Meet the Members Council: Gill Hamilton

Hi! I’m Gill Hamilton - I’m a librarian, and I work at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve been working with computers, library systems and all things digital for more years than I care to remember, but I’m not a tech-head or an uber-geek! I’m just interested in technology as a means to an end, and that end is providing people with open access to information. I have the perfect role for doing this at the National Library, where I am the Digital Access Manager.

Preserving Scotland’s past

National Library of Scotland preserves the memory of the Scottish nation with collections that span the centuries, from earliest times to the digital age. The 24 million items in our collections document the influence of Scots at home and abroad, while also reflecting the ideas and cultures of the world. The Library supports education, research, business and innovation and its work enhances the reputation of Scotland as a country with a rich cultural heritage and a vibrant future. Our mission is to develop and improve the global understanding of Scotland’s cultural life by making a significant and lasting contribution to global knowledge, and by pursuing opportunities to work in collaboration to develop learning, research and enjoyment.

An image from National Library of Scotland, 'Washing day on the banks of the Ypres-Comines Cana', CC BY-NC-SA.

Opening up knowledge

As Digital Access Manager, I lead on the delivery of and access to our extensive digitised, licensed, born digital and legal deposit non-print collections. I also oversee the Library’s integrated library and resource discovery systems and the website (so you see there is some “tech” in my job!). I relish this role - I love working to help people find information. I particularly enjoy the challenges of managing the tidal wave that is the tens of thousands of digital resources that we process every month. I’m also excited about working on the Library’s project to open a new centre in Glasgow which will focus on our digital and moving image collections.

Outside the office I am a Board member and Trustee of the registered charity Wikimedia UK (WMUK). WMUK is the UK Wikimedia Chapter and is dedicated to the promotion of distributed and open knowledge and also supports Wikipedia editors and contributors. I became involved with Wikimedia UK because the Library worked in partnership with them while we employed our Wikimedian-in-Residence. I regularly participate and host local Open Knowledge Foundation Chapter meetings, and of course I am also a Member of the Europeana Council.

I initially got involved with Europeana because I wanted to ensure that the Library’s collections were made available via such a fantastic resource. I helped influence, along with many others, the requirement for partners to submit their metadata for inclusion in Europeana under Creative Common CC.0 public domain.

Image: The National Library of Scotland, CC BY-NC-SA.

My ambitions for Council

I have two goals whilst a Member of Council: to help small organisations become a part of Europeana, and to promote open access to cultural heritage organisations.

Over the years I have seen how small organisations, such as community libraries, small museums and local historical groups, are sometimes left behind or forgotten when there are large scale initiatives like Europeana. Many of these organisations have fantastic and often unique collections that contribute to our rich European culture and history. They might lack, however, the resources and / or skills to make these collections available. I will work in Council to such organisations take part in Europeana, either with assistance from a data aggregating partner or by proposing the development of tools to enable them to submit data.

I believe that too many digital cultural heritage objects are “closed” - not available for open use and re-use. I understand and appreciate the many challenges in making resources truly open as I have had to, and am continuing to, address these issues at National Library of Scotland. I will work earnestly within Council to promote open access. I will share all my knowledge and expertise in this area to encourage open licensing of our rich European cultural heritage.

I look forward to working on your behalf.