For many organisations the idea of opening up data sets for public mashup is greeted with about the same enthusiasm as leaving the doors open at night. So it was heartening to talk with Louise Pritchard at the State Library of New South Wales who steered the library through their participation in LibraryHack earlier this year.

Objectives

The primary objective of the project was to release a number of data sets under a creative commons license in a way that could be reused. The library had looked into what was being done with open data sets and realised that it drove a lot of innovation in the information economy. By engaging in an open project the library could also engage with new communities, and specifically engage with a group of creative people.

Challenges

The data sets were focussed around original materials, e.g. the First Fleet journals, early photographs and maps. The first challenge was that they realised that the data is difficult if not impossible to export into XML. This was overcome by using CSV files. In addition, maps don't have GPS meta data so they are difficult to use. Prichard had to address internal barriers with collection owners who have traditionally been charged with protecting collections. The owners were unsure about what to do with the outcomes of the hackfest, as there would be a stakeholder expectation that these outcomes would become part of the collection. Louise used objective-focused arguments to show stakeholders the benefits of participation. For one engaging younger audiences and staying relevent are particularly key to the library at this point. "It was a big learning curve for the library about what mashups and hackfests are all about," said Prichard. "We had to explain to staff clearly that there wasn't a possibility that the library would itself be hacked!"

Outcomes

The only data that used XML was the set of NSW newspapers - and this bore fruit. (insert group name?) developed a visualisation around the history of newspaper development mashed with maps and revealed the changes in publishing over time. Pritchard likes this project because "it gives new context to the information. We're looking at further development: ultimately we'd like it to link to Trove - to the full newspaper text." Node City annotated Cook's journey on a map with links to diary pages. (Insert Group name?) created a game comparing prices from way back to now. The hypothesis that the project would bring new audiences to the library was proven in that most people who attended the mashup had either never used the State Library before, and/or had never been to a library before. Pritchard notes that this seems to be because "a lot of people are going straight to industry, and are not going to university so they don't get exposed to collections." The library staff also got a lot of value from the exchange. Firstly they got a clear picture of what meta-data people want to use. Secondly Libraryhack provided a number of concrete projects that gave the library an opportunity to collaborate with members of the community to develop new apps.

Where to next?

The project was so successful that it will be repeated again in 2012. "It met all of our objectives and gave us important information about what to do with our data" Prichard says.  "We've come up with some more ideas about what we'd like, and we'll pick some smaller collections and look at what data we need to add to make it useful." "We'd also like to interoperate with other data sets." - This is an open invitation people! Published with thanks to the State Library of NSW.