Personalization in cultural heritage: the road travelled and the one ahead

Over the last 20 years, cultural heritage has been a favored domain for personalization research. For years, researchers have experimented with the cutting edge technology of the day; now, with the convergence of internet and wireless technology, and the increasing adoption of the Web as a platform for the publication of information, the visitor is able to exploit cultural heritage material before, during and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. However, cultural heritage sites have a huge amount of information to present, which must be filtered and personalized in order to enable the individual user to easily access it. Personalization of cultural heritage information requires a system that is able to model the user (e.g., interest, knowledge and other personal characteristics), as well as contextual aspects, select the most appropriate content, and deliver it in the most suitable way. It should be noted that achieving this result is extremely challenging in the case of first-time users, such as tourists who visit a cultural heritage site for the first time (and maybe the only time in their life). In addition, as tourism is a social activity, adapting to the individual is not enough because groups and communities have to be modeled and supported as well, taking into account their mutual interests, previous mutual experience, and requirements. How to model and represent the user(s) and the context of the visit and how to reason with regard to the information that is available are the challenges faced by researchers in personalization of cultural heritage. Notwithstanding the effort invested so far, a definite solution is far from being reached, mainly because new technology and new aspects of personalization are constantly being introduced. This article surveys the research in this area. Starting from the earlier systems, which presented cultural heritage information in kiosks, it summarizes the evolution of personalization techniques in museum web sites, virtual collections and mobile guides, until recent extension of cultural heritage toward the semantic and social web. The paper concludes with current challenges and points out areas where future research is needed

Validation of the CIDOC CRM using both extended graphical and category theory representations : includes two New Zealand case studies : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

There is considerable interest in the use of the Internet to retrieve and integrate multimedia information from centres of cultural heritage such as museums and art galleries. The ultimate desire of most devotees of cultural matters is to have universal access, through a single portal, to detailed information from sites throughout the world. This level of interoperability is not an easy task both technically and culturally. To provide an avenue where some of the technical problems of accessing information from a huge range of unique database environments can be resolved, a semantic conceptual reference model (CRM) was proposed by The International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CIDOC). The model provides definitions and a formal structure for describing the implicit and explicit concepts and relationships used in cultural heritage documentation. It is intended to provide a common and extensible semantic framework to which any cultural heritage information can be mapped. In this research two methods are proposed and developed to support the validation of the Conceptual Reference Model. The methodologies, one graphical and the other based on category theory, are used to replicate three published international validation activities and two new validations based on information supplied by two New Zealand heritage sites. This report also includes a literature review describing the main ideas and structures that form the basis of the CRM

Re-use of public sector information in cultural heritage institutions

In 2013 the European Union amended the Directive on Public Sector Information, establishing the principle that all available information produced and collected by public sector institutions must be made available for reuse under open terms and conditions. The amended Directive also brings publicly funded libraries, museums and archives into its scope. These new rules on reuse of heritage materials, treated as public sector information (PSI), attempt for the first time to define a general framework for sharing cultural heritage information all around Europe. In this paper we argue that if Member States are not careful, the implementation of the changes required by the new Directive could do more harm than good when it comes to access to digitized cultural heritage in Europe. These concerns center on how the directive interacts with copyright legislation. The paper recommends that in order to contribute to the opening up of cultural heritage resources, Member States should ensure that all qualifying documents that are not currently covered by third party intellectual property rights fall within the scope of the Directive. Member States should also implement the Directive in a way that does not encourage or require institutions to charge for the reuse of works that they make available for reuse. For documents that are still protected by intellectual property rights but where these rights are held by the cultural heritage institutions that have these works in their collections, Member States should encourage the use of Open Definition-compliant licenses

Cultural Heritage Information Practices and iSchools Education for Achieving Sustainable Development

Since 2015, UNESCO began the process of inculcating culture as part of the UN’s post-2015 Sustainable (former Millennium) Development Goals, which member countries agreed to achieve by 2030. By conducting a thematic analysis of the 25 UN commissioned reports and policy documents, this research identifies 14 broad cultural heritage information themes that need to be practiced in order to achieve cultural sustainability, of which information platforms, information sharing, information broadcast, information quality, information usage training, information access, information collection, and contribution appear to be the significant themes. An investigation of education on cultural heritage informatics and digital humanities at iSchools (www.ischools.org) using a gap analysis framework demonstrates the core information science skills required for cultural heritage education. The research demonstrates that: (i) a thematic analysis of cultural heritage policy documents can be used to explore the key themes for cultural informatics education and research that can lead to sustainable development; and (ii) cultural heritage information education should cover a series of skills that can be categorized in five key areas, viz., information, technology, leadership, application, and people and user skills

Intelligent Information Access to Linked Data - Weaving the Cultural Heritage Web

The subject of the dissertation is an information alignment experiment of two cultural heritage information systems (ALAP): The Perseus Digital Library and Arachne. In modern societies, information integration is gaining importance for many tasks such as business decision making or even catastrophe management. It is beyond doubt that the information available in digital form can offer users new ways of interaction. Also, in the humanities and cultural heritage communities, more and more information is being published online. But in many situations the way that information has been made publicly available is disruptive to the research process due to its heterogeneity and distribution. Therefore integrated information will be a key factor to pursue successful research, and the need for information alignment is widely recognized. ALAP is an attempt to integrate information from Perseus and Arachne, not only on a schema level, but to also perform entity resolution. To that end, technical peculiarities and philosophical implications of the concepts of identity and co-reference are discussed. Multiple approaches to information integration and entity resolution are discussed and evaluated. The methodology that is used to implement ALAP is mainly rooted in the fields of information retrieval and knowledge discovery. First, an exploratory analysis was performed on both information systems to get a first impression of the data. After that, (semi-)structured information from both systems was extracted and normalized. Then, a clustering algorithm was used to reduce the number of needed entity comparisons. Finally, a thorough matching was performed on the different clusters. ALAP helped with identifying challenges and highlighted the opportunities that arise during the attempt to align cultural heritage information systems

Digitization of World Heritage Sites of Iran as a Tool for Facilitating Online Access During Worldwide Pandemic: Case Study of Pasargadae World Heritage Site

Purpose Cultural heritage digitization facilitates the preservation of culturally valuable objects, entities, or items into a digital form allowing more comprehensive and concurrent access to such objects. It becomes more significant for overcoming the constraints associated with physical access, especially during turmoil, disasters, and pandemics like COVID-19, where physical interactions are almost restricted. Covid-19 restrictions and resultant social distancing protocols impacted nearly every facet of human life. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and heritage sites across the globe were also affected as they were closed for the general public. Therefore, the study explores the importance of making diverse cultural heritage information available online and accessible to the broader user community and provisions for data security through proper backups, setting user privileges, and maintaining necessary updates. Design/Methodology/Approach The study selected Pasargadae world heritage site in Iran as the study area by analyzing the database maintained and available for consultation. Further, the study attempts to highlight the advantages associated with the digitization of cultural items, including manuscripts, images, monuments, sites, etc. It also highlights prerequisites for managing such information online effectively using digitization. Findings Given the state of cultural heritage in Iran, digitization is still in the infancy stage. It is necessary to develop well-equipped policies, technological infrastructures, including high-speed internet, scanning machines, high-resolution digital cameras, and servers with high capacity processing for digitization. Besides, adequate funding and significant management concerns are needed to address various ethical and privacy issues, including copyright concerns associated with Iran’s cultural heritage digitization process. Originality/value The work is a thorough attempt towards surveying Pasargadae world heritage site to understand the basic requirements for creating an online information delivery portal through the digitization of rich cultural heritage sites for enabling access even in virtual mode

Archives' call to Digital Humanities: a case study of Portuguese Municipal Archives

The availability of digitised cultural heritage content held by archives and other memory institutions improves their visibility, facilitate and increases access to information, allowing new kinds of research of digital heritage, namely Digital Humanities. This study intends to report how Municipal Archives of mainland Portugal are ensuring access to their digitized cultural heritage content. For this purpose, an analysis was held to collect data about online catalogues with digital objects linked to the archival description in 278 Municipal Archives of mainland Portugal. The data revealed that the openness of the primary information sources preserved by the municipal archives, which can be reused by all those who need them and particularly by digital humanists, is still in infancy

Tourist information in libraries – source to improve access to objects of cultural heritage

The main purpose of this article is to examine how the tourist information which is able to provide Sofia City Library helps citizens to improve their knowledge about cultural heritage objects in the capital and their desire to visit them. While writing the article we used a combination of methods of work: study of the literature on the subject from print and electronic sources of information; methods of analysis and synthesis; method of monitoring the work at the City Library; visiting museums; analysis of Bulgarian and US websites for tourist information. During the working process three research questions are answered: who are the users of tourist information; what are the types of library and other sources where emblematic objects of Sofia cultural heritage are presented and what tourist information is available to the citizens of the capital

Discover the Thracians - An Approach for Use of 2D and 3D Technologies for Digitization of Cultural Heritage in the Field of E-learning

Information and communication technologies (ICT) offer an easier access to and a multi-perspective view of cultural heritage artifacts and may also enrich and improve cultural heritage education through the adoption of innovative learning/teaching methods. This paper examines the different practices and opportunities for digitization of cultural artifacts with historical significance and describes the work on a pilot project concerning the development of e-learning materials in the Thracian cultural and historical heritage. The proposed method presents an approach based on a combination of 2D and 3D technologies to facilitate the overall process of digitization of individual objects. This approach not only provides greater opportunities for presenting the Thracian heritage but also new perspectives for studying it - students, scientists, PhD students will have the opportunity to work with the materials without having access to them

The Etruscans in 3D: From Space to Underground

eomatics and Geoinformatics deal with spatial and geographic information, 3D surveying and modeling as well as information science infrastructures. Geomatics and Geoinformatics are thus involved in cartography, mapping, photogrammetry, remote sensing, laser scanning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), geo-visualisation, geospatial data analysis and Cultural Heritage documentation. In particular the Cultural Heritage field can largely benefit from different Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools to make digital heritage information more informative for documentation and conservation issues, archaeological analyses or virtual museums. This work presents the 3D surveying and modeling of different Etruscan heritage sites with their underground frescoed tombs dating back to VII-IV century B.C.. The recorded and processed 3D data are used, beside digital conservation, preservation, transmission to future generations and studies purposes, to create digital contents for virtual visits, museum exhibitions, better access and communication of the heritage information, etc