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Libraries, museums and archives are an interface between people and knowledge, population and memory. This exciting area is undergoing a Renaissance as the knowledge society takes shape. Libraries, museums and archives are going digital. They are no longer only physical entities where books and documents are stored. Digital libraries are collaborative work environments, virtual exhibition areas, and global repository resources. They are among the most innovative information brokers. We are helping libraries to define better ways of accessing archival information. Many research libraries have collected or digitised data ad hoc over time in database management systems that are difficult for researchers to access in one go. A researcher ought to be able to search once for data across different data sources. We are helping a major international research institute to define such a service and to build it out into a new library finding aid. We help define long term strategies for the use of digital content. We have also helped define new ways of building knowledge communities in large knowledge spaces.
Our core development interest is social navigation, adapting patterns of use and interaction into user-derived, dynamic classifications systems. That sounds highly technical but the principle is simple. Categorisation systems, or ontologies, are currently defined by technologists. Human nature however is averse to the rigid categorisation systems the arise when technologists develop ontologies for computer interaction. Language is a flexible and changing set of symbols, and so too are concepts. We are looking at how the dynamic ways people understand information can be used to create classification systems.
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