A Selective Review of Scholarly Communications on Palm Leaf Manuscripts

The very purpose of this paper is to provide a meticulous review of literature on various aspects of palm leaf manuscripts. Through the process of review, it aims to highlight the antiquity of palm leaf manuscripts, the process of seasoning and writing over the leaves, the physical, chemical and biological factors of deterioration, the classification and cataloguing process of manuscripts, different traditional / modern methods of preservation and conservation as well as the viability and prospects of digital preservation of manuscripts and the attempts taken by various manuscript libraries for digitization

Mining semantics for culturomics: towards a knowledge-based approach

The massive amounts of text data made available through the Google Books digitization project have inspired a new field of big-data textual research. Named culturomics, this field has attracted the attention of a growing number of scholars over recent years. However, initial studies based on these data have been criticized for not referring to relevant work in linguistics and language technology. This paper provides some ideas, thoughts and first steps towards a new culturomics initiative, based this time on Swedish data, which pursues a more knowledge-based approach than previous work in this emerging field. The amount of new Swedish text produced daily and older texts being digitized in cultural heritage projects grows at an accelerating rate. These volumes of text being available in digital form have grown far beyond the capacity of human readers, leaving automated semantic processing of the texts as the only realistic option for accessing and using the information contained in them. The aim of our recently initiated research program is to advance the state of the art in language technology resources and methods for semantic processing of Big Swedish text and focus on the theoretical and methodological advancement of the state of the art in extracting and correlating information from large volumes of Swedish text using a combination of knowledge-based and statistical methods

Supporting Research in Area Studies: a guide for academic libraries

The study of other countries or regions of the world often crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries in the humanities and social sciences. Supporting Research in Area Studies is a comprehensive guide for academic libraries supporting these communities of researchers. This book explores the specialist requirements of these researchers in information resources, resource discovery tools, and information skills, and the challenges of working with materials in multiple languages. It makes the case that by adapting their systems and procedures to meet these needs, academic libraries find themselves better placed to support their institution's�� international agenda more widely. The first four chapters cover the academic landscape and its history, area studies librarianship and acquisitions. Subsequent chapters discuss collections management, digital products, and the digital humanities, and their role in academic projects. The final chapter explores information skills and the various disciplinary skills that facilitate the needs of researchers during their careers

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Jewish Studies in the Digital Age

The digitisation boom of the last two decades, and the rapid advancement of digital tools to analyse data in myriad ways, have opened up new avenues for humanities research. This volume discusses how the so-called digital turn has affected the field of Jewish Studies, explores the current state of the art and probes how digital developments can be harnessed to address the specific questions, challenges and problems in the field

Mixing Methods: Practical Insights from the Humanities in the Digital Age

The digital transformation is accompanied by two simultaneous processes: digital humanities challenging the humanities, their theories, methodologies and disciplinary identities, and pushing computer science to get involved in new fields. But how can qualitative and quantitative methods be usefully combined in one research project? What are the theoretical and methodological principles across all disciplinary digital approaches? This volume focusses on driving innovation and conceptualising the humanities in the 21st century. Building on the results of 10 research projects, it serves as a useful tool for designing cutting-edge research that goes beyond conventional strategies

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Kultūriniai-skaitmeniniai literatūros žinomumo tyrinėjimai pasitelkiant „Google knygas“: bandomasis tyrimas

The availability of databases of digitised literary materials, such as Google Books, Europeana and historical newspaper databases, has revolutionised many disciplines, e.g., linguistics and history. So far, the use of digitised materials has not been very frequent in the history of books and the history of reading. This article presents tools, methodologies and practices that offer new possibilities in the study of book history and the history of reading. The use of these tools makes it possible to study vast amounts of data quickly and effectively, to present results in helpful visualisations, to make it possible to follow the line of reasoning and, if necessary, to check the reliability of the research by presenting the data for control. The examples presented are drawn from the Google Books database using a simple piece of software that exploits the API of the Google Books Ngram Viewer tool that is available free of charge.Suskaitmenintų literatūros duomenų bazių tokių kaip „Google knygos“, „Europeana“ ir istorinių laikraščių duomenų bazių prieinamumas sukėlė revoliuciją daugelyje disciplinų, pvz., kalbotyroje ir istorijoje. Iki šiol knygų istorijoje ir skaitymo istorijoje suskaitmenintos medžiagos naudojimas nebuvo ypač dažnas. Šiame straipsnyje pristatomos priemonės, metodikos ir praktikos, kurios suteikia naujas knygų istorijos ir skaitymo istorijos tyrimo galimybes. Šių įrankių naudojimas leidžia greitai ir efektyviai ištirti didžiulius duomenų kiekius, pateikti rezultatus pasitelkiant naudingas vizualizacijas, suteikia galimybę remtis argumentavimu ir, prireikus, nustatyti tyrimo patikimumą pateikiant duomenis patikrinimui. Surinkti pavyzdžiai yra paimti iš duomenų bazės „Google knygos“, naudojant paprastą programinę įrangą ir pasitelkiant nemokamo „Google Books Ngram Viewer“ įrankio aplikacijų programavimo sąsają (angl. API)