The OCLC Research Library Partnership

In this blog post, Practitioner Researcher in Residence Thomas Padilla describes more about the effort of developing an applied research agenda that charts a path for library community engagement with data science and a range of computational methods. The agenda will be the product of a diverse set of community engagements.

The possibilities for libraries and their users in this space are many:

• machine learning multiplies connections between research outputs, allowing for enhanced demonstration of impact
• computer vision surfaces structured data from collections, allowing for expanded discoverability
• new tools increase access to collections, allowing progress on global information equity
  
• a range of methods are used to analyze collections at scale, allowing for actionable insights that support sustainability and the realization of core values

To move forward as a community, key challenges need to be identified. Challenges must be matched with questions, questions must be matched with methods, and actions must be matched with contexts for collaboration. All of this needs to be grounded by carefully considered ethical commitments.  

The working group members are: