The KB and digitisation

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), National Library of the Netherlands  is a research library with a broad collection in the fields of Dutch history, culture and society, and as a national library collects and stores all (digital) publications that appear in the Netherlands, as well as a part of the international publications about the Netherlands. The KB has planned to have digitised and OCRed its entire collection of books, periodicals and newspapers from 1470 onward by the year 2030. Already in 2013, 10% of this enormous task was completed, resulting in 73 million digitised pages, either from the KB itself or via public-private partnerships as Google Books and ProQuest. Over 1 million books, newspapers and magazines are currently available via the search portal www.delpher.nl.

Researcher-in-residence

The project will be carried out in the Research Department of the KB and there will be two consecutive placements in 2016.

Who are we looking for?

Early career researchers who are:

• PhD-students or have obtained their PhD between 2010 and 2015,
• Employed at a university or research institute in the EU,
• Interested in using one (or more) of the digital collections of the KB,
• Available for 0.5 fte over a period of 6 months (Jan – Jun 2016 or Jul – Dec 2016) and able to spend at least 1 day a week at the KB.

What can we offer you?

• A secondment with the KB,
• Access to all data sets of the KB,
• An office space,
• Travel costs within the Netherlands,
• Support from a programmer, collection and data specialists.

Which collections do we have?

You can use any digital collection of the KB and even combine it with an external collection, if copyright allows. Several of our digitised collections are described in more detail on our website, such as the parliamentary papers and the medieval illuminated manuscripts.

You can also browse through our collection of more than 1 million newspapers, magazines, radio bulletins and books on Delpher.nl.

What kind of projects are we looking for?

We’re open to all kinds of projects that use our data and benefit your research and other users of the KB and/or the KB Research Lab. Read our blog for more inspiration.

One of the previous Researchers-in-residence has worked on a best practice method for concept searching using keyword generation. Another team has worked on creating a data set that makes image similarity search a real possibility for all photos in our digitised historical newspapers.

For answer to more questions, read our FAQ. Please also read the terms of this call and placement. Respondents are urged to contact dh@kb.nl in advance of proposal submission to discuss eligibility, project details, prerequisites, and KB support with the Digital Humanities team.

How do I apply?

Fill out this form before 1 8 November 2015 to submit your project. Don’t forget to read the terms and conditions of this call and agree to them. You will be notified of the outcome in December.

I want to use my own dataset. Is that possible?
Sure! As long as you also use one of the sets of the KB and it doesn’t limit the publication of the project end results.

I don’t know how to code, is that a problem?
Not at all. We have skilled programmers who can help you with your project or we will try to find a match for you if you prefer someone else. This would mean submitting as a team and will cut the budget in half. Reach out to us to discuss the options.

I don’t speak Dutch. Is your content still interesting to me?
That depends on your research question It might not be so appealing to linguists, but could offer an novel collection for computer scientists. Contact us to see which collections we have and we can discuss what might be the most interesting set for you.

Why will you publish my proposal?
We want to show others what types of proposals we have received to offer future researchers an insight into the selection process and to prevent them from entering a similar project.

Can I submit a project I’ve submitted previously (at another institution)?
We’d like you to submit an original idea. It can be one you have had lying around for some time, but we’d appreciate projects that haven’t been done before. Projects that have been previously entered into a similar program should be changed significantly before resubmitting.

I want to use my own programmer, can I?
Yes, you can. We even encourage you to bring in extra people when you want to address a subject we’re not experts in (such as multimedia). However, the budget remains the same, so it will have to be split between you. We do ask that the whole team is available in the KB for at least one day a week. If you want to know whether we can help you or if you should bring someone in, please contact us at dh@kb.nl.

I don’t know if my idea is what you’re looking for. What can I do?
You are welcome to contact us at dh@kb.nl to discuss your ideas and the possibilities.

Can I submit more than one project?
Yes, you can submit as many as you like.

Who will be judging the entries?
The entries will be judged by an internal committee and then forwarded to an external committee of representative experts from several Dutch universities and institutions.

What will you judge my project on?
We will judge the entries on criteria such as feasibility (technically, legally and practically), how the KB data will be showcased and used and whether the end results are of use for a wider community. Next to this, we will also look at the originality and quality of the proposal and the amount of support needed (and in this case, more is not necessarily worse!).

What happens if you receive a plagiarized project?
That person or team will not be considered for placement. You are responsible for the originality and authenticity of the project, but we will keep our eyes open.

What happens to any software I write for my project?
All software in the projects, whether you or we write it, will be made available on the KB Research Lab and Github page under an open source license (at least GPLv3).

Can I publish any papers about the project?
Yes, of course. If necessary, we’re happy to help.

In order to bridge this gap between our services and the needs of the scholars, a researcher-in-residence program was set up in the summer of 2014. In this program, we invite researchers into the library to work with our data, programmers and in our virtual research lab to learn how the scholars conduct their research, but also to benefit from their expertise to further our services. The program is aimed at young researchers in the early stages of their career (PhD or postdoc), in order to provide new opportunities for young scholars, and consists of a short research project (3-6 months) in the KB. The researcher is supported by programmers and experts from the KB. The results of the projects feed back into the KB, either by means of a post on this blog, or by deploying a prototype in the KB Research Lab, and are often accompanied with a publication.

The first three placements of the program were set up as pilot projects. For these projects, we invited three Dutch universities that currently use our data to join the program. This resulted in the selection of two historians, one media researcher and two computer scientists from the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and CWI. The latest researcher is about to start his work at the KB and as we are very enthusiastic about the program, we have decided to start blogging on the work that is done by the researchers. We will evaluate the program in the summer of 2015 and hope to successfully evolve from pilot phase to full-blown residencies.

Our first blog post is written by Dr. Jiyin He, a computer scientist from the University of Amsterdam, who was a researcher-in-residence at the KB from July – October 2014, and will be posted next week.

The researchers that have joined the program so far are:

• Dr. Jiyin He (UvA) – July 2014 – October 2014
• Dr. Samuël Kruizinga (UvA) – September 2014 – March 2015
• Dr. Pim Huijnen (UU) – February 2015 – August 2015
• Dr. Martijn Kleppe (EUR) – April 2015 – September 2015

Do you want to know more about our efforts to work with researchers and this program? Come visit us at our poster presentation at DH2015 or come find the KB at the poster sessions of DHBenelux!