April’s event was another great success, with lots of new faces and familiar ones too! Richard Berry of Orange Chimney posted a great review of the event on the Silver Academy Enterprises blog and has kindly agreed for us to reproduce this on the Digital Berkshire website…
On Thursday 19th April 2012, Digital Berkshire hosted a talk and presentation by Chris Clark, Head of Digital Research and the Digital Curator Team of The British Library, at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell. I attended this free event, expecting a professional and interesting presentation about a rich heritage of publications such as books, journals and papers. My expectations were greatly exceeded by Chris who gave a brilliant insight into the vast collections of digitised publications, sounds, images, and services that the British Library manage on behalf of our nation.
The sheer scale of what they are achieving, often in collaboration with companies and charities, is awe inspiring. The amount of shelf space required is growing at a rate of 12km per year! “There are 14 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 58 million patents, 3 million sound recordings, and much more. Find what you need – in the arts and humanities, sciences, or any subject…” (British Library website).
Also what may be of great interest to Silver Academy Enterprises members is the Business and IP Centre, an amazing resource with research facilities, free WiFi, courses (often free) and experts to assist the budding entrepreneur. I shall certainly pay them a visit.
The Digital Berkshire event was very well managed by Metakinetic and Rawnet in the beautiful location of South Hill Park in Bracknell, a restored stately home that hosts numerous cultural events, shows and courses. Around 60 people attended and a free buffet, provided by Metakinetic, helped create a friendly atmosphere conducive to networking.
Thanks to Metakinetic and Rawnet for an evening of time very well spent.
For access to the podcast of the event, kindly produced by Martin Franklin, along with Chris Clark’s presentation slides, please visit the April event resources page.
Tickets for our May event will be released very soon!
