Copyright & Legal Matters Working Group

Webinar Video: How Can Libraries Support TDM?

Posted: 12-03-2020 Topics: Copyright Strategy

Europe’s new Copyright Directive includes a mandatory text and data mining (TDM) exception for non-commercial research. This opens up new opportunities for libraries to support researchers in this exciting new area of work.

In this webinar, held on 12 March 2020 and organised by LIBER’s Copyright & Legal Matters Working Group, two LIBER libraries shared what they are doing to help researchers access and analyse more content through text and data mining. Slides are available on Zenodo.

After a short introduction to the topic from Ben White (Working Group Chair / researcher at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management, Bournemouth University), Inge Van Nieuwerburgh (Scholarly Communication Coordinator at Ghent University Library) spoke about the development of research data management services at the university and how the library was involved from the beginning.

Inge: “Facilitating open knowledge creation is the beating heart of Ghent University Library activities. On top of many activities in open science, the library is actively involved in OpenAIRE, which just recently released a consultation for its research graph, built on huge text and data mining efforts. Since the fall of 2019, six data stewards are embedded in the library to support researchers to make their data FAIR, thus minable. They act as a knowledge and communication hub and provide professional support for managing research data. The team will contribute to a cultural change in the approach of FAIR data, open data and data reuse, targeting University of Ghent researchers.”

Next, Alex Fenlon (Head of Copyright and Licence in Library Services at the University of Birmingham) explained how a researcher’s text and data mining project in 2015 led the University of Birmingham’s library to start providing services such as enabling access to content for mining purposes.

Alex: “The library is now running a pilot project which aims to proactively support researchers with their text and data mining projects, and to encourage researchers to engage in this space. As the service is built up, three main questions are being asked: What is needed? Who is needed? Is it needed?”

The presentation also shone a light on the University of Birmingham’s approach to licensing: ensuring content subscriptions are fit for purpose, providing data access via various means and leveraging copyright limitations and exceptions to enable research. Finally, Alex discussed the skills needed by librarians and researchers, highlighting gaps that may need to be addressed in order to further this developing research method.

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