Metadata enrichment for digital heritage: users as co-creators

This paper espouses the concept of metadata enrichment through an expert and user-focused approach to metadata creation and management. To this end, it is argued the Web 2.0 paradigm enables users to be proactive metadata creators. As Shirky (2008, p.47) argues Web 2.0’s social tools enable “action by loosely structured groups, operating without managerial direction and outside the profit motive”. Lagoze (2010, p. 37) advises, “the participatory nature of Web 2.0 should not be dismissed as just a popular phenomenon [or fad]”. Carletti (2016) proposes a participatory digital cultural heritage approach where Web 2.0 approaches such as crowdsourcing can be sued to enrich digital cultural objects. It is argued that “heritage crowdsourcing, community-centred projects or other forms of public participation”. On the other hand, the new collaborative approaches of Web 2.0 neither negate nor replace contemporary standards-based metadata approaches. Hence, this paper proposes a mixed metadata approach where user created metadata augments expert-created metadata and vice versa. The metadata creation process no longer remains to be the sole prerogative of the metadata expert. The Web 2.0 collaborative environment would now allow users to participate in both adding and re-using metadata. The case of expert-created (standards-based, top-down) and user-generated metadata (socially-constructed, bottom-up) approach to metadata are complementary rather than mutually-exclusive. The two approaches are often mistakenly considered as dichotomies, albeit incorrectly (Gruber, 2007; Wright, 2007) . This paper espouses the importance of enriching digital information objects with descriptions pertaining the about-ness of information objects. Such richness and diversity of description, it is argued, could chiefly be achieved by involving users in the metadata creation process. This paper presents the importance of the paradigm of metadata enriching and metadata filtering for the cultural heritage domain. Metadata enriching states that a priori metadata that is instantiated and granularly structured by metadata experts is continually enriched through socially-constructed (post-hoc) metadata, whereby users are pro-actively engaged in co-creating metadata. The principle also states that metadata that is enriched is also contextually and semantically linked and openly accessible. In addition, metadata filtering states that metadata resulting from implementing the principle of enriching should be displayed for users in line with their needs and convenience. In both enriching and filtering, users should be considered as prosumers, resulting in what is called collective metadata intelligence

Reusing digital collections from GLAM institutions

For some decades now, Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) institutions have published and provided access to information resources in digital format. Recently, innovative approaches have appeared such as the concept of Labs within GLAM institutions that facilitates the adoption of innovative and creative tools for content delivery and user engagement. In addition, new methods have been proposed to address the publication of digital collections as data sets amenable to computational use. In this article, we propose a methodology to create machine actionable collections following a set of steps. This methodology is then applied to several use cases based on data sets published by relevant GLAM institutions. It intends to encourage institutions to adopt the publication of data sets that support computationally driven research as a core activity.This work has been partially supported by ECLIPSE-UA RTI2018-094283-B-C32 (Spanish Ministry of Education and Science)

Cultural Heritage Image Sharing Recommendations Report

Deliverable 13.2 for the WorldFAIR Project’s Cultural Heritage Work Package (WP13). Although the cultural heritage sector has only recently begun to think of traditional gallery, library, archival and museum (‘GLAM’) collections as data, long established practices guiding the management and sharing of information resources has aligned the domain well with the FAIR principles for research data, evidenced in complementary workflows and standards that support discovery, access, reuse, and persistence. As explored in the previous report by Work Package 13 for the WorldFAIR Project, D13.1 Practices and policies supporting cultural heritage image sharing platforms, memory institutions are in an important position to influence cross-domain data sharing practices and raise critical questions about why and how those practices are implemented. Deliverable 13.2 aims to build on our understanding of what it means to support FAIR in the sharing of image data derived from GLAM collections. This report looks at previous efforts by the sector towards FAIR alignment and presents 5 recommendations designed to be implemented and tested at the DRI that are also broadly applicable to the work of the GLAMs. The recommendations are ultimately a roadmap for the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) to follow in improving repository services, as well as a call for continued dialogue around ‘what is FAIR?’ within the cultural heritage research data landscape. Visit WorldFAIR online at http://worldfair-project.eu. WorldFAIR is funded by the EC HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-41 Coordination and Support Action under Grant Agreement No. 101058393

Open public sector information: from principles to practice

Accessible information is the lifeblood of a robust democracy and a productive economy. As part of a worldwide movement, the Australian Government is fundamentally changing the way that information is valued, managed, used and shared with others. The concept that best captures this trend, both in Australia and internationally, is the term \u27public sector information\u27 (PSI). This describes data, information or content that is generated, collected, or funded by or for the government or public institutions. PSI is a valuable resource that underpins all the essential public functions that government discharges. It can be an equally valuable resource outside government. People and business can use PSI to evaluate, respond, research, plan, discover, invent, innovate and aspire. The true value of information is realised only when others can use and build upon it to create new ideas, inventions and strategies. Open PSI is the necessary policy setting to make that happen. It requires, in essence, that government information and data is managed in a way that makes it readily discoverable, accessible and reusable by business and the community. This report details the results of a survey conducted by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on how 191 Australian Government agencies manage PSI. The survey was structured around the eight Principles on open public sector information (Open PSI principles) that were published by the OAIC in 2011. The key finding of this report is that Australian Government agencies are actively embracing an open access and proactive disclosure culture. The high response rate to this survey confirms that finding. The widespread and growing use of digital and web technologies to support a PSI transformation is another sign. There are nevertheless many policy challenges and practical obstacles that must be tackled. It is more a time of transition than fulfilment. This transition – or cultural shift – is more successful when built on four elements: agency leadership, officer innovation, community engagement and investment in information infrastructure. Those four elements were identified by agencies themselves as key issues in developing national information policy. Shortcomings in existing policies, structure and information management practices are highlighted by the survey responses: Transitioning to open access and proactive publication requires cultural change, including more active sponsorship of this philosophy by agency leaders; this is particularly important to overcome resistance or disengagement within agencies. Existing systems for record keeping, information governance, information release and user consultation are not suitably designed for the new era of open PSI, in which government information and data must be valued as a core agency asset and a national resource. Information management systems do not always apply uniformly across agencies; from an open PSI perspective there can be indefensible differences in information management practices across agency branches and locations. A great deal of valuable information is held by agencies in legacy documents that must be reformatted for digital publication; this can be a costly and technologically challenging process. Not all agencies have the technical specialisation and capacity to implement open PSI, on issues such as attachment of metadata, conformance to WCAG 2.0 and data release in an open and standards-based format. The default position of open access licensing is not clearly or robustly stated, nor properly reflected in the practice of government agencies. Agencies have been successful in identifying information that is required to be published under the Information Publication Scheme, but have not been as successful in identifying or prioritising other information that can be published through the agency website or on open data portals. Budgetary limitations hamper the capacity of agencies to be more dynamic in implementing an open PSI culture. An open PSI access strategy is vital to enable Australia to fully enjoy the economic, regulatory and cultural benefits of an open government model. Great strides to unlock PSI assets have recently been taken through the combined impact of the Government\u27s Gov 2.0 strategy, freedom of information changes, the innovation agenda, a shift in public service culture, and service delivery reform

NFDI4Culture - Consortium for research data on material and immaterial cultural heritage

Digital data on tangible and intangible cultural assets is an essential part of daily life, communication and experience. It has a lasting influence on the perception of cultural identity as well as on the interactions between research, the cultural economy and society. Throughout the last three decades, many cultural heritage institutions have contributed a wealth of digital representations of cultural assets (2D digital reproductions of paintings, sheet music, 3D digital models of sculptures, monuments, rooms, buildings), audio-visual data (music, film, stage performances), and procedural research data such as encoding and annotation formats. The long-term preservation and FAIR availability of research data from the cultural heritage domain is fundamentally important, not only for future academic success in the humanities but also for the cultural identity of individuals and society as a whole. Up to now, no coordinated effort for professional research data management on a national level exists in Germany. NFDI4Culture aims to fill this gap and create a usercentered, research-driven infrastructure that will cover a broad range of research domains from musicology, art history and architecture to performance, theatre, film, and media studies. The research landscape addressed by the consortium is characterized by strong institutional differentiation. Research units in the consortium's community of interest comprise university institutes, art colleges, academies, galleries, libraries, archives and museums. This diverse landscape is also characterized by an abundance of research objects, methodologies and a great potential for data-driven research. In a unique effort carried out by the applicant and co-applicants of this proposal and ten academic societies, this community is interconnected for the first time through a federated approach that is ideally suited to the needs of the participating researchers. To promote collaboration within the NFDI, to share knowledge and technology and to provide extensive support for its users have been the guiding principles of the consortium from the beginning and will be at the heart of all workflows and decision-making processes. Thanks to these principles, NFDI4Culture has gathered strong support ranging from individual researchers to highlevel cultural heritage organizations such as the UNESCO, the International Council of Museums, the Open Knowledge Foundation and Wikimedia. On this basis, NFDI4Culture will take innovative measures that promote a cultural change towards a more reflective and sustainable handling of research data and at the same time boost qualification and professionalization in data-driven research in the domain of cultural heritage. This will create a long-lasting impact on science, cultural economy and society as a whole

Access to Digital Cultural Heritage: Innovative Applications of Automated Metadata Generation Chapter 1: Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Standards, Institutions, Initiatives

The first chapter "Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Standards, Institutions, Initiatives" provides an introduction to the area of digitisation. The main pillars of process of creating, preserving and accessing of cultural heritage in digital space are observed. The importance of metadata in the process of accessing to information is outlined. The metadata schemas and standards used in cultural heritage are discussed. In order to reach digital objects in virtual space they are organized in digital libraries. Contemporary digital libraries are trying to deliver richer and better functionality, which usually is user oriented and depending on current IT trend. Additionally, the chapter is focused on some initiatives on world and European level that during the years enforce the process of digitization and organizing digital objects in the cultural heritage domain. In recent years, the main focus in the creation of digital resources shifts from "system-centred" to "user-centred" since most of the issues around this content are related to making it accessible and usable for the real users. So, the user studies and involving the users on early stages of design and planning the functionality of the product which is being developed stands on leading position

Suggested measures for deploying IIIF in Swiss cultural heritage institutions

This white paper has been written as part of the Towards IIIF-Compliance Knowledge in Switzerland (TICKS) project, conducted at the Haute école de gestion de Genève (HEG-GE) between March 2018 and February 2019, which originated on the acknowledgements that the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) ecosystem was not enough known and deployed in the cultural heritage field in Switzerland. The white paper starts with the main principles of IIIF, notably indicating the different technical specifications, or application programming interfaces (APIs), produced by the IIIF community as well as the platforms of Swiss projects or institutions that have deployed IIIF. Going from general to specific, a generic IIIF step-by-step graph and six more precise use cases reflecting different needs of the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sector giving implementation measures have been produced. Finally, the document contains recommendations for further action as well as some information on the possible reuse of this document for other regions of the world or for other scientific fields

Development of an Integrated VRA Core Framework for Libraries

Metadata is one of the important concept in the field of digital technology throughout the higher education as well as research environment. Digital resource management is possible through open source standard and tool. This paper has select the metadata standard like Visual Resource Association (VRA) Core. Now the methodology is very simple to perform and add the different items in this system. Integrated this VRA Core metadata framework with the Omeka open source software for the better management of library resources. Apart from this it is also manage the Museum for cataloguing the different images with suitable metadata. This integrated framework is very user-friendly for easy install and configure the metadata with fulltext documents and also display the ngram view with sequence graph of different metadata available in the database

Governing Actor Networks in an Emerging Crowdsourcing Ecosystem

Organisations harness the wisdom of community to solve problems or create new knowledge. Multiple organisations, diverse communities and multiple platforms are forming ecosystems to co-create value. We observe that Libraries, Archives, Galleries and Museums are forming collaborative crowdsourcing ecosystems to curate knowledge and create knowledge that ecosystem-wide stakeholders can use. However, despite the collaborative nature of crowdsourcing, various tensions arise among actors that hinder effective outcomes. Through a qualitative case study, we identify crowdsourcing actor networks and explore their tensions that hinder effective outcomes. We propose a strategic governance approach to foster crowdsourcing-based collaboration in a complex and dynamic ecosystem to create and capture value. This study presents a shift in the traditional schema of structured hierarchical governance of crowdsourcing projects to unstructured non-hierarchical governance of a multi-actor crowdsourcing ecosystem. The value propositions of crowdsourcing ecosystem actors networks are value co-creation, resource sharing, collective ownership, and mutual dependency