr Rachel Johnson

(Assistant Librarian, Tyndale House Library, Cambridge)

Next year's IFLA conference comes back to Europe, to the city of Wroclaw in Poland.

To give you in the flavour of Poland, ILIG is bringing its Informal Talks to Edinburgh where Polish Librarian Sylwia Grabowska will give an overview of Polish Libraries and her work in Scotland and overseas.

Date: October 31st - 7-8.15pm

Venue: Room 1130, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EW

All the details - and a booking form for catering purposes - are available from the Events page of the CILIP in Scotland website. 

If needed, the full  web address of  the Events page of the CILIP in Scotland website is

http://www.cilips.org.uk/events/

Looking for innovative ways to promote your library service? Register for the CILIP ARLG East Midlands workshop Marketing your library service: principles and actions led by Ned Potter.

In this hands-on workshop we'll look first at communication types and then work on segmenting your audience and tailoring messages for each group. In the afternoon we'll look at online publishing and social media, before tying everything together in a strategic marketing plan. Delegates will get a template marketing campaign document to work on in the session and then take back to their own institutions to develop. Everything in this workshop is designed to be applicable right away, whether you want to better communicate the value of a particular service or market your entire library.

Ned Potter is an Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of York, and a Trainer for various organisations including the Bodleian and the British Library. His book The Library Marketing Toolkit was published by Facet in 2012. Ned can be found online at ned-potter.com and on Twitter at @ned_potter.

Delegates will need to bring their own mobile device with them (laptop, tablet, smartphone). When booking, please indicate if you have access to the Eduroam network so guest WiFi access can be arranged for those delegates who do not have access.

Date and time: Thursday 8th December 10.00am-4.30pm (registration with refreshments from 10am, the day will include a half-hour break for lunch with lunch being provided).

Venue: Loughborough University Library, Epinal Way, Loughborough, LE11 3TU (Free parking available on campus; buses to campus run regularly from the train station).

Cost (inclusive of VAT): £80 for CILIP/ARLG members and £100 for non-members.

How to book: Email Sharon Reid at s.d.reid@lboro.ac.uk (01509 222403) with your name, job title, employer, eduroam access, ARLG or CILIP membership no. (if applicable), address for invoicing and details of any special dietary or access requirements before Thursday 1st December 2016. Please note that if you cancel your booking on or after Monday 5th December or book and are unable to attend on the day, and are unable to send a substitute in your place, you will be charged the full price. 

Address for invoicing: ARLG East Midlands, c/o Katie Fraser George Green Library, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Telephone 0115 95 13247, email katie.fraser@nottingham.ac.uk

If you are working towards CILIP certification, Chartership or fellowship (or revalidating), the workshop is relevant to the following areas of the PKSB:

2.5 Knowledge transfer/organisational learning

11.1 Strategic marketing

11.2 Communicating with stakeholders

12.1 ICT skills

12.4 Social media and collaborative tools

12.5. Communication skills

CILIP is delighted to announce that Peters will be the official book supplier for the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Medals Shadowing Scheme from 2017.

The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards are the UK’s oldest and most prestigious children’s book awards for outstanding writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The awards shadowing scheme is one of the main national reading for pleasure schemes, with approximately 90,000 children and young people in over 5,000 reading groups taking part in libraries and classrooms across the country and overseas.  From March to June each year, the award shadowers engage with outstanding writing and illustration by writing reviews, producing creative works based on the books, uploading videos and debating the books and who they think should win.

Peters have been selected to be the official book supplier following a competitive tender process. They will provide shadowing groups with up to 30% discount on the shortlisted books, free UK delivery and jacket servicing and will work with CILIP to jointly promote the role of children’s literature and reading for pleasure.

The Medals are uniquely nominated and judged by expert librarians. In 2017 the Carnegie Medal will be 80 years old and the Kate Greenaway Medal will be 60.

Ray Dyer, Managing Director of Peters commented: “ I am delighted to renew our association with CILIP and the Carnegie Greenaway Awards and shadowing.  At Peters, we are committed to ensuring children have access to books wherever they read, in school, at home or in their local library.  We are looking forward to working with shadowing groups, both old and new, to promote the very best of writing and illustration for children” .

CILIP Chief Executive, Nick Poole said: “We’re excited to be joining forces with Peters as official book supplier to the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals from 2017. With 80 years’ experience each in the world of children’s books, we’ll work together in our anniversary year to recognise the wonderful canon of medal winners since 1936 and to bring the much-anticipated shortlists to thousands of schools and shadowing groups in 2017.

I would like to thank Browns Books for Students, for the great care and service they have given to shadowing groups over the past three years. We saw enormous benefit from working with Browns and I hope we have the opportunity to work together again in the future”.

-Ends-

Press Contact

Cat Cooper
Campaigns and Communications Manager, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0653
Mobile: 07867 455070
Email: cat.cooper@cilip.org.uk

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. The youth libraries group (YLG) of CILIP works in a “pressure group” role to preserve and influence the provision of quality literature and library services for children and young people, both in public libraries and school library services. cilip.org.uk   

About the CILIP Carnegie Medal
The Carnegie Medal, awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children, was established in 1936 in memory of the Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). A self-made industrialist who made his fortune in steel in the USA, Carnegie’s experience of using a library as a child led him to resolve that “If ever wealth came to me that it should be used to establish free libraries.” He set up more than 2,800 libraries across the English speaking world and by the time of his death over half the library authorities in Great Britain had Carnegie libraries.

About the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal
The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in 1955 for distinguished illustration in a book for children. Named after the popular nineteenth century artist, known for her beautiful children's illustrations and designs, the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. ckg.org.uk

About Peters
With over seven decades of experience, and a passion for children's literature, Peters is the UK's leading specialist children's book and furniture supplier to nurseries, schools, academies and public libraries. From their team of dedicated children's librarians and curriculum specialists who read and review every book they take into stock to their unique showroom with over 40,000 titles for you to browse and buy, they’re here for you. Peters also have a range of furniture perfect for classrooms, libraries and schools to help you create the ideal reading space for story time. Thanks to their knowledge and expertise there's no limit to the bespoke support Peters will provide. peters-books.co.uk

The change from a web of documents to a web of data has taken its time, but in recent years there have been huge changes in both our perception of open data and in the development of an infrastructure to support it. Much of the time, however, the web of data continues to take the form of data silos: dispersed resources with little or no connections between them. Even in the same repository, synergistic potential may be unrealised because terminological differences mean that connections between data are never made.

Such problems are not insurmountable however, and library and information professionals have a long history in the development of controlled vocabularies for information retrieval and organization. Ontologies  - formal representations of knowledge with rich semantic relationships between terms – are just another type of controlled vocabulary, suitable for a distributed web and a higher level of granularity. 

So, why do librarians need to know about ontologies?

1) …because libraries are moving from AACR2 to RDA

Ontologies are not something librarians can choose to opt in or out of as they are increasingly central to a library's activities, as evidenced by the development of Resource Description and Access vocabularies and the FRBR model.

2) …because 'Every user his data'

"Data is the new book", and facilitating the publishing and accessing of this data requires librarians to have an understanding of data modelling and the vocabularies used. 

3) …because Facebook is too big

The dominance of a small number of social network sites, such as Facebook, can potentially have negative consequences for things librarians are interested in like privacy, freedom of speech, and innovation in social networking. Open ontologies can provide the building blocks of distributed social networks.

4) …because modelling the world is too important to leave to Google

The potential of open ontologies for information retrieval is recognised by the major search engines in Schema.org, but the interests of search engines are not the same as a search engine's users and there is a need for alternative perspectives on what and how the world should be modelled. 

5) …because the promise of undiscovered public knowledge is exciting!

New knowledge does not have to be found through investigation of the real world, but may be discovered through the combination of existing public knowledge. Libraries have always been a key resource in the discovery of undiscovered public knowledge, and the development of new ontologies can facilitate more rapid discovery on a global level. 

Library and information professionals have a long tradition of being double experts, coupling postgraduate information science qualifications with a subject specialism. Not only are they ideally placed to contribute to the development of new ontologies, and facilitating access to the web of data, but such contributions are essential if the potential of the web of data is ever to be realised.  

About Practical Ontologies for Information Professionals

Practical Ontologies for Information Professionals, a book by David Stuart, provides an accessible introduction and exploration of ontologies and demonstrates their value to information professionals.

Buy the book

The Bodleian Libraries’ new Weston Library reopened to readers in 2014 following a three-year, £80 million refurbishment. Here, Toby Kirtley, Estates Project Officer for the Bodleian, discusses how a Grade II listed book ‘fortress’ has been transformed into a finalist for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2016.

When our newest library, the Weston Library (formerly the New Bodleian), was announced as a contender for the RIBA Stirling Prize it was an exciting moment. The positive feedback we’d had from the public and from readers using this special collections library meant we felt confident that this new site met user needs. Being shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, however, is a testament to the architectural building work itself and, with the Weston the only dedicated library building on the Stirling Prize shortlist, it is great to see our sector represented.  

Caption: Weston Library exterior - under wraps during the redevelopment

For myself, the project team, project architects Wilkinson Eyre and many of those working on this unique project, the £80m refurbishment of the Weston Library was a huge undertaking, many years in development culminating in the three-year refurbishment. As the Estates Projects Officer for the Bodleian Libraries I have been involved with other large-scale capital projects, most recently the development of the Bodleian’s Book Storage Facility in Swindon, but this was a different level of complexity. The scale of planned improvements for this major refurbishment of an existing listed building is unparalleled among research libraries.

The Grade II listed building, originally known as the New Bodleian Library, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in the 1930s and opened in 1946 as a working library and storage facility. The building is a recognisable feature of the Oxford cityscape, given its prominent location on the corner of Broad Street and Parks Road in the centre of Oxford. After 70 years of service the building was in need of upgrading in order to meet the National Archives' Standard for Record Repositories; severe overcrowding of bookstacks along with non-compliance with fire regulations meant the building and the libraries were at risk of losing their heritage status.  

The vision of this ambitious project was to fully modernize the library, overhauling the storage facilities for the Bodleian Libraries’ special collections to meet the latest standards. The aim was also to dramatically improve research facilities to support scholarship, with the renovation of three reading rooms and creation of new centres of scholarship: the Centre for Digital Scholarship and the Visiting Scholars Centre. Finally we wanted to create inspirational new facilities for engaging the general public, and to expand public access to the Libraries’ great treasures with two new exhibition galleries, digital interactives, a shop and a cafe. In order to achieve this, London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects expertly transformed the library from the inside out, updating the core of the interior while retaining the surrounding spaces and the historical façade of the building and many of the unique fixtures and features within it.  

It’s difficult to summarize a project that ran over such a long period; however I’ve tried to provide some highlights of this exciting project below: 

Project highlights

Planning permission

Long before work started on the building we had to go through the lengthy planning permission process and consult extensively with English Heritage, preservation groups and the City of Oxford. Securing Planning Permission approval and Listed Building Consent from Oxford City Council in May 2010 made the project viable. 

Book moves

Caption: Toby Kirtley at the Book Storage Facility in Swindon 

Over 3 million books needed to be moved from the library before works could begin. In November 2010 the book decant got underway, a process that would take over a year, led by our incredibly efficient and organized Book Moves Team. It was a process that never seemed to stop, however, as once the bookstacks in the refurbished building were completed, the lengthy process of moving items back into the building began. Over 40km of materials were moved back in a move lasting over 3 ½ years! The new library now holds over 1.25 million volumes and boxes of special collections materials. 

Demolition works begin

The project really started with the demolition process which began in August 2011. The demolition phase lasted 12 months in total. 

Completion of the storage areas and new storage

A highlight was seeing the storage and climate control systems installed in the library’s new internal bookstacks that run across six floors. As one of the key drivers for this project was overhauling storage to meet the requirements of BS5454 (British standards for the storage of archival material), the completion of the bookstacks was a huge achievement. In total, above and below ground, the Library has more than 42km of secure, state-of-the-art storage facilities with the capacity to house 1.25 million of the Bodleian Libraries’ special collections which include rare books, manuscripts, archives, music, ephemera and maps.

Historic preservation

The project was designed to ensure that the library could be modernized in a way that preserves the historic character of the building and allows the unique features of Scott’s design to be seen in their best light. Seeing the cleaning of stonework/stone facade, the refurbishment of wooden chandeliers designed by Gilbert Scott, the modernization or the original reading room desks and the delicate preservation of the 1930s reader’s entrance was a constant reminder of the historic importance of this listed building.

Refurbishment of the reading rooms

Caption: The Charles Wendell David Reading Room on the top floor of the Weston Library, completed  

he library includes two readings rooms which needed considerable renovation.  Removing coverings from the skylight of the Mackerras Reading Room that had been in place since the room was used by the War Office in the 1940s was a big occasion, opening up the room and providing natural light for readers. So too was seeing the careful cleaning and preservation of the inlaid wood ceiling in the Rare Books & Manuscripts Reading Room. In these rooms students, scholars and researchers from all over the world can now study manuscripts or rare books to inform a range of research and scholarly questions. 

Topping out

June 2013 marked ‘topping out’, when the rebuilding of the central part of the library reached its highest extent. . Just under two years into the project, this was a huge milestone that signalled that we were closer to the end than the beginning. 

Broad Street opening

The opening of the Broad Street entrance of the building really brought the architect’s vision to life. Previously the building had been closed off on the side facing onto Broad Street. A series of high windows here were cut through and opened up to create a modern glass entranceway leading into the new public space called Blackwell Hall.  

Fitting out of the exhibition galleries

Caption: Displays in Blackwell Hall - the Sheldon Tapestry 

One of the last elements of the project was the fitting out of the two exhibition galleries entered from Blackwell Hall. A key aim of the project was to engage with the public by making our collections available so it was exciting to finally see the spaces where some of the University’s greatest treasures would be on public display.

Items uncovered in the building

Over the course of the renovation project an array of items dating back to the 1930s were found. These ranged from cigarette packets, sweet wrappers and a George VI stamp to a receipt for a book from Blackwell’s Bookstore (next door) purchased for the Red Cross Prisoners of War Educational Books Section, based in the library during wartime.  All these items were a constant reminder of the building’s past use and are now part of Bodleian archives.

Library opening

Caption: St Lee Gallery - one of two exhibition galleries in the Weston Library, displaying the flagship exhibition 'Marks of Genius'

The Weston Library opened to the public in March 2015, with our flagship exhibition Marks of Genius opened by physicist Stephen Hawking and conservationist Sir David Attenborough.  It was hugely gratifying to see visitors at the opening enjoying the space and visiting the exhibition galleries for the first time.   

A year and a half from opening the Library welcomes an average of 3,171 readers every month and has welcomed over 1 million visitors to its public spaces.  

Critical factors in this project have been the good working relationships that developed between the project team, contractors, staff and the architects. Also key was the level of commitment to the project at every level of the Library and University, along with the anticipation that something special was being delivered. 

Transforming this Grade II listed building into a 21st century research facility and visitor space has been a major undertaking for the libraries and will hopefully enable the Bodleian to continue to hold its place as one of the world’s greatest centres for scholarship.

Visit to Isle of Sheppey Prisons

The CILIP Cataloguing & Indexing Group (CIG) is pleased to announce a repeat of the successful RDA in a Day training course - and this time, we’re offering it in two locations (Sheffield and London) to make it available to a wider audience.

RDA in a Day is a practical introduction to cataloguing with RDA: Resource Description and Access, led by two RDA specialists from the British Library. The course will cover the FRBR model and RDA terminology. This is an interactive, hands-on course in which trainees will learn by using RIMMF and the RDA Toolkit to create RDA records. The day also covers creation of RDA records in MARC 21. Prior cataloguing experience and knowledge of AACR2 and MARC 21 will be an advantage.

Registration
Closing date for bookings: 30 September 2016

Sponsored place
We are pleased to be able to offer a sponsored place at each of these events. Applicants must be CIG members (though CILIP membership is not required), and the application (ca. 200 words) should demonstrate why they would like to attend, how they would use their attendance to highlight or promote CIG’s area of interest, and if/why they would not be able to attend without CIG sponsorship. We would like the sponsored delegates to write a report/summary to be publicised on the CIG blog and/or journal.

Please submit your application to Emily by 25 September 2016.

Applicants will be notified whether they have been successful by 3 October 2016.

Cancellation policy
Please note our cancellation policy: once your place is confirmed, we are unable to arrange refunds if you are subsequently unable to attend the event. Should this circumstance arise we are happy for someone else to attend in your place, but please notify us in advance if at all possible.

The CILIP Cataloguing & Indexing Group (CIG) is pleased to announce a repeat of the successful RDA in a Day training course - and this time, we’re offering it in two locations (Sheffield and London) to make it available to a wider audience.

RDA in a Day is a practical introduction to cataloguing with RDA: Resource Description and Access, led by two RDA specialists from the British Library. The course will cover the FRBR model and RDA terminology. This is an interactive, hands-on course in which trainees will learn by using RIMMF and the RDA Toolkit to create RDA records. The day also covers creation of RDA records in MARC 21. Prior cataloguing experience and knowledge of AACR2 and MARC 21 will be an advantage.

Registration
Closing date for bookings: 14 October 2016

Sponsored place
We are pleased to be able to offer a sponsored place at each of these events. Applicants must be CIG members (though CILIP membership is not required), and the application (ca. 200 words) should demonstrate why they would like to attend, how they would use their attendance to highlight or promote CIG’s area of interest, and if/why they would not be able to attend without CIG sponsorship. We would like the sponsored delegates to write a report/summary to be publicised on the CIG blog and/or journal.

Please submit your application to Nicky by 2 October 2016.

Applicants will be notified whether they have been successful by 10 October 2016.

Cancellation policy
Please note our cancellation policy: once your place is confirmed, we are unable to arrange refunds if you are subsequently unable to attend the event. Should this circumstance arise we are happy for someone else to attend in your place, but please notify us in advance if at all possible.

Development of reading and literacy in children (or indeed adults) relies on the right activities and opportunities that help us to experience the joy of imagination, discovery and sheer gratification that makes the world of books and stories irresistible. 

Literacy is a skill that is central to our life chances; but it’s easy to over-emphasise the importance of formal testing and performance measurement of those who are learning to read or develop as a reader.  These may be a necessary part of the journey; but without positive associations, the joy of reading can be lost or never experienced; and learning to read becomes a process to be acquired, practiced and performed as though by rote.  

Focus days like International Literacy Day allow us to consider the ways that tightrope between these two poles can be walked: achieving reading skill and yet enabling that process through social and creative activities and a natural sense of enjoyment.  

Positive associations

Stories can play a key part in children’s early bedtime routines, not simply through aiding a process of winding down and allowing a metaphoric ‘release of breath’, but also in the act of sharing and providing quality opportunities for bonding and attachment between adult and child. Recognising the contribution that bedtime reading can make to good sleep habits, BookTrust’s  Bath, Book, Bed campaign aims to promote regular night-time routines based around books and reading.

Choosing the right books to match mood and emotions can help act as a measure for the feelings of readers. Positive associations with reading at an early age will help to establish an aptitude and ability for achievement in literacy, and librarians are experts in recommending the types of book that are great at bedtime, and will carry positive and memorable associations throughout a child’s life.  

Tonal quality

One aspect a librarian will consider when recommending the right book for the mood is the tonal quality of a piece of writing or a story. For example, consider the exciting and enlivening pace and rhythm of a picture book like Steve Webb’s Tanka Tanka Skunk.

This is Tanka.  This is Skunk. They love to play the drums.  Say their names together and hear the beat like this.  Skunka Tanka, Skunka Tanka, Tanka Tanka Skunk!

Energy, playfulness and verve drip from every sounded out syllable.  Just as some music is rousing, so too is some writing.  By contrast, stories can be soothing and reassuring, instantly like being wrapped in a velvety blanket as felt in the opening to Martin Waddell’s Can’t you Sleep Little Bear:

Once there were two bears, Big Bear and Little Bear.  Big Bear is the big bear, and Little Bear is the little bear.  They played all day in the bright sunlight.  When night came, and the sun went down, Big Bear took Little Bear home to the Bear Cave.

My CILIP Kate Greenaway bedtime book list

Which books would you recommend as part of a bedtime routine?  

Using past winners of the Kate Greenaway Medal – the accolade for distinguished illustration in a book for children, awarded annually by CILIP, here are a half dozen of my top recommendations.

Raymond Briggs, The Mother Goose Treasury, 1966

Like fairy tales, nursery rhymes hold an almost timeless and universal appeal.  They can be an ideal form to help share early rhythm and rhyme and to encourage participation among young people.  Raymond Briggs is a colossus in the field of children’s book illustration and there are rich pickings to engage and occupy minds and imaginations.

John Burnigham, Mr Gumpy’s Outing, 1970

What could be better after splashing about in bath water than a story about a river outing on a boat?  Poor Mr Gumpy gets more than he bargained for, however, when two children and a menagerie of animals accompany him.  Burninghams’s stylised and unsentimental portrayal of nature makes each spread a joy to explore.

Allan and Janet Ahlberg, Each Peach Pear Plum, 1978

Perfect for reading aloud, there’s a real sense of familiarity in this classic picture book that draws on the characters and settings of classic nursery rhymes and traditional tales.  Readers can have fun seeking out the many hidden characters and details in Janet’s wonderfully detailed watercolour illustrations.

Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth, Can’t You Sleep Little Bear?, 1988

Sleeplessness is something that many children experience and there can be few stories that offer a more homely, comforting and reassuring base than this.  The relationship between Big Bear and Little Bear is touchingly portrayed both in Waddell’s text and Firth’s warm yet sedate watercolours.

Helen Cooper, The Baby Who Wouldn’t go to Bed, 1996

There is a luminescent quality to the imaginative inner-world of childhood that Helen Cooper brings to life in this story of a baby who wants to stay awake throughout the night.  The illustration and sense of wonder and amazement glow and gradually become more muted as the child slips ever closer to slumber.

Catherine Rayner, Harris Finds his Feet, 2009

Harris is curious about why he has such big feet, but with his granddad’s help he comes to realise why, and the types of impact he is able to have in his world because of them.  There’s a sense of realistation as to purpose and place in the world in this story and Catherine Rayner’s illustrations capture the expansive state of the natural world with real style.

About International Literacy Day

50 years ago UNESCO officially proclaimed 8 September "International Literacy Day". This year UNESCO are celebrating " the past five decades of national and international engagement, efforts and progress made to increase literacy rates around the world. It also addresses current challenges and looks to innovative solutions to further boost literacy in the future."

CILIP Youth Library Group Conference

7 - 8 October 2016, Cardiff

CILIP’s Youth Library Group Conference, 'Families: An Open Door to Literacy', will provide practitioners with the skills to engage with parents, families and carers in supporting children's reading, covering many aspects of reading engagement from recent reading research, engaging with children with autism, physical literacy, library services for disabled children and reading aloud to children. 

Book your place

Brian Wildsmith, children’s writer and illustrator, born 22 January 1930 Penistone, Yorkshire, has died on 31 August 2016 Grasse, France, aged 86.

Wildsmith was born and raised in a small mining village near Sheffield. He won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art, London where he studied for three years. He later taught maths at the Royal Military School of Music but gave it up so that he could pursue his passion for painting.

Published in 1961, Brian’s ABC, an alphabet book illustrated in a fresh and free manner won the 1962 Kate Greenaway Medal for distinguished illustration in a children’s book.

Brian has a world-wide reputation as one of the greatest children's illustrators. He is particularly popular in the USA, Europe and Japan. During his long-standing association with his publisher Oxford University Press, Wildsmith wrote and illustrated more than 80 books which have been translated into more than 30 languages.

“Wildsmith brought a great sense of unrestrained freedom to his work in terms of colour and form. His approach utilised these in ways that not only conveyed but elevated the majesty and movement of the natural world as his subjects.  His illustrations never failed to captivate, engage and remind of a world of wonder that existed beyond the confines of one's own experiences.”

CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Chair of Judges, Sioned Jacques

The September HL Newsletter is now available at:  http://www.cilip.org.uk/health-libraries-group/newsletter/current-newsletter

• Are you a current member of the CILIP East Member Network?
• Will you be beginning or continuing to study for an LIS degree in 2016/17?

Nick Poole became Chief Executive of CILIP on 22 June 2015.

Nick said, “I am honoured and excited to be taking up the role as CILIP’s Chief Executive. Library and information professionals have a profoundly important role to play in a modern digital economy and a productive society. I want to ensure that the skills and expertise of our members is championed as widely as possible, nationally and locally.

These are challenging times for our community, and CILIP needs to be able to offer leadership, support and encouragement to professionals working to promote information literacy across industry, media, education and Government.

I know CILIP as a member and as a former Trustee and Treasurer and I cannot wait to work with our members, Trustees, committee members, staff and partners to build a strong and positive future for our community.”

Nick was previously CEO of the Collections Trust and was responsible for the strategic direction and management of the organisation. In this role, Nick has been responsible for developing UK and international standards for information management, advising agencies on digital programmes and leading partnership initiatives with a range of leading digital companies.

Nick was elected to the Board of Wikimedia UK on 25 July 2015.  He is former Chair of the Europeana Network and provided representation to the European Commission.

Nick Poole will speak about the current state of the library and information profession, and successful ways in which to build your career.

Marina Sotiriou will be giving a presentation on her experiences of working in different libraries across different countries. Currently working as a Library Assistant at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Marina previously worked at Belfast Metropolitan College and before that was the Librarian at the 21st Ephorates of Byzantine Antiquities in Corfu.

Please email Janine.hall@berkshire.nhs.uk for further information, and to book your place. Unfortunately, the venue is not accessible to wheelchair users or those with limited mobility.

At the CILIP MmIT conference in September we will be talking about releasing and re-using library data. Here is a bit about our experience of open data in Newcastle Libraries.

By open data we mean information that has been published and made freely available for re-use, using an open license such as Creative Commons or the UK Open Government License.

Why open data

The reason we are so interested in open data is simple: the principles of it fit with our ethics. We are library and information professionals; as such, we believe it is our role to facilitate the sharing of information, knowledge and culture.

Traditionally we facilitate access to other people's content and information; we have books for loan, journals subscriptions, internet access, artworks and artefacts on display, etc.  This got us thinking about the information we hold and collect as a service: why weren't we sharing our own as well as other peoples’? We have information on our collections through our catalogue, on our PC usage through our booking system, on our members, our events, our buildings, the list goes on.

We are the custodians of this information, but it does not belong to us: it belongs to the citizens of Newcastle. And we need to give it back to them: freely, clearly, openly.

Benefits

The process of publishing our information also prompted us and acted as a catalyst, changing the way we look at and use data internally. Looking at what data we collect, how it is collected, stored and ultimately used.

Although we are at the early stages with releasing our data, we are keen to work towards data-driven decision-making. In the past we have made changes to our services based on what we think we know or what we believe might be best however these are often assumptions or based on our experiences. We want to challenge this by showing and sharing our data and basing our decisions on this.

One of the interesting issues we have come across when asking people to release data is that they want to know what data people want, why they would want it and what would they do with it. The answer often is, we don’t know!

Dropping the C-word

Among the practicalities of opening up data, the first is to make sure you actually own that data; this was not a problem for us and should not be for most library services.

When we talk about ownership of data and publishing under an open license, we need to mention the C-word: copyright. In some cases a neighbouring right may apply, known as database rights. Using an open license means waiving some of those rights so that others may use your content without asking you or paying you for permission.

The next thing we had to do was to decide which licence we would use to make our data open. The Open Data Institute has an excellent guide to open data licensing which is a must-read to understand the different rights and licenses you may be dealing with.  

We settled for the Open Government Licence (OGL), which covers information protected by either copyright or database rights. This was an obvious choice because other data sets already released by Newcastle City Council at the time (March 2016) were published under OGL.

As it happens, five months later we dropped the OGL and moved our data under a public domain dedication, waiving all rights to our information. But we are not going to go into the details here, as explaining why we did this would probably take up a whole article in itself!

Join the movement

Technically it is very easy to share and open data. It isn't a technical problem, it’s about changing the culture within your organisation to one where it is ok (or actively encouraged) to share. 

People can often be reluctant to share their data for a number of reasons, It can be perceived as a loss of control, they may be worried how accurate their data is and more frequently people genuinely don’t know what they can and can’t share. 

In response to frequent well-publicised information and data security horror-stories people often default to the 'safest' option which unfortunately is usually to lock information away in a system where nobody else has access to it.

Releasing data is still the unknown, when we speak to data owners were often asked: Why do you want the data? Who are you going to give it to? What are they going to do with it? 

Our answer to all of these is we don’t know but that’s ok, in fact that’s the whole point. We release so that people can do things with our data that we haven't and wouldn’t have thought of.

Releasing libraries data should be fairly easy to do as much of the data is non-contentious. The data will probably belong to you, it’s up to you to decide what you want to do with it.

It helps to have someone in your organisation working on open data, many organisations, including local authorities, are exploring the possibilities which come with open data, seek them out!

Top tips

In conclusion we thought it would be good to share some of our top tips when it comes to releasing data base on our experiences.

Talk to others who have done it before. People are really open to sharing their experiences and help you where they can.

Just start publishing, it starts the conversation with data owners and data consumers and you will learn so much more this way. 

Find examples of where seemingly 'boring' or 'dull' datasets have been used to create great things. People often can’t see how their data could be used in any way other than what they currently use it for. Show them the 'art of the possible'

Try to release data in a standard, easily reusable and consistent way (we used CSV) and give people as much information about the dataset as you can.

About the CILIP MmIT Conference

Date: 12 - 13 September 2016
Location: Sheffield

The CILIP Multimedia Information and Technology (MmIT) Group conference is titled "Digital Citizenship: What is the library's role?" It will explore and discuss several digital citizenship themes and the role and responsibility of the library and the librarian in supporting citizenry in the digital world.

Book your place