Text and data mining: a new service for libraries?

Text and data mining (TDM), the automated analysis of digital data searching for trends, correlations and patterns, is rapidly gaining prominence due to exponentially increasing amounts of digital data (‘Big Data’) and decreasing technology prices. TDM enables researchers to access and analyse material that was previously impossible to process. Is TDM the next step for libraries to provide information to their users? This was the premise of the event organised by the European Parliament’s Library, inviting experts to explain their take on the role libraries can and should play in utilising this new research potential. The panel consisted of Catherine Stihler (S&D, United Kingdom), Kiera McNeice of the British Library, Julien Roche, professor at Lille University, and was moderated by Joe Dunne, Director of the EP Library. Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany) presented some opening remarks on the subject before the panel discussion began.

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The debate surrounding TDM in the EU therefore is currently focused on copyright, an initiative under discussion in the European Parliament. For TDM there is a need for a unified and clear legal framework on exceptions, to be able to use all the research data to which a researcher has legal access for machine reading and data mining, even with tools developed by researchers…

Libraries have a public service mission to help the public navigate the digital world, make information and data publicly available in all forms. The role of the library in finding specific information is being extended to finding trends and connections in information. More specifically, libraries need to play a bridging role in connecting researchers and IT developers that brings the research questions together with the research tools. Libraries need to educate non-specialists, highlighting the potential of TDM. They need to act as proponents of data harmonisation by using open standards…

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