Services for data driven research are developed in the National Library

Last year, the National Library of Finland launched the Digital Open Memory project, which aims to develop the data driven services for researchers, especially in digital humanities. According to a survey conducted in the project, reading and interpreting texts, were still the major ways of using digital material among researchers in the humanities, and the pressure to provide more services for text and data mining is obvious.

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Text: Liisa Näpärä (National library) & Johanna Lilja (National library)

In the Digital Open Memory project, the National library of Finland is developing research services for data driven research.

Collaboration with researchers is essential when planning these new services. As a part of the project, a survey about National Library’s current digital resources and data services was conducted. The most typical respondent was a post graduate writing dissertation in history, in the University of Helsinki.

The survey indicated that traditional methods of humanities, reading and interpreting texts, were still the major ways of using digital material. The share of data miners was 27 percent.

The pressure to provide more services for text and data mining is obvious. The project is funded by ERFD leverage from the EU 2014–2020.