Experiences and Perspectives in Management for Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage Resources (Panel)
M. Agosti
In: M. Agosti, F. Esposito, S. Ferilli, N. Ferro (Eds.), Digital Libraries and Archives. 8th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2012, Bari, Italy, February 9-10, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, CCIS Vol. 354, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp.1-3.
Abstract:This paper reports on the panel objectives, on the topics addressed during the panel, and on the following discussion. A relevant conclusion that emerges from the panel is the need to discuss and define a shared Digital Agenda for Italy.
A Contribution for the Dissemination of Cultural Heritage Content to a Wider Public
M. Agosti, L. Benfante, N. Orio
In: M. Agosti, F. Esposito, S. Ferilli, N. Ferro (Eds.), Digital Libraries and Archives. 8th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2012, Bari, Italy, February 9-10, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, CCIS Vol. 354, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp.195-206.
Abstract:Digital resources are becoming an important tool for research in all the domains related to cultural heritage. Scholars have special requirements that need to be matched when developing digital library and digital archive systems that are to be used as tools to carry out scientific research. After having designed and developed a digital library application called IPSA as a system for researchers in illuminated manuscripts, we investigated how the digital library can be evaluated by non-domain users. Our goal was to highlight the overlaps and the differences in the user requirements between specialists, who use the digital archive to fulfill their research goal, and non-domain users, who interact with the digital library system because of a general interest about its content. The results have been used to re-engineer the digital library system and extend the functions of the digital library application in order to open up its use also to non specialists.
Engaging the User: Elaboration and Execution of Trials with a Database of Illuminated Images
C. Ponchia
In: M. Agosti, F. Esposito, S. Ferilli, N. Ferro (Eds.), Digital Libraries and Archives. 8th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2012, Bari, Italy, February 9-10, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, CCIS Vol. 354, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp.207-215.
Abstract:Currently one of the most important challenges for curators and providers of digital cultural heritage is to increase and enhance the engagement of users and communities with digital humanities collections. The reflections and efforts made to open up the IPSA database to new user categories is an ongoing process able to offer useful suggestions and contributions to this field of investigation. The considerations taken into account to elaborate the IPSA database trials engaging non-domain users are presented and the design of the trials is described.
In: M. Agosti, F. Esposito, S. Ferilli, N. Ferro (Eds.), Digital Libraries and Archives. 8th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2012, Bari, Italy, February 9-10, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, CCIS Vol. 354, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp.216-227.
Abstract:Currently, archival practice is moving towards the definition of complex relationships between the resources of interest as well as the constitution of compound digital objects. To this end archives can take advantage of using the Open Archives Initiative - Object Reuse and Exchange (OAI-ORE) providing additional and flexible visualizations of archival resources. In this paper we define a formal basis that provides a means for defining OAI-ORE instances which are consistent with the fundamental archival principles.
Una nuova generazione di sistemi di gestione e conservazione di risorse digitali del patrimonio culturale grazie al coinvolgimento di diverse comunità di utenti
M. Agosti
In: Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti già dei Ricovrati e Patavina, Volume CXXIV (2011-2012). Parte II: Memorie della Classe di Scienze Matematiche, Fisiche e Naturali, pp. 11-22.
Abstract:Una sfida importante che devono affrontare i curatori di risorse digitali del patrimonio culturale è quella di attuare un effettivo coinvolgimento degli utenti non specialisti e in generale del Web, e non solo di quelli di tipo specialistico, nella fruizione e arricchimento di risorse digitali disponibili in linea. Per affrontare questa sfida è necessario fare in modo che le collezioni digitali di beni culturali siano fruibili, fruite e arricchite da diverse comunità di utenti. Questo contributo delinea quale può essere il ruolo che svolge l'informatica per l'ideazione di sistemi di gestione e conservazione di risorse digitali del patrimonio culturale per l'ideazione dei metodi necessari alla realizzazione di sistemi in grado di essere fruiti sia da utenti specialistici e, nel prossimo futuro, anche da utenti non specialistici.
M. Agosti, M. Manfioletti, N. Orio, C. Ponchia, G. Silvello
In: T. Catarci, N. Ferro, A. Poggi (Eds.), Bridging between Cultural Heritage Institutions, Proceedings of the 9th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries (IRCDL 2013), CCIS Vol.385, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (in press).
Abstract:The paper reports on the original approach that has been envisaged for the evaluation of a digital archive and the web application, which manages it, in their transition from an isolated archive to an archive fully immersed in a new adaptive environment.
Fostering Interaction with Cultural Heritage Material via Annotations: The FAST-CAT Way
N. Ferro, G. Munnelly, C. Hampson, O. Conlan
In: T. Catarci, N. Ferro, A. Poggi (Eds.), Bridging between Cultural Heritage Institutions, Proceedings of the 9th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries (IRCDL 2013), CCIS Vol.385, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (in press).
Abstract:This paper describes the innovative annotation facilities of the CULTURA portal for digital humaties, which are aimed at improving the interaction of non spe- cialist users and general public with cultural heritage contents. The annotation facil- ities are comprised by two modules: the FAST annotation service as back-end and the CAT Web front-end integrated in the CULTURA portal.
An Evaluation of the Involvement of General Users in a Cultural Heritage Collection
M. Agosti, L. Benfante, M. Manfioletti, N. Orio, C. Ponchia (Short Paper)
In: Digital Humanities 2013, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 2013, pp. 75-77.
Abstract:Digital tools are becoming an increasingly important way for aiding research in the humanities. Scholars in different disciplines related to cultural heritage are currently exploiting digital resources at different levels, from the simple storage of digital acquisitions of cultural objects in an online collection to the 3D rendering of complete sites, from the use of advanced search functions to browse multimedia collections to the possibility to annotate the digital objects or to personalize the interaction with the system. Once a digital system has been developed for and populated by researchers, a natural step is its opening to a wider public, which, in this way, can be able to access culturally relevant content. This extension poses a number of interesting issues, which are strictly related to the interest a specialized collection can raise. In this paper we present the results of a user study carried out over two years on two user groups: specialists in the domain and members of the general public.
The FAST-CAT: Empowering Cultural Heritage Annotations
G. Munnelly, C. Hampson, N. Ferro, O. Conlan (Full Paper)
In: Digital Humanities 2013, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 2013, pp. 320-322.
Abstract:The role of annotations in digital humanities is well known and documented (Agosti et al., 2004, 2007) (Bélanger, 2010). Subsequently, many different tools which allow for the annotation of digital humanities content have been developed. Unfortunately, tools designed specifically for an individual portal are typically only compatible with that system. More general solutions, which can be easily distributed across various sites, have been developed, but these systems often have limited functionality (only annotating a single content type, no sharing features etc.) (Okfn) (TILE, 2011). FAST-CAT (Flexible Annotation Semantic Tool - Content Annotation Tool) is a generic annotation system that directly addresses this challenge by providing a convenient and powerful means of annotating digital content. This paper introduces FAST, the backend service providing powerful annotation functionalities, and CAT, the frontend Web annotation tool, and discusses how its features are tackling important challenges within the Digital Humanities field.
CULTURA: Supporting Professional Humanities Researchers
E. Bailey, M. Sweetnam, M. O'Siochru, O. Conlan (Short Paper)
In: Digital Humanities 2013, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 2013, pp. 99-101.
Abstract:A key challenge facing professional researchers in the domain of cultural heritage across Europe and worldwide is the interrogation of growing digital humanities collections. However, the full value of these heritage treasures is not being realised. After digitisation, these collections are typically monolithic, difficult to navigate and can contain text which is highly variable in terms of language, spelling, punctuation, and consistency of terminology. These difficulties are compounded by a lack of normalised spelling in most European languages before the eighteenth century. This means that search across these digital collections tends to return sub-par results as multiple spellings for many common words are treated as independent document keywords. CULTURA is a corpus agnostic environment with a suite of services, including personalisation, annotation, and recommendation, providing necessary supports and features for a diverse range of professional researchers.
S. Lawless, C. Hampson, P. Mitankin, S. Gerdjikov (Poster)
In: Digital Humanities 2013, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 2013, pp. 507-509.
Abstract:Improved full-text search, named-entity recognition and relationship extraction are all key research topics across many areas of technology, with emerging applications in the intelligence, healthcare and financial fields amongst many others. In Digital Humanities, there is a growing interest in the application of such Natural Language Processing (NLP) approaches to historical texts. This paper will discuss the normalisation of historical texts and investigate how this can improve both the analysis and exploration of these collections.
Improving User Control and Transparency in the Digital Humanities
C. Hampson, G. Munnelly, E. Bailey, S. Lawless and O. Conlan
Accepted for publication at the International Conference on Culture and Computing, Kyoto, Japan 2013
Abstract:Digital humanities is a research field focused on the intersection of computer science and the humanities. The development of new search, analysis, personalisation and collaboration tools are some examples of how information technology has hugely benefited humanities practitioners. Despite the obvious benefits computers bring, users often feel a lack of control over, or understanding of, the automatic processing underlying digital humanities systems. This control is important to curators of digital archives who need to maintain the integrity of their collection, as well as to end users who might not understand why they are receiving particular recommendations or search results. The CULTURA project is developing a next-generation digital humanities portal, which provides users with more control over the underlying systems and makes more transparent the processes involved. This paper discusses this with reference to entity extraction and personalisation techniques.
The CULTURA Pipeline for Digital Humanities Research
C. Hampson, G. Munnelly, E. Bailey, S. Lawless and O. Conlan
Accepted for publication at eChallenges 2013, Dublin, Ireland
Abstract:CULTURA is an EU sponsored project that is delivering a next generation digital humanities environment. A key aspect of the environment is that it is not tailored to a particular cultural collection and is suitable for any digital archive that is processed by its pipeline. Importantly, CULTURA aims to be generic enough to allow cultural archives to be easily integrated, while maintaining enough flexibility for a suite of sophisticated services to operate over this newly incorporated data. This paper describes the CULTURA pipeline in detail and highlights how new analytical and explorative features can be quickly added to digital archives. Furthermore, the process of integration is discussed with reference to a case study on the ‘Easter Rising' archive of witness statements.
Dynamic Personalisation for Digital Cultural Heritage Collections
C. Hampson, E. Bailey, G. Munnelly, S. Lawless and O. Conlan
6th International Workshop on Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage, Rome, Italy, 2013
Abstract:The number of digital collections in the cultural heritage domain is increasing year on year. Improved quality of access to cultural collections, especially those collections which are not exhibited physically is a key objective of the digitisation process. Despite some successes in this area, many digitised collections struggle to attract users or to maintain their interest over a prolonged period. One of the key reasons for this is that users of these archives vary in expertise (from professional researchers to school children) and have different tasks and goals that they are trying to accomplish. This paper describes CULTURA, an FP7 funded project that is addressing this specific issue through its four-phase personalisation approach and accompanying suite of services. By employing such personalisation techniques, CULTURA is helping the exploration of, linking to, and collaboration around cultural heritage collections.
Evaluating the Deployment of a Collection of Images in the CULTURA Environment
M. Agosti, M. Manfioletti, N. Orio, C. Ponchia.
In: Third International Conference on Theory and Practice od Digital Libraries, TPDL 2013, LNCS Vol. 8092, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 184-195.
Abstract:The paper reports on the effort of reconsidering the characteristics of the IPSA online collection of illuminated images created for specialised users, involving the redesigning of the interaction functions to make the online collection of interest for new and diverse user categories. The effort is part of the design and development of a new adaptive and dynamic environment that aims at increasing user engagement with cultural heritage collections and which is taking place in the context of the European CULTURA project.
Enhancing End User Access to Cultural Heritage Systems: Tailored Narratives and Human-Centered Computing
M. Agosti, M. Manfioletti, N. Orio, C. Ponchia.
In: A. Petrosino, L. Maddalena, P. Pala (Eds.): ICIAP 2013 Workshops, LNCS 8158, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 278-287.
Abstract:This paper reports on the results of a study that aims to support end users of a multimedia system that manages a digital cultural heritage collection. The system is provided with automatic tools that simulate the behavior of the research method adopted by professional users when they interact with the multimedia application. The experimental results have been obtained using a multimedia application that manages the digital representation of historical botanical manuscripts.
Exploration, navigation and retrieval of information in cultural heritage: ENRICH 2013
S. Lawless, M. Agosti, P. Clough, Owen Conlan.
In: SIGIR '13 Proceedings of the 36th international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval, ACM, New York, pp. 1136-1136
Abstract:The Exploration, Navigation and Retrieval of Information in Cultural Heritage Workshop (ENRICH 2013) offers a forum to 1) discuss the challenges and opportunities in Information Retrieval research in the area of Cultural Heritage; 2) encourage collaboration between researchers engaged in work in this specialist area of Information Retrieval, and to foster the formation of a research community; and 3) identify a set of actions which the community should undertake to progress the research agenda. The workshop will foster a new stream of Information Retrieval research and support the design of search tools that can help end-users fully exploit the wonderful Cultural Heritage material that is available across the globe.
