LC LABS LETTER: A Special Edition from the Library of Congress Labs Team

This time-sensitive message about open procurements comes between our normal monthly updates. Please share widely share with any lists, people, or groups who might be interested!

Note: Federal hiring and procurement rules prohibit us from answering questions about open opportunities – please use the contact info provided in the listing.

Current Opportunities

Humans in the Loop: Accelerating access and discovery for digital collections
SUBMISSIONS DUE August 6, 2020

LC Labs is seeking a contractor to help us iterate on LC Labs’ initial machine learning experiments by developing two prototypes or proofs of concept that combine crowdsourcing and machine learning approaches. A key goal of these prototypes will be to consider ethical ways to crowdsource and apply machine learning methods to Library of Congress digital collections, incorporating user-centered design and human participation into automated workflows. You can find the posting at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/bc3a79566fc245c2a3889939389dea4d/view .

Experimental Access to Digital Collections and Data: Analyzing and Demonstrating Affordances at Scale
SUBMISSIONS DUE August 7, 2020

LC Labs is also seeking a contractor to analyze existing experimental interfaces like the ones we offer on the LC Labs website (//labs.loc.gov/work/experiments/?st=gallery) according to how they serve a diversity of user needs, in particular, the needs of people who don’t already engage with the Library; who are employing emerging styles of digitally-enabled research, visualization or analysis; and who might develop applications, share, learn, teach, connect or otherwise communicate with Library materials. The Library is also seeking recommendations based on user-centered research that identify potential methods and approaches to enhancing Library digital collections and access systems to satisfy unmet user needs. Check out the posting at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/e5a0ad0bbd794eaaad64eadbf1e64fcc/view .

Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud Research Services
SUBMISSIONS DUE August 11, 2020

The Library seeks a contractor to document and report on the Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud project. More about the project goals and approaches can be found at //labs.loc.gov/work/experiments/cchc/ and the posting can be found at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/ef26c6e6806c4d83bd57a7ae325c434e/view .

Upcoming Opportunities 

Call for Researcher Proposals

Stay tuned for the forthcoming call for researcher proposals to work with Library of Congress collections at scale with our team.