Digital scholarship blog

Attending memoQfest 2024 as a translator was an enriching and insightful experience. Held from 13 to 14 June in Budapest, Hungary, the event stood out as a hub for language professionals and translation technology enthusiasts. 

Streetviews of Budapest, near the venue for memoQfest 2024. Captured by the author

A Well-Structured Agenda 

The conference had a well-structured agenda with over 50 speakers, including two keynotes, who brought valuable insights into the world of translation.  

Jay Marciano, President of the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA), delivered his highly anticipated presentation on understanding generative AI and large language models (LLMs). While he acknowledged their significant potential, Marciano expressed only cautious optimism on their future in the industry, stressing the need for a deeper understanding of the limitations. As he laid out, machines can translate faster but the quality of their output depends greatly on the quality of the training data, especially in certain domains or for specific clients. He believes that translators’ role will evolve so that they will become more involved with data curation, than with translation itself, to improve the quality of machine output. 

Dr Mike Dillinger, the former Technical Lead for Knowledge Graphs in the AI Division at LinkedIn, and now a technical advisor and consultant, also delved into the challenges and opportunities presented by AI-generated content in his keynote speech, The Next 'New Normal' for Language Services.  Dillinger holds a nuanced perspective on the intersection of AI, machine translation (MT), and knowledge graphs. As he explained, knowledge graphs can be designed to integrate, organize, and provide context for large volumes of data. They are particularly valuable because they go beyond simple data storage, embedding rich relationships and context. They can therefore make it easier for AI systems to process complex information, enhancing tasks like natural language processing, recommendation engines, and semantic search.  

Dillinger therefore advocated for the integration of knowledge graphs with AI, arguing that high-quality, context-rich data is crucial for improving the reliability and effectiveness of AI systems. Knowledge graphs can significantly enhance the capabilities of LLMs by grounding language in concrete concepts and real-world knowledge, thereby addressing some of the current limitations of AI and LLMs. He concluded that, while LLMs have made significant strides, they often lack true understanding of the text and context. 

Enhancing Translation Technology for BLQFP 

The event also offered hands-on demonstrations of memoQ's latest features and updates such as significant improvements to the In-country Review tool (ICR), a new filter for Markdown files, and enhanced spellcheck.  

Interior of the Pesti Vigado, Budapest's second largest concert hall, and venue for the memoQfest Gala dinner

As a participant, I was keen to explore how some of these features could be used to enhance translation processes at the British Library. For example, could machine translation (MT) be used to translate catalogue records? Over the last twelve years, the translation team of the British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership project has built up a massive translation memory (TM) – a bilingual repository of all our previous translations. A machine could be trained on our terminology and style, using this TM and our other bilingual resources, such as our vast and growing term base (TB). With appropriate data curation, MT could be a cost-effective and efficient way to maximise our translation operations. 

There are challenges, however. For example, before it can be used to train a machine, our TM would need to be edited and cleaned, removing repetitive and inappropriate content. We would need to choose the most appropriate translations, while maintaining proper alignment between segments. The same applies to our TB, which would need to be curated. Some of these data curation tasks cannot be pursued at this time, as we remain without access to much of our data following the cyberattack incident. Moreover, these careful preparatory steps would not suffice, as any machine output would still need to be post-edited by skilled human translators. As both the conference’s keynote speakers agreed, it is not yet a simple matter of letting the machines do the work. 

 This blog post is by Musa Alkhalifa Alsulaiman, Arabic Translator, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership. 

 British Library is delighted to host its annual Open and Engaged Conference on Monday 21 October, in-person and online, as part of the International Open Access Week. The Conference is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Research Libraries UK (RLUK).  

Open and Engaged 2024: Empowering Communities to Thrive in Open Scholarship will centre leveraging the power of communities in the axis of open scholarship, open infrastructure, emerging technologies, collections as data, equity and integrity, skills development and sustainable models to elevate research of all kinds for the public good. We take a cross sectoral approach to the conference programme – unifying around shared-values for openness – by reflecting on practices within research libraries both in higher education and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sectors as well as the national and public libraries.  

Open and Engaged 2024 is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Research Libraries UK (RLUK). Everyone interested in the conference topics is welcome to join us on Monday, 21 October! 

This will be a hybrid event taking place at the British Library’s Knowledge Centre in St. Pancras, London, and streamed online for those unable to attend in-person. 

The event will be recorded and recordings made available in the British Library’s Research Repository.

Registration

Please register for Open and Engaged 2024 by filling out this form. Registration will close on Friday 4 October for in-person attendance and Thursday 17 October for online attendance at 18:00 BST.  

Registrants will be contacted with details for either in-person attendance or a link to access the online stream closer to the event. 

Provisional Programme 

Please note that the conference program is subject to updates as we finalize the lineup of speakers.

09:30  Registration

10:00  Welcome remarks

10:10  Opening keynote panel: Cross disciplinary approach to open scholarship

• Paola Castano, Research Fellow at the University of Exeter
• Hugh Shanahan, Professor of Open Science at the Royal Holloway University of London
• Jane Winters, Professor of Digital Humanities & Director of the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the University of London

10:50  Equity and inclusivity in the age of Artificial Intelligence

• Jeni Tennison, Executive Director of Connected by Data.
• Gillian Daly, Executive Officer, at the Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL)

11:40  Break

12:10  Deepening partnership through shared values

• Ed Jewel, President of Libraries Connected.
• Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, Reader at the University of Brighton.

13:00  Lunch

13:45  Open repositories for research of all kinds

• Joe Padfield, Principal Scientist at the National Gallery
• Paul Walk, Director at Antleaf Ltd.

14:45  Break

15:15  Enabling collections as data: from policy to practice 

• Gustavo Candela Romero, Assistant Professor at the University of Alicante

16:15  Closing keynote speech: Future role of libraries as open and inclusive digital (and physical) spaces

• Erik Boekesteijn, Member of Board of Directors at the Storyhouse and Senior Advisor at the National Library of the Netherlands

16:45 Closing remarks

17:00 Networking session

19:00  End

The hashtag for the event is #OpenEngaged on social media platform of your choice. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].  

This blog post is by Dr Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert, Digital Curator for Asian and African Collections, British Library. She's on Mastodon as @[email protected]. 

Sustainability has become a core value at the British Library, driven by our staff-led Sustainability Group and bolstered by the addition of a dedicated Sustainability Manager nearly a year ago. As part of our ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility, we have been exploring various initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint. One such initiative is our engagement with the Digital Humanities Climate Coalition (DHCC), a collaborative and cross-institutional effort focused on understanding and minimising the environmental impact of digital humanities research.

Discovering the DHCC and its toolkit

The Digital Humanities Climate Coalition (DHCC) has been on my radar for some time, primarily due to their exemplary work in promoting sustainable digital practices. The DHCC toolkit, in particular, has proven to be an invaluable resource. Designed to help individuals and organisations make more environmentally conscious digital choices, the toolkit offers practical guidance for building sustainable digital humanities projects. It encourages researchers to adopt climate-responsible practices and supports those who may lack the practical knowledge to devise greener initiatives.

The toolkit is comprehensive, providing tips on the planning and management of research infrastructure and data. It aims to empower researchers to make climate-friendly technological decisions, thereby fostering a culture of sustainability within the digital humanities community.

My primary goal in leveraging the DHCC toolkit is to raise awareness about the environmental impact of digital work and technology use. By doing so, I hope to empower Library staff to make informed decisions that contribute to our sustainability goals. The toolkit’s insights are crucial for anyone involved in digital research, offering both strategic guidance and practical tips for minimising ecological footprints.

Planning a workshop at the British Library

With the support of our Research Development team, I organised a one-day workshop at the British Library, inviting Professor James Baker, Director of Digital Humanities at the University of Southampton and a member of the DHCC, to lead the event. The workshop was designed to introduce the DHCC toolkit and provide guidance on implementing best practices in research projects. The in-person, full-day workshop was held on 5 February 2024.

Workshop highlights

The workshop featured four key sessions:

Session 1: Introductions and Framing: We began with an overview of the DHCC and its work within the GLAM sector, followed by an introduction to sustainability at the British Library, the roles that libraries play in reducing carbon footprint and awareness raising, the Green Libraries Campaign (of which the British Library was a founding partner), and perspectives on digital humanities and the use of computational methods.

CILIP’s Green Libraries Campaign banner

Session 2: Toolkit Overview: Prof Baker introduced the DHCC toolkit, highlighting its main components and practical applications, focusing on grant writing (e.g. recommendations on designing research projects, including Data Management Plans), and working practices (guidance on reducing energy consumption in day-to-day working life, e.g. communication and shared working, travel, and publishing and preserving data). The session included responses from relevant Library teams, on topics such as research project design, data management and our shared research repository.

DHCC Information, Measurement and Practice Action Group. (2022). A Researcher Guide to Writing a Climate Justice Oriented Data Management Plan (v0.6). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6451499

Session 3: Advocacy and Influencing: This session focused on strategies for advocating for sustainable practices within one's organisation and influencing others to adopt these practices. We covered the Library’s staff-led Sustainability Group and its activities, after which participants were then asked to consider the actions that could be taken at the Library and beyond, taking into account the types of people that might be influenced (senior leaders, colleagues, peers in wider networks/community).

Session 4: Feedback and Next Steps: Participants discussed their takeaways from the workshop and identified actionable steps they could implement in their work. This session included conversations on ways to translate workshop learnings into concrete next steps, and generated light ‘commitments’ for the next week, month and year. One fun way to set oneself a yearly reminder is to schedule an eco-friendly e-card to send to yourself in a year!

Post-workshop follow-up

Three months after the workshop had taken place, we conducted a follow-up survey to gauge its impact. The survey included a mix of agree/disagree statements (see chart below) and optional long-form questions to capture more detailed feedback. While we had only a few responses, survey results were constructive and positive. Participants appreciated the practical insights and reported better awareness of sustainable practices in their digital work.

Participants’ agree/disagree ratings for a series of statements about the DHCC workshop’s impact

Judging from responses to the set of statements above, at least several participants have embedded toolkit recommendations, made specific changes in their work, shared knowledge and influenced their wider networks. We got additional details on these actions in responses to the open-ended questions that followed.

What did staff members say?

Here are some comments made in relation to making changes and embedding the DHCC toolkit’s recommendation:

“Changes made to working policy and practice to order vegetarian options as standard for events.”

“I have referenced the toolkit in a chapter submitted for a monograph, in relation to my BL/university research.”

“I have discussed the toolkit's recommendations with colleagues re the projects I am currently working on. We agreed which parts of the projects were most carbon intensive and discussed ways to mitigate that.”

“I recommended a workshop on the toolkit to my [research] funding body.”

“Have engaged more with small impacts - less email traffic, fewer attachments, fewer images.”

A couple of comments were made with regard to challenges or barriers to change making. One was about colleagues being reluctant to decrease flying, or travel in general, as a way to reduce one’s carbon footprint. The second point referred to an uncertainty on how to influence internal discussions on software development infrastructure – highlighting the challenge of finding the right path to the right people.

An interesting comment was made in relation to raising environmental concerns and advocating the Toolkit:

“Shared the toolkit with wider professional network at an event at which environmentally conscious and sustainable practices were raised without prompting. Toolkit was well received with expressions of relief that others are thinking along these lines and taking practical steps to help progress the agenda.”

And finally, an excellent point about the energy-intensive use of ChatGPT (or other LLMs), which was covered at the workshop:

“The thing that has stayed with me is what was said about water consumption needed to cool the supercomputers - how every time you run one of those Chat GPT (or equivalent) queries it is the equivalent of throwing a litre of water out the window, and that Microsoft's water use has gone up 30%. I've now been saying this every time someone tells me to use one of these GPT searches. To be honest it has put me off using them completely.”

In summary

The DHCC workshop at the British Library was a great success, underscoring the importance of sustainability in digital humanities, digital projects and digital working. By leveraging the DHCC toolkit, we have taken important steps toward making our digital practices more environmentally responsible, and spreading the word across internal and external networks. Moving forward, we will continue to build on this momentum, fostering a culture of sustainability and empowering our staff to make informed, climate-friendly decisions.

Thank you to workshop contributors, organisers and helpers:

James Baker, Joely Fake, Maja Maricevic, Catherine Ross, Andy Rackley, Jez Cope, Jenny Basford, Graeme Bentley, Stephen White, Bianca Miranda Cardoso, Sarah Kirk-Browne, Andrea Deri, and Deirdre Sullivan.

This is a joint blog post by Helena Byrne, Curator of Web Archives, Harry Lloyd, Research Software Engineer, and Rossitza Atanassova, Digital Curator.

This year’s Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic countries conference took place at the University of Iceland School of Education in Reykjavik. It was the eight conference which was established in 2016, but the first time it was held in Iceland. The theme for the conference was “From Experimentation to Experience: Lessons Learned from the Intersections between Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage”. There were pre-conference workshops from May 27-29 with the main conference starting on the afternoon of May 29 and finishing on May 31. In her excellent opening keynote Sally Chambers, Head of Research Infrastructure Services at the British Library, discussed the complex research and innovation data space for cultural heritage. Three British Library colleagues report highlights of their conference experience in this blog post.

Helena Byrne, Curator of Web Archives, Contemporary British & Irish Publications.

I presented in the Born Digital session held on May 28. There were four presentations in this session and three were related to web archiving and one related to Twitter (X) data. I co-presented ‘Understanding the Challenges for the Use of Web Archives in Academic Research’. This presentation examined the challenges for the use of web archives in academic research through a synthesis of the findings from two research studies that were published through the WARCnet research network. There was lots of discussion after the presentation on how web archives could be used as a research data management tool to help manage online citations in academic publications.

Helena presenting in the born-digital archives session

The conference programme was very strong and there were many takeaways that relate to my role. One strong theme was ‘collections as data’. At the UK Web Archive we have just started to publish some of our inactive curated collections as data. So these discussions were very useful. One highlight was the ‘Panel: Publication and reuse of digital collections: A GLAM Labs approach’. What stood out for me in this session was the checklist for publishing collections as data. It was very reassuring to see that we had pretty much everything covered for the release of the UK Web Archive datasets.

Rossitza and I were kindly offered a tour of the National and University Library of Iceland by Kristinn Sigurðsson, Head of Digital Projects and Development. We enjoyed meeting curatorial staff from the Special Collections who showed us some of the historical maps of Iceland that have been digitised. We also visited the digitisation studio to see how they process periodicals, and spoke to staff involved with web archiving. Thank you to Kristinn and his colleagues for this opportunity to learn about the library’s collections and digital services.

Rossitza and Helena outside the National and University Library of Iceland

The National and University Library of Iceland

Harry Lloyd, Research Software Engineer, Digital Research.

DHNB2024 was a rich conference from my perspective as a research software engineer. Sally Chambers’ opening keynote on Wednesday afternoon demonstrated an extraordinary grasp of the landscape of digital cultural heritage across the EU. By this point there had already been a day and a half of workshops, including a session Rossitza and I presented on Catalogues as Data. 

I spent the first half using a Jupyter notebook to explain how we extracted entries from an OCR’d version of the catalogue of the British Library’s collection of 15th century books. We used an explainable algorithm rather than a ‘black-box’ machine learning one, so we walked through the steps involved and discussed where it worked well and where it could be improved. You can follow along by clicking the ‘launch notebook’ button in the ReadMe here. 

Harry explaining text recognition results during the workshop

Handing over to Rossitza in the second half to discuss her corpus linguistic analysis worked really well by giving attendees a feel for the complete workflow. This really showed in some great conversations we had with attendees over the following days about tricky problems like where to store the ‘true’ results of OCR. 

A few highlights from the rest of the conference were Clelia LaMonica’s work using Latin large language model to analyse kinship in texts from Medieval Burgundy. Large language models trained on historic texts are important as the majority are trained on modern material and struggle with historical language. Jørgen Burchardt presented some refreshingly quantitative work on bias across a digitised newspaper collection, very reminiscent of work by Kaspar Beelen. Overall it was a productive few days, and I very much enjoyed my time in Reykjavik.

Rossitza Atanassova, Digital Curator, Digital Research.

This was my second DHNB conference and I was looking forward to reconnecting with the community of researchers and cultural heritage practitioners, some of whom I had met at DHNB2019 in Copenhagen. Apart from the informal discussions with attendees, I contributed to DHNB2024 in two main ways.

As already mentioned, Harry and I delivered a pre-conference workshop showcasing some processes and methodology we use for working with printed catalogues as data. In the session we used the corpus tool AntConc to perform computational analysis of the descriptions for the British Library’s collection of books published in the 15th century. You can find out more about the project here and reuse the workshop materials published on Zenodo here.

I also joined the pre-conference meeting of the international GLAM Labs Community held at the National and University Library of Iceland. This was the first in-person meeting of the community in five years and was a productive session during which we brainstormed ‘100 ideas for the GLAM Labs Community’. Afterwards we had a sneak peak of the archive of the National Theatre of Iceland which is being catalogued and digitised.

The main hall of the Library.

The DHNB community is so welcoming and supportive, and attracts many early career digital humanists. I was particularly interested to hear from doctoral students researching the use of AI with digitised archives, and using NLP methods with historical collections. One of the projects that stood out for me was Johannes Widegren’s PhD research into the ethical use of AI to enable access and discovery of Sami cultural heritage, and to develop library and archival practice. 

I was also interested in presentations that discussed workflows for creating Named Entity Recognition resources for historical archives and I plan to try out the open-source Label Studio tool that I learned about. And of course, the poster session is always a highlight and I enjoyed finding out about a range of projects, including computational analysis of Scandinavian runic-texts, digital reconstruction of Gothenburg’s 1923 Jubilee exhibition, and training large language models to track semantic variation in climate change vocabulary in Danish news articles.

The poster presentations session chaired by Olga Holownia

We are grateful to all DHNB24 organisers for the warm welcome and a great conference experience, with special thanks to the inspirational and indefatigable Olga Holownia! 

Digital research in the arts and humanities has traditionally tended to focus on digitised physical objects and archives. However, born-digital cultural materials that originate and circulate across a range of digital formats and platforms are rapidly expanding and increasing in complexity, which raises opportunities and issues for research and archiving communities. Collecting, preserving, accessing and sharing born-digital objects and data presents a range of technical, legal and ethical challenges that, if unaddressed, threaten the archival and research futures of these vital cultural materials and records of the 21st century. Moreover, the environments, contexts and formats through which born-digital records are mediated necessitate reconceptualising the materials and practices we associate with cultural heritage and memory. Research and practitioner communities working with born-digital materials are growing and their interests are varied, from digital cultures and intangible cultural heritage to web archives, electronic literature and social media.

To explore and discuss issues relating to born-digital cultural heritage, the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in collaboration with British Library curators, colleagues from Aarhus University and the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme at the British Museum, are currently inviting submissions for the inaugural Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory conference, which will be hosted at the University of London and online from 2-4 April 2025. The full call for proposals and submission portal is available at https://easychair.org/cfp/borndigital2025.

This international conference seeks to further an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral discussion on how the born-digital transforms what and how we research in the humanities. We welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners involved in any way in accessing or developing born-digital collections and archives, and interested in exploring the novel and transformative effects of born-digital cultural heritage. Areas of particular (but not exclusive) interest include:

1. A broad range of born-digital objects and formats:
• Web-based and networked heritage, including but not limited to websites, emails, social media platforms/content and other forms of personal communication
• Software-based heritage, such as video games, mobile applications, computer-based artworks and installations, including approaches to archiving, preserving and understanding their source code
• Born-digital narrative and artistic forms, such as electronic literature and born-digital art collections
• Emerging formats and multimodal born-digital cultural heritage
• Community-led and personal born-digital archives
• Physical, intangible and digitised cultural heritage that has been remediated in a transformative way in born-digital formats and platforms
2. Theoretical, methodological and creative approaches to engaging with born-digital collections and archives:
• Approaches to researching the born-digital mediation of cultural memory
• Histories and historiographies of born-digital technologies
• Creative research uses and creative technologist approaches to born-digital materials
• Experimental research approaches to engaging with born-digital objects, data and collections
• Methodological reflections on using digital, quantitative and/or qualitative methods with born-digital objects, data and collections
• Novel approaches to conceptualising born-digital and/or hybrid cultural heritage and archives
3. Critical approaches to born-digital archiving, curation and preservation:
• Critical archival studies and librarianship approaches to born-digital collections
• Preserving and understanding obsolete media formats, including but not limited to CD-ROMs, floppy disks and other forms of optical and magnetic media
• Preservation challenges associated with the platformisation of digital cultural production
• Semantic technology, ontologies, metadata standards, markup languages and born-digital curation
• Ethical approaches to collecting and accessing ‘difficult’ born-digital heritage, such as traumatic or offensive online materials
• Risks and opportunities of generative AI in the context of born-digital archiving
4. Access, training and frameworks for born-digital archiving and collecting:
• Institutional, national and transnational approaches to born-digital archiving and collecting
• Legal, trustworthy, ethical and environmentally sustainable frameworks for born-digital archiving and collecting, including attention to cybersecurity and safety concerns
• Access, skills and training for born-digital research and archives
• Inequalities of access to born-digital collecting and archiving infrastructures, including linguistic, geographic, economic, legal, cultural, technological and institutional barriers

Options for Submissions

A number of different submission types are welcomed and there will be an option for some presentations to be delivered online.

• Conference papers (150-300 words)
• Presentations lasting 20 minutes. Papers will be grouped with others on similar subjects or themes to form a complete session. There will be time for questions at the end of each session.
• Panel sessions (100 word summary plus 150-200 words per paper)
• Proposals should consist of three or four 20-minute papers. There will be time for questions at the end of each session.
• Roundtables (200-300 word summary and 75-100 word bio for each speaker)
• Proposals should include between three to five speakers, inclusive of a moderator, and each session will be no more than 90 minutes.
• Posters, demos & showcases (100-200 words)
• These can be traditional printed posters, digital-only posters, digital tool showcases, or software demonstrations. Please indicate the form your presentation will take in your submission.
• If you propose a technical demonstration of some kind, please include details of technical equipment to be used and the nature of assistance (if any) required. Organisers will be able to provide a limited number of external monitors for digital posters and demonstrations, but participants will be expected to provide any specialist equipment required for their demonstration. Where appropriate, posters and demos may be made available online for virtual attendees to access.
• Lightning talks (100-200 words)
• Talks will be no more than 5 minutes and can be used to jump-start a conversation, pitch a new project, find potential collaborations, or try out a new idea. Reports on completed projects would be more appropriately given as 20-minute papers.
• Workshops (150-300 words)
• Please include details about the format, length, proposed topic, and intended audience.

Proposals will be reviewed by members of the programme committee. The peer review process will be double-blind, so no names or affiliations should appear on the submissions. The one exception is proposals for roundtable sessions, which should include the names of proposed participants. All authors and reviewers are required to adhere to the conference Code of Conduct.

The submission deadline for proposals is 15 May 2024, has been extended to 7 June 2024, and notification of acceptance is now scheduled for early August 2024. Organisers plan to make a number of bursaries available to presenters to cover the cost of attendance and details about these will be shared when notifications are sent. 

Key Information:

• Dates: 2 - 4 April 2025
• Venue: University of London, London, UK & online
• Call for papers deadline: 7 June 2024
• Notification of acceptance: early August 2024
• Submission link: https://easychair.org/cfp/borndigital2025

Further details can be found on the conference website and the call for proposals submission portal at https://easychair.org/cfp/borndigital2025. If you have any questions about the conference, please contact the organising committee at [email protected].

The British Library has joined forces with the Guardian to hold a summit on the complex policy impacts of AI on media and information industries. The summit, chaired by broadcaster and author Timandra Harkness, brings together politicians, policy makers, industry leaders, artists and academics to shed light on key issues facing the media, newspapers, broadcasting, library and publishing industries in the age of AI. The summit was on Monday 11 March 2024 14:00 - 17:20; networking reception 17:30 - 19:00 GMT.

The video of the event is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4muZybkzMU4 and embedded below.

Lucy Crompton-Reid, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK; Sara Lloyd, Group Communications Director & Global AI Lead at Pan Macmillan and Matt Rogerson from the Guardian will tackle the issue of copyright in the age of algorithms.

Novelist Tahmima Anam; Greg Clark MP, Chair Science & Technology Committee; Chris Moran from the Guardian and Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library will discuss the issue of AI generated misinformation and bias.

Speakers on stage at the AI Summit. Photo credit Mia Ridge

AI is rapidly changing the world as we know it, and the media and information industries are no exception. AI-powered technologies are already being used to automate tasks, create personalised content, and deliver targeted advertising. In the process AI is quickly becoming both a friend and a foe. People can use AI to flood the online environment with misinformation, creating significant worries, for example, around how deep fakes, and AI personalised and targeted content could influence democratic processes. At the same time, AI could become a key tool to combat misinformation by identifying fake news articles and social media posts.

Many creators of content - from the organisations creating and publishing content, to individual authors, artists and actors - are worried that their copyright has been infringed by AI and we have already seen a flurry of legal action, mostly in the United States. At the same time, many artists are embracing AI as a part of their creative process. The recent British Library exhibition on Digital Storytelling explored the ways technology provides new opportunities to transform and enhance the way writers write and readers engage, including interactive works that invite and respond to user input, and reading experiences influenced by data feeds.

And it is not only in the world of news that there is a danger of AI misinformation. In science, where AI is revolutionising many areas of research from helping us discover new drugs to aiding research on complexities of climate change, we are, at the same time, encountering the issue of fake, AI generated scientific articles. For libraries, AI holds the future promise of improving discovery and access to information, which would help library users to find relevant information quickly. Yet, AI is also introducing significant new challenges when it comes to understanding the provenance of information sources, especially in making the public aware if the information has been created or selected by algorithms rather than human beings.

How will we know - and will we care - if our future newspapers, television programmes and library enquiries are mediated and delivered by AI? Or if the content we are consuming is a machine rather than a human creation? We are used to making judgements about people and organisations that we trust on the basis of how we perceive their professional integrity, political leanings, their stance on the issues that we care about, or just likability and charisma of the individual in front of us. How will we make similar judgments about an algorithm and its inherent bias? And how will we govern and manage this new AI-powered environment?

Governmental regulation of AI is under development in the UK, the US, the EU and elsewhere. At the beginning of February 2024 the UK government released its response to the UK AI Regulation White Paper, signaling the continuation of ‘agile’ AI regulation in the UK, which attempts to balance innovation and economic benefits of AI while also giving greater responsibility related to AI to existing regulators. The government’s response also reserves an option for more binding regulation in the future. For some, such as tech companies investing in AI products, this creates uncertainty for their future business models. For others, especially many in the creative industries and artists affected by AI, there is a disappointment due to the absence of regulations in relation to AI being trained by using content under copyright.

Inevitably, as AI further develops and becomes more prevalent, the issues of its regulation and adoption in the society will continue to evolve. AI will continue to challenge the ways in which we understand creators’ rights, individual and corporate governance and management of information, and the ways in which we acquire knowledge, trust different information sources, and form our opinions on what to buy to who to vote for.

Join us to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead. You can book your place on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/safeguarding-tomorrow-the-impact-of-ai-in-media-information-industries-tickets-814482728767?aff=oddtdtcreator.

This Friday (13^th October) the British Library invites you to join the world of Clockwork Watch by Yomi Ayeni, a participatory storytelling project, set in a fantastical retro-futurist vision of Victorian England, with floating cities and sky pirates, which is one of the showcased narratives in our Digital Storytelling exhibition.

We are delighted that Dark Box Images will be bringing their portable darkroom to the Late at the Library: Digital Steampunk event and taking portrait photographs. If this appeals to you, then please arrive early to have your picture taken. Photographer Gregg McNeill is an expert in the wet plate collodion process invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. Gregg’s skill in using an authentic Victorian camera creates genuinely remarkable results that appear right in front of your eyes.

Wet plate collodion photograph of Jennifer Garside of Wyte Phantom corsetry, taken by Gregg McNeill of Dark Box Images

If you want to pose for the camera at our steampunk Late, or have a portrait drawn by artist Doctor Geof, please don’t be shy, this is an event where guests are encouraged to dress to impress! The aesthetic of steampunk fashion is inspired by Victoriana and 19^th Century literature, including Jules Verne’s novels and the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Steampunk looks can include hats and googles, tweed tailoring, waistcoats, corsets, fob watches and fans. Whatever your personal style, we encourage you to unleash your creativity when putting together an outfit for this event.

Furthermore, whether you are seeking a new look or some finishing touches, there will be an opportunity to browse a Night Market at this Late event, where you can purchase and admire a range of exquisite hand crafted items created by:

• Jema Hewitt, a professional costumer and academic, will be bringing some of her unique, handmade jewellery and accessories to the Library Late event. She was one of the originators of the early artistic steampunk scene in the UK, subsequently exhibiting her costume work internationally, and having three how-to-make books published as her alter ego “Emilly Ladybird”. Jema currently specialises as a pattern cutter for film, theatre and TV, as well as lecturing and teaching workshops.

Jewellery, hats and clothing created by Jema Hewitt/Emilly Ladybird

• Doctor Geof, an artist, scientist, comics creator and maker of whimsical objects. His work is often satirical, usually with an historical twist, and features tea, goblins, krakens, steampunk, smut, nuns, bees, cats and more tea. Since 2004 you may have encountered him selling his comics, prints, cards, mugs, pins, and for some reason a lot of embroidered badges (including an Evil Librarian patch!) at various events. As one of the foremost Steampunk artists in the UK, Doctor Geof has worked with and exhibited at the Cutty Sark, Royal Museums Greenwich, and Discovery Museum Newcastle. He is a talented portrait artist, so please seek him out if you would like him to capture your likeness in ink and watercolour.

Evil Librarian embroidered patch by Dr Geof

• Jennifer Garside, a seamstress specialising in modern corsetry, which takes inspiration from historical styles. Her business, Wyte Phantom, opened in 2010, and she has made costumes for opera singers, performers and artists across the world.

• Tracy Wells, a couture milliner based in the Lake District. She creates all kinds of hats and headpieces, often collaborating with other artists to explore new styles, concepts and genres.

Millinery by Tracy Wells

• Herr Döktor, a renowned inventor, gadgeteer, and contraptionist, who has been working in his Laboratory in the Surrey Hills for the last two decades, building a better future via the prism of history. He will be bringing a small selection of his inventions and scale models of his larger ideas. (His alter ego, Ian Crichton, is a professional model maker with thirty years experience as a toy prototype maker, museum and exhibition designer, and, most recently, building props and models for the film industry, he also lives in the Surrey Hills). 

Herr Döktor, inventor, gadgeteer, and contraptionist. Photograph by Adam Stait

• Linette Withers established Anachronalia in 2012 to be a full-time bookbinder, producing historically-inspired books, miniature books, and quirky stationery. Her work has been shortlisted for display at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford as part of their ‘Redesigning the Medieval Book’ competition and exhibition in 2018 and one of her books is held in the permanent collection of The Lit & Phil in Newcastle after being part of an exhibition of bookbinding in 2021. She also teaches bookbinding in her studio in Leeds.

• Heather Hayden of Diamante Queen Designs creates handmade vintage inspired, kitsch, macabre, noir accessories for everybody to wear and enjoy. Heather studied fashion and surface pattern design in the 80's near Leeds during the emergence of Gothic culture and has remained interested in the darker side of life ever since. She became fascinated with Steampunk after seeing Datamancer's Steampunk computer, loving the juxtaposition of new and old technology. This inspired her to make steampunk clothing and accessories using old and found items and upcycling as much as possible.

Headpiece by Diamante Queen Designs

• Matthew Chapman of Raphael's Workshop specialises in creating strange and sublime chainmail items, bringing ideas to life in metal that few would ever consider. From collars to corsets, serpents to squids, arms to armour and medals to masterpieces, you should visit his stall and see what creations spark the imagination.

Chainmail jewellery and accessories created by Raphael's Workshop

We hope that this post has whetted your appetite for the delights available at the Late at the Library: Digital Steampunk event on Friday 13th October at the British Library. Tickets can be booked here.

All good things must come to an end, no I’m not talking about the collapse of a favourite high street chain store beginning with W, but the final few weeks of our Digital Storytelling exhibition, which closes on the 15^th October 2023. If you haven’t seen it yet, then this is your last chance to book!

Digital Storytelling showcases eleven different born digital works, including interactive narratives that respond to user input, reading experiences personalised by data feeds, and immersive multimedia story worlds developed through audience participation. From thought provoking autobiographical hypertexts to data journalism, uncanny ghost stories to weather poetry, steampunk literary adaptation to quirky Elizabethan medical comedy. 

If you want to hear more about this exhibition, Digital Curator Stella Wisdom will be giving two talks later this week. The first of these will be in-person on Thursday evening, 5^th October, in Richmond Lending Library for the Richmond Reads season of events, celebrating the joys and benefits of reading. The second will be held online on Friday morning, 6^th October, for the DARIAH-EU autumn 2023 Friday Frontiers series.

We are also delighted to share that there is a chapter about interactive digital books written by Giulia Carla Rossi, Curator for Digital Publications, in The Book by Design, which was recently launched by our colleagues in British Library Publishing. Giulia’s chapter discusses innovative Editions at Play publications, including Seed by Joanna Walsh and Breathe by Kate Pullinger, which are both currently displayed in Digital Storytelling.

Before the Digital Storytelling exhibition closes, we'd love you to join us for a party on the evening of Friday 13th October. For one night only, transmedia storyteller Yomi Ayeni will transform the British Library into the Clockwork Watch story world for an immersive steampunk late event.

Genre-bending DJ Sacha Dieu will be spinning the best in Balkan Gypsy, Electro Swing, and Global Beats. Professor Elemental will perform live for us, and we really hope he’ll sing I Love Libraries! You'll also be able to view the Digital Storytelling exhibition, and there will be quieter areas to explore 19^th Century London in Minecraft, play board games including Great Scott! The Game of Mad Invention with games librarian Marion Tessier, and to discover poetry with the Itinerant Poetry Librarian.

If you plan to party with us, book your ticket here.