Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs
Closing date for Competition: Thursday 30th of April, 2015
Closing date for Award: Monday 14th of September 2015

The 2015 BL Labs Competition has been launched for the third time and again we want researchers to submit their ideas for projects that highlight the Library’s digital collections and winners work in residence with the Labs team to make their ideas real, please help us spread the word!

Previous finalists of the BL Labs Competition have helped us learn more about:

• how to make statistically representative samples from our book collections (Pieter Francois's Sample Generator, 2013)
• applying the intuitions of a DJ to working with digital collections (Dan Norton's Mixing the Library, Information Interaction and the DJ, 2013)
• linking digitised handwritten manuscripts to transcribed texts (Desmond Schmidt and Anna Gerber's Text to Image Linking Tool, 2013)
• finding Victorian jokes in digital archives, creating a database of them and attempting to make them funny again through social media (Bob Nicholson's Victorian Meme Machine).

We have seen an amazing range of creative and innovative ideas in entries in 2013 and 2014 and we look forward to seeing even more in 2015! Winners will be chosen by Friday 29th of May 2015.

In addition, we are launching the new 2015 BL Labs Awards for outstanding work that has already been completed using British Library digital content. We are looking for examples in the categories of Research, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship. Shortlisted candidates will be informed by Monday 12th October 2015.

Competition winners will showcase their work and Award winners will be announced at the third Labs Symposium on Monday 2 November, 2015 in the British Library Conference Centre.

We organising a number of roadshows around the country promoting the competition, for more information and to register please see:

• 18 March, University of Nottingham
• 2 April, University of Edinburgh
• 8 April, Sussex University, History Lab
• 13 April, Open University, Milton Keynes
• 15 April, Oxford (Bodleian and Oxford e-research centre)
• 20 April, Edge Hill University (and surrounding universities)
• 23 April, University of Hertfordshire
• 27 April, City University London

Contact us at [email protected] or visit http://labs.bl.uk/Events