[open-science] Fwd: News release: Growing Knowledge benefits UK researchers

Sat Oct 16 00:30:06 UTC 2010

Congrats to Cameron, Timo and others for their involvement in this
exhibition at the BL!

Was pleasantly surprised to see them and other familiar faces in the
exhibition as I was passing through the British Library yesterday! ;-)

http://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/

---------- Forwarded message ----------

News release
14 October 2010

Growing Knowledge exhibition benefits UK researchers

Researchers' interactions in a new digital environment launched today
at the British Library are set to help JISC and similar organisations
lead the future of research.

<http://www.bl.uk/growingknowledge>

The way that people interact with never-seen-before tools,
thought-provoking content and futuristic design in the new 'Growing
Knowledge: the evolution of research' exhibition will provide clues to
how research is changing and what researchers want to experience from
the library of the future.

Created to encourage engagement and debate, researchers will be able
to physically interact with tools such as Sony’s 360-degree
Autostereoscopic Display, a Microsoft Surface Table and HP/Haworth
interactive pods as well as view all the content and tools online.

Working with JISC and the Ciber Research Group, part of UCL, library
users and exhibition visitors will be invited to leave their feedback
with discussion groups for postgraduate students to explore some of
the issues in more depth, for example: How do physical spaces support
digital research? Do any of the tools help with some of the issues
they encounter?

Sarah Porter, head of innovation at JISC, said: “Part of JISC’s
approach to technology for education is to consult with researchers
and other library users so that we can channel our energy and
investments into areas that are really going to make a difference.
When we help with the evaluation of this exhibition we will be looking
to understand further the place of digital tools in libraries for the
benefit of teachers, students and researchers.   It’s an opportunity
to explore how innovative technologies can support people finding
resources in virtual spaces as well as the physical library.”

Richard Boulderstone, the British Library’s director of e-strategy and
information systems, said: “Over the last year we have been speaking
to teams of researchers across the UK and around the world, getting a
taste of how research is changing.  We’ve met with researchers from
archaeologists and performance historians to bioinformaticists, who
are using the power of technology and the web to generate more
collaborative and intuitive research models."

Growing Knowledge will explore some of these disciplines as well as
others, allowing visitors to interrogate, both physically and online
these areas and listen to explanatory videos from experts, who will
also reflect on how research is changing, and how it may in the
future.

Richard continued: “We hope Growing Knowledge will inspire and
intrigue in equal measure. For the British Library, it gives us an
opportunity to define the role we will play in this brave new world.
Growing Knowledge is also an exciting collaboration with a range of
our partners.  The Library works closely with many partners to help
fill gaps in our knowledge and this exhibition provides an opportunity
to work together to understand how researchers will use these tools in
the future.”

The exhibition was today formally opened by Andrew Miller MP, chair of
the science and technology committee, exhibition researcher in
residence Dr Aleks Krotoski and British Library chief executive, Dame
Lynne Brindley.  Growing Knowledge runs until 16 July 2011.

In partnership with BBC, one part of the Growing Knowledge exhibition
will explore whether social media tools and online networking support
researchers in their work.  Please contribute to the debate through a
short survey at
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/growingknowledge/>

Visit the exhibition at <http://www.bl.uk/growingknowledge>

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg