Library Data Day

Below is the text of a successful grant application.

Description: A set of interested individuals from public libraries across the UK are putting together a ‘Library Data Day’ to give attendees a chance to get together and discuss library data standards as well as learn and share data techniques

There is large gap in current UK coordination of library data, recognised by the Local Government Association and the Libraries Taskforce. We’d like library workers to have the chance to get together and discuss their own experiences – also inviting attendees who are interested from those local and central government organisations to get involved and collect feedback.

We’re also going to be running short ‘Library Carpentry’ modules during the day. These are developed by library staff in the academic sector, and are introductory modules to working with data, and coding tools. We’ve invited a couple of people to attend who could deliver this training.

We ran a Google form to gauge interest, and the topics that people would be interested in, which received excellent feedback, and we think it would be a popular event. There was a great deal of interest in discussing Open Data. Liverpool library have kindly reserved a number of rooms for us on November 20th but we have no other money or funding. It would be a relatively small event (capacity 60), but we think it could be really useful for the public library sector.

How much they want: £200

What they would use the funding for: Lunch and refreshments paid to the caterers at Liverpool library. Travel expenses for the trainers.

About them:

David Rowe – Library Systems Officer at Libraries West. I’m passionate about library Open Data and good use of data within the public library sector.

Aude Charillon – Librarian at Newcastle Libraries. Newcastle Libraries are currently the UKs leading library service on Open Data and Aude also has undertaken a great deal of research and spoken at events on privacy.

Claire Back – Development Leader at Plymouth Libraries. Claire’s got a great deal of experience in using Library data and working with library services on innovative projects, such as leading code clubs.

We’re all keen to see a lot more opportunity for library staff to become enabled to make the best use of the wealth of data that libraries hold.