Librarians as Data Scientists: Data Science for All

Librarians as Data Scientists: Data Science for All

"The ability to take data - to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it - that's going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades. " - Hal Varian, McKinsey Quarterly

I came across the above quote from the Data Scientist Training for Librarians website.  It provides the motivation for librarians - and others- to consider learning more about data science - a field that applies to just about every field of study in some way, as well as most professions.

Credit: Dirk Tiede/DST4L

Librarians are in a good position to become early embracers of data science, as they are interested in information, understand a wide range of scholarly (and not-so scholarly) topics, and serve as the human interface bridging people and ideas. Wearing many hats, they provide resources for people from all walks of life, in community libraries, schools, universities, government, industry, and research centers.  With the power of today's computers and software tools, they have the potential to play an important role in the way we discover, curate, understand, and communicate knowledge. 

Chris Erdmann, the head librarian of the John G. Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in collaboration with like-minded others, organized the first Data Scientist Training for Librarians (DST4L) course. The first round of the course included a number of noted speakers from a variety of disciplines, and covered a number of topics, as summarized  by Jennifer Prentice (Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science Tech Lab) on the course website.

The second DST4L course was opened to all librarians, with a solid list of topics outlined on the syllabus.   The course started with a 2-hour introduction to the course last July, captured in the video below: 



I'd like to share that Chris Erdmann is a member of the Seamless Astronomy Group, a multi-disciplinary collaboration of astronomers, computer scientists, librarians, visualization specialists, and information scientists.  The aim of this group is to research and develop systems that "seamlessly integrate scientific data and literature, the semantic interlinking and annotation of scientific resources, the study of the impact of social media and networking sites on scientific dissemination, and the analysis and visualization of astronomical data and research communities".  

As I looked at the info-graphic posted on the Seamless Astronomy website (below), it occurred to me that this conceptualization could apply to a number of disciplines.  I look forward to learning more about the tools, methods, and processes that this group generates!

Credit: Seamless Astronomy Group

One of the projects that interests me is the WorldWide Telescope, a collaboration between Microsoft Research and the Seamless Astronomy group. The WorldWide Telescope is a visualization software that enables people to explore data and high resolution images stored in the "cloud" through a web browser or computer application. According to Chris Endermann, a student project exploring the use of the new Oculus Rift virtual reality headset with the WorldWide Telescope is in the works.   

RELATED AND SOMEWHAT RELATED

Data Scientist Training for Librarians 
Data Scientist Training For Librarians Course Details

Data Science: What's in it for the New Librarian?
jmstanto, Information Space, 7/16/12

Cracking the Code: Librarians Acquiring Essential Coding Skills Matt Enis, The Digital Shift, 3/6/13 (Links to tutorials)

OpenRefine: Data Scientist Trainings for Librarians Presentation (SlideShare) 
Tom Morris, 3/28/13

Librarians Are Becoming Big Data Experts
John Edwards, BigData Republic, 8/9/13

Code {4}lib Issue 21

Prototyping as a Process for Improved User Experience with Library and Archives Websites
Shaun Ellis, Maureen Callahan, code{4}lib Journal, Issue 18, 10/3/12

Crafting Linked Open Data for Cultural Heritage:  Mapping and Curating Tools for the Linked Jazz Project M. Cristina Pattuelli, Matt Miller, Leanora Lange, Sean Fitzell, Carolyn Li-Madeo, code{4}lib Journal, 7/15/13

Collaborative Librarianship News

Confederation of Open Access Repositories

Public Libraries Add Multimedia Learning to Digital Mission
Nora Fleming, Education Week, 9/15/13

Life of an emerging technologies librarian in the health sciences (must-read)
Patricia F. Anderson, UMSI Monthly, 1/2013


Data and Coding for Journalists

Although journalists aren't librarians, the profession has expanded to include data journalism, a growing field fueled by the visual nature of the web and the increase in popularity of mobile devices in the form of smart phones and tablets. Books and newspapers are still with us, but technology has changed the way journalists do their jobs

I'm not sure if the journalists and librarians are collaborating with each other as they venture into coding and data analysis.   If not, they should!  The links below would be of interest to librarians, journalists, and other knowledge junkies.


Video: Journalism in the Age of Data

Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.

Coding for the Future: The Rise of Hacker Journalism
Maryanne Reed, Media Shift, 5/2/13
The above post includes a number of video and audio clips on the topic, plus a number of links, such as the following:

• The Census Bureau
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Sunlight Foundation
• National Institute on Money in State Politics

Data scraping tool for non-coding journalists launches     (Import.io)
Sarah Marshall, Journalism.Co.Uk, 9/9/13

Data Journalism Handbook: A Five Minute Field Guide
Data Journalism Handbook Chapter:  Getting Data

ODDS AND ENDS
A little history about the idea of seamlessness in computing:
The Computer for the 21st Century
Mark Weiser, Scientific American, September 1991 (online draft)


My thoughts on the need for data/information visualization not long after the world-wide financial crisis:
Reflections: Need for Interactive Infoviz for the Financial Biz, Business Leaders, Government Officials, Educators and the Rest of US... 
Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 2/1/09



Since I'm a school psychologist (in my day job), I thought I'd slip this in: 
Why every (psychology) student should learn to code 
Matt Wall, Computing for Psychologists, 1/13/13
Many of Matt Wall's links would be of interest to anyone thinking about learning more about technology, data analysis, and related coding.

Narcolepsy Awareness Infographic, FDA's Public Meeting

One of my daughters was diagnosed with narcolepsy during her senior year of high school. It is one of those "hidden" diseases that doesn't get much attention. The good news is that as a result of advocate Julie Flygare and others, the FDA has chosen narcolepsy as the focus of a public meeting on September 24. 2013, to learn more about the disease, straight from the people who are challenged by it every day. 

This initiative is part of the Patient-Focused Drug Development initiative. "For each disease area, the Agency will conduct a public meeting to discuss the disease and its impact on patients' daily lives, the types of treatment benefit that matter most to patients, and patients' perspectives on the adequacy of the available therapies. These meetings will include participation of FDA review divisions, the relevant patient community, and other interested stakeholders.

For additional information see the Unite Narcolepsy website.  If you have narcolepsy or are close to someone who has it, you can complete an on-line survey to provide input to the FDA on the impact of this disease.

Eye Tribe Eye Tracker Dev Kit, $99; Open Source ITU Gaze Tracker Grows Up!

The Eye Tribe Eye Tracker developer kit is available for pre-order for $99.00. The kit comes with an SDK with C++, C#, and Java, full source code included.  

I've been waiting for a while to see this happen! 

The Eye Tribe Eye Tracker is an outgrowth of the work of a group of researchers at the IT University of Copenhagen.  At the time, it was known as the open-source ITU Gaze Tracker. 
I came across it a few years ago in a NUI-Group forum, and later wrote a post about it when the 2.0 version was released. 

Although the Eye Tribe Tracker was originally developed to meet the needs of people with disabilities who could not access computers, it was found to have potential for a number of other uses that were not really possible before the spread of mobile technologies such as touch-screen tablets and smart phones. 

To get a better understanding of eye-gaze/tracking technology, take a look at the following videos and follow the related links.



Below is a demonstration of the gaze UI on an Android smartphone:


Here is another look at this technology running on a Windows 8 Tablet:





RELATED
The Eye Tribe (website)
Eye Tribe starts taking pre-orders for $99 Windows eye tracker
Senseye will let you control your mobile phone with your eyes
Martin Bryant, The Next Web, 12/2/11
Open-source Eye-tracking: The ITU Gaze Tracker 2.0 Beta Via Martin Tull, NUI-Group Member
Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 11/1/10
ITU GazeGroup
Gaze Tracker Development
GazeGroup Forum
Martin Tall


RELATED VIDEOS
Eye Tribe was formally known as Senseye. Below is an earlier video that shows how it worked with a web-cam on a mobile device:



Open-Source ITU Gaze Tracker

ITU Gaze Tracker from ITUcph on Vimeo.


Earlier Videos of the ITU Gaze Tracker:
Technical Demonstration 




Seeking Sustainable Innovation

Allison Druin and the HCIL Team Win Emmy for Nick App: Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media-User Experience and Visual Design

I'd like to give a shout-out to Allison Druin and the team at the University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) for winning the Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - User Experience and Visual Design award!  This is a new category of award for the Emmys.


The Nick App is free and available for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows 8, and Xbox Life.

Here is the scoop from the Emmys website:

"The Nick App is a branded experience that allows kids to watch and play Nick in unprecedented ways. This free App features a moveable tile layout that can be swiped in any direction, promoting discovery and exploration and offering kids instant and on-demand access to more than 1,000 pieces of Nickelodeon-themed content. It includes short-form videos of original skits, sketch and comedic bits, behind-the-scenes clips and photos from Nick stars and animated characters, full episodes, polls, new games, and surprising random hilarity. The Nick App supports the full Nickelodeon on-air line up as well as specials such as the annual Kids' Choice Awards. The App boasts new content daily and includes fun and funny interactive elements such as the "Do Not Touch" button that triggers an array of disruptive comedy and surprises. Nickelodeon's goal was to go beyond a typical app that offers free video viewing and instead offer more interactive content, games, and video not seen on television — whenever and wherever the user wants it." 

RELATED

Kid Design at the HCIL: Human Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland 
At the HCIL, children participate as co-designers, and are members of the Kidsteam. The Nick App was created with their input!

Allison Druin is an iSchool Professor & Chief Futurist for the Division of Research at the University of Maryland. She previously was the director of the HCIL has devoted much of her career to children and technology. 

Release:  Immersive and Interactive Digital Media Programs to Receive Emmys

Emmys Category Descriptions:  Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media 
(Multiplatform Storytelling; Original Interactive Program; Social TV Experience; User Experience and Visual Design)

Let's Get Visual: Visual Communication with Smartphones, Getty's Open Content, Art Everywhere and Visual Perception Research

Let's Get Visual....

It difficult to imagine a world without Instagram, Flickr, YouTube, Pinterest or Facebook photo-sharing.  According to a press release from ABI Research in 2012, over one billion cameras were shipped in smartphones and tablets.  Never before has it been this easy to shoot and share pictures and video clips in-the-moment.   Why talk on the phone for twenty minutes with one person when you can share a (visual) moment with your entire extended family and network of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances with just one touch?

We are communicating in ways that were not possible a decade ago.

Qmee, a online search rewards company, put together an infographic to show what transpires on-line in just 60 seconds. 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. 20 million photos are viewed on flickr. 104,000 photos are shared on snapchat, and 3,600 photos are uploaded every second to Instagram.

Credit: Qmee

According to a 2012 study published by the Pew Internet & American Life project, 46% of adult Internet users took pictures or videos and posted them on line. 41% reported that they found photos or videos online, and then re-posted them to share with others.  If you have a Facebook account, you know that there are people who delight in taking digital content sharing to the next level. Websites such as the Programmable Web's Mashup Dashboard and Know Your Meme are examples of this trend. 

Getty Museum's Open Content Program

The Getty Museum recently launched the Open Content Program with a release of about 4,600 high-resolution images of all public domain artworks in the museum's collection, free for anyone to use, modify, or publish.  The Getty plans to release more images in the future. The images can be accessed via the Getty Search Gateway. 

Here is the motivation behind the release of Getty's digital content:

"Why open content?  Why now?  The Getty was founded on the conviction that understanding art makes the world a better place, and sharing our digital resources is the natural extension of that belief.  This move is also an educational imperative.  Artists, students, teachers, writers, and countless others rely on artwork images to learn, tell stories, exchange ideas, and feed their own creativity.  In its discussion of open content, the most recent Horizon Report, Museum Edition stated "it is now the mark-and social responsibility-of world class institutions to develop and share fee cultural and educational resources."" 


It will be interesting to see how this trend unfolds.  We are now past the clip-art era.

Art Everywhere

"Its all about flooding our streets with art this summer, and turning the UK into the world's largest art gallery" -Richard Reed

Art Everywhere was launched in the UK on August 12th and ends on August 25th of this year (2013).  The art is on display in public spaces on thousands of billboards and digital screens across the UK,  as well as on buses and cabs.  The art was chosen by the public, and the project was funded by the project's sponsors and donations.  

Photos of the artwork chosen for the Art Everywhere exhibition, along with related information about each selection, can be viewed on the Art Everywhere website. Richard Reed, who spearheaded Art Everywhere, provides an overview in the video below:

All of the Art Everywhere posters can come to life with when viewed through a smartphone. Using the free Blippar app, the viewer can scan the poster with the smartphone's camera to access more information about the artwork.  Viewers are encouraged to enter the Art Everywhere photo competition by taking pictures of the outdoor exhibition to win a camera, daily prizes.

Art Everywhere's partners include the Reed Page Foundation, the ArtFund, Tate, Posterscope, Vizeum, 101/   EasyArt, Blippar, Arts Media People, Clear Channel, CBS Outdoor, JCDecaux, Ocean, and Primesight

Neuroscience Research: Visual Perception Process

"The brain is plastic for life" .-Michael Merzenich*

There have been concerns that the internet and new technologies might have a significant impact, good or bad, on the human brain and child development, as discussed by a panel held at the University of Colorado Annual Conference on World Affairs.  

The good news is that neuroscientists have new technologies to explore how the brain works. We have evidence to support that our brains have more plasticity as we age than previously thought. Since the technology use in brain research is so new, it might be a while before we will know what exactly happens when our brains are "on the internet".

Theories of how the brain functions are changing as new discoveries are made. One example of this is the work of Dr. Randy Bruno, a neuroscientist at Columbia University's Kalvi Institute for Brain Science.  He has discovered that in rats, signals about sensory information are processed simultaneously in two parts of the cortex, as separate circuits.  The upper layers of the cortex might be integrating sensation with context or experience, as described in the following video:

Dr. Bruno's research aims to understand how experience causes structural changes in the brain. His research shows that neuronal connections between the thalamus and the cortex are very plastic and responsive. Although he studies brain functioning in rats, the cortical systems are similar to other mammals, including humans.

"The key is to be actively engaged in a task and that there be meaningful elaboration on the information taken in at higher levels in order to maintain associations between different pieces of information. Such active engagement, as opposed to passive acquisition of what we experience with our senses, may enhance changes in the brain." - Randy Bruno*

From what I can see, it might be good for us to accessing the web via smartphones to engage in social visual communication activities.  If we are excited by a visually-based experience, and share it with others, or if we take in visual information and use it to create a mashup, and send it out for others to enjoy, our brains are actively engaged. If the neuroscientists are right, we aren't really wasting our time online.  

We are growing dendrites!

RELATED

The Fantastic Plastic Brain*
The Kavli Foundation, 7/12

Study Advances New Theory of How the Brain Is Wired
Claudia Wallace, Columbia University Research, 6/27/13

The Internet and the Human Brain Panel (Video-1 hour, 14 minutes)
University of Colorado Annual Conference on World Affairs

Instagram at the Museum: Communicating the Museum Experience through Social Photo Sharing Alexandra Weilenmann, Thomas Hillman, Beata Junselius, CHI 2013, ACM

Open Content, An Idea Whose Time Has Come
James Cuno, The Getty Iris, 8/12/13

Getty Search Gateway

Horizon Report 2012 Museum Edition





Blippar Brings World's Largest Art Exhibition 'Art Everywhere' to Life
Blippar News Release, 8/8/13

Art Everywhere turns UK's streets into world's largest art show
Caroline Davies, The Guardian, 8/8/13

The Rise of Visual Socialization
The Halo Group Effect, 2013

The Unstoppable Trend of Visual Communications
David Amerland, HP InputOutput, 2/11/12

The Rise of Visual Social Media
Ekaterina Walter, Fast Company, 8/28/12

Research Modules: Next Generation Mobile Devices, ABI Research

Mashup Dashboard, Programmable Web

Know Your Meme

Prancercise video memes 

This Brain Discovery May Overturn a Century-Old Theory
Ben Thomas, Scientific American Blog, 8/8/13

VISUAL LEARNING: EMOTION-EXPRESSION-EXPLANATION CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline for abstracts Aug. 15th

CALL FOR PAPERS

VISUAL LEARNING: EMOTION — EXPRESSION — EXPLANATION

Conference to take place in Budapest, November 15-16, 2013 
(Note: The deadline for the CFP for the following conference is August 15th, 2013. An abstract of a maximum of 200 words and a short bio of a maximum of 100 words is required by the deadline.)

Conference organized by the Visual Learning Lab, Department of Technical Education,

Budapest University of Technology and Economics. (http://www.vll.mpt.bme.hu)

Speakers will include:

Petra Aczel
David Freedberg
James E. Katz
Zoltan Kovecses
Sybille Kraemer

Contributions are invited from educational, communication, and media theorists, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and other interested scholars on the following and related topics:

• educational theory and visual learning
• images, aesthetics, art history
• images and media theory
• metaphor and emotion
• images in psychotherapy
• visual rhetoric
• pictorial meaning
• pictorial communication
• visual imagery
• visual intelligence
• the visual mind
• the image problem in the history of philosophy
• resemblance, representation, reality
• visual argument
• scientific visualization
• visualization and higher education
• information visualization
• image and language
• image and creativity
• images in the network age

A slot of altogether 35 minutes is planned for each presentation. We envisage an ensuing volume of selected papers (vol. 4 in the series Visual Learning, ed. by Andras Benedek and Kristof Nyiri).

Submission of abstracts (max. 200 words) and short biographical statements (max. 100 words) by Aug. 15, 2013.  Please send your submissions simultaneously to Prof. Andras Benedek <benedek.a@eik.bme.hu> (Head, Department of Technical Education) and to Kristof Nyiri <knyiri@t-email.hu> (Professor of Philosophy, Department of Technical Education). Those submitting abstracts will be notified of the decision concerning acceptance by Sept. 1, 2013.

No conference fees will be charged. Participants are encouraged to arrange their own accommodation. The conference venue (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1117 Budapest, Magyar Tudosok korutja 2, Bld. Q, Wing A) is located near downtown Budapest.

Series Visual Learning
Volume 1
András Benedek, Kristóf Nyíri (eds.) 2011: Images in Language
Metaphors and Metamorphoses (Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011)

Volume 2
András Benedek, Kristóf Nyíri (eds.) 2012: The Iconic Turn in Education. (Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011)

Volume 3 of the series will be published in September, 2013: "How To Do Things With Pictures: Skill, Practice, Performance"