1 Playing an ACE Access, Collaboration and Engagement in the British Library Jude England Head of Social Science Collections and Research March 2009.

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Playing an ACEAccess, Collaboration and Engagement in the British Library

Jude England Head of Social Science Collections and Research

March 2009

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Once upon a time…….

“Extraordinary, mummified late-Victorian world” - Angus Wilson

Top hats in the Round Reading Room as late as 1929

Restricted access and little collaboration

Gatekeepers to Collections

©The British Library Archives

Superintendent, L C Wharton

caricature from The British Library Archives

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Abracadabra……

“ We exist for everyone who wants to do research – for academic, personal or commercial purposes”

150 million items, 625 km, 12 km pa: books, journals newspapers, magazines, comics, oral history, maps, IGOs, IOR, mss, world collections, ©British Library Photographic

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Some attitudes persist…….

©The British Library Archives

Newspaper cuttings from a scrapbook complied by George Knottesford Fortescue (1847-1912), Keeper of Printed Books, 1899-1912.

From The Times April 21, 2008

When Karl Marx created the tenets of Marxism in the British Library’s Reading Room and Charles Dickens worked at one of its desks, they did not have to endure queues, a lack of chairs and tables, and rooms closed by crowd control……Speaking to The Times yesterday, Lady Antonia said: “I had to queue for 20 minutes to get in, in freezing weather. Then I queued to leave my coat for 20 minutes [at the compulsory check-in]. Then half an hour to get my books and another 15 minutes to get my coat. I’m told it’s due to students having access now. Why can’t they go to their university libraries?” …………Ms Tomalin described the crowds as intolerable: “It’s full of what seem to be schoolgirls giggling. I heard one saying, ‘I’ve got to write about Islam. Can I have your notes?’ It’s what you expect to hear in a school.”

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External context

Scope of Social Science and growth in multi-disciplinary research

UK Research Council and Government themes

Funding regimes = competitive and time-poor researchers

Concern about cost and value of research; emphasis on re-use of research

Wide range of researchers, behaviours and expectations

Long-term research capacity

More emphasis on dissemination, public value and economic impact

The future is digital……

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Researchers’ attitudes

Google, Google, Google and our digital lives

Distant from libraries - actual and metaphorical

Access and availability: ‘need for speed’

Competitive and selfish

Focus: primary data gathering, remote access, contemporary material

Need for ethics, authenticity, trusted sources

Forgotten relevance, usefulness and potential of libraries and archives

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Social Science Collections and Research: Aims and Strategic Priorities

Aims:

Provision, management, transfer, generation of info

Ideas hub

Capacity building, especially for new researchers

Build, develop, exploit content and collections

Promote value of research

Strategic priorities:

Team creation and development

Defining and developing a social science collection

Relationship and awareness building

Improving accessibility

Working with the research community to build capacity

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Issues…….

Counter-cultural to BL: collecting and keeping vs connecting and using

Building internal relationships and awareness

Getting the team right: IPS, professional skills, digital understanding

Interest and enthusiasm varies by discipline; can be hard to reach, find, talk to

Heterogeneous audience: academics, third sector, government

Defining content: format, discipline, theme, location?

Managing scale and finding a way in…… and partners……

Catalogues and digital issues (local vs corporate responsibilities)

Resources: staff and finance

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Lessons learned….

Seed, seed and seed again

Network, network and network again

Persuasive, patient, adaptable, tenacious, flexible, innovative, passionate, ambitious team members are essential

Need awareness of world of researcher and access to a common language; ideally understand research methodology

Need awareness of digital world and digital skills, plus IP, copyright and permissions

Find doable and manageable tasks, and many ‘hooks’: entice, inspire, excite

Social scientists ‘do’ history…….

Support dissemination and knowledge exchange

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In practice……

Linking with social science research community: academic, government, third sector

Developing tailored resources e.g. Business and Management studies website personalised portal; Olympics web resource; Welfare Reform on the Web; collection guides and bibliographies; mapping resources

Partnerships (formal and informal): ESRC; LSE and OUSSL; ESDS; TNA

Research collaborations: Voices of the UK; Children’s play in the media age; henstock; second wave feminists

Active support to knowledge exchange e.g. ESRC-funded CSR and multi-modal seminar series; University of Sheffield SERX; ESRC Interns; collaborative Phd

Hub: Welfare Reform on the Web at 10; TNA/BL events programme; ESDS seminars; ESRC Festival of Social Science; hosting events (SRA, UKES, SCOLMA, GLIG, AcSS, BSA, ESRC)

Capacity building: Postgraduate training days; census 2011; public events

©Clive Sherlock

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An ACE invitation and challenge!

The oldest profession or the ladies of the night: complied by Richard Cullen, 1993

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An Oral History of Prostitution

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The words of the respondents…

• Lauren

• Karl

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Conclusion and Contact

Jude England (0)20 7412 7670

Alt extn: 7487

Email: [email protected]

Head-Social Science Collections & Research

The British Library

96 Euston Road

London NW1 2DB

Available at www.bl.uk

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