CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Sustaining Digital Humanities Collections: Challenges and Community-Centred Strategies

Since the advent of digital scholarship in the humanities, decades of extensive, distributed scholarly efforts have produced a digital scholarly record that is increasingly scattered, heterogeneous, and independent of curatorial institutions. Digital scholarship produces collections with unique scholarly and cultural value—collections that serve as hubs for collaboration and communication, engage broad audiences, and support new research. Yet, lacking systematic support for digital scholarship in libraries, digital humanities collections are facing a widespread crisis of sustainability. This paper provides outcomes of a multimodal study of sustainability challenges confronting digital collections in the humanities, characterizing institutional and community-oriented strategies for sustaining collections. Strategies that prioritize community engagement with collections and the maintenance of sociotechnical workflows suggest possibilities for novel approaches to collaborative, community-centred sustainability for digital humanities collections

Moving data into and out of an institutional repository: Off the map and into the territory

Given the recent proliferation of institutional repositories, a key strategic question is how multiple institutions - repositories, archives, universities and others—can best work together to manage and preserve research data. In 2007, Green and Gutmann proposed how partnerships among social science researchers, institutional repositories and domain repositories should best work. This paper uses the Timescapes Archive—a new collection of qualitative longitudinal data— to examine the challenges of working across institutions in order to move data into and out of institutional repositories. The Timescapes Archive both tests and extends their framework by focusing on the specific case of qualitative longitudinal research and by highlighting researchers' roles across all phases of data preservation and sharing. Topics of metadata, ethical data sharing, and preservation are discussed in detail. What emerged from the work to date is the extremely complex nature of the coordination required among the agents; getting the timing right is both critical and difficult. Coordination among three agents is likely to be challenging under any circumstances and becomes more so when the trajectories of different life cycles, for research projects and for data sharing, are considered. Timescapes exposed some structural tensions that, although they can not be removed or eliminated, can be effectively managed

Thematic Research Collections: Libraries and the Evolution of Alternative Digital Publishing in the Humanities

The growth and evolution of digital scholarship in the humanities has produced new genres of scholarly work and publication, reliant upon new ways of representing and sharing evidence, analysis, and interpretation. Meanwhile, extant systems of scholarly communication, including publication, discovery, access-provision, maintenance, and preservation, too often exclude digital research products, to the potential detriment of the entire scholarly record. This paper considers one genre of digital humanities scholarship: the thematic research collection, a digital collection of primary sources gathered to support research on a theme. This genre is recognizable and increasingly common, yet wildly heterogeneous in precise form, function, and purpose. This typological analysis aims to identify and describe types of collections as a way toward comprehending the range, variation, and complexity of the whole genre. The research considers what thematic research collections are, how they work, and what challenges confront the provision of effective and ongoing access to digital scholarship

Journalistic image access : description, categorization and searching

The quantity of digital imagery continues to grow, creating a pressing need to develop efficient methods for organizing and retrieving images. Knowledge on user behavior in image description and search is required for creating effective and satisfying searching experiences. The nature of visual information and journalistic images creates challenges in representing and matching images with user needs. The goal of this dissertation was to understand the processes in journalistic image access (description, categorization, and searching), and the effects of contextual factors on preferred access points. These were studied using multiple data collection and analysis methods across several studies. Image attributes used to describe journalistic imagery were analyzed based on description tasks and compared to a typology developed through a meta-analysis of literature on image attributes. Journalistic image search processes and query types were analyzed through a field study and multimodal image retrieval experiment. Image categorization was studied via sorting experiments leading to a categorization model. Advances to research methods concerning search tasks and categorization procedures were implemented. Contextual effects on image access were found related to organizational contexts, work, and search tasks, as well as publication context. Image retrieval in a journalistic work context was contextual at the level of image needs and search process. While text queries, together with browsing, remained the key access mode to journalistic imagery, participants also used visual access modes in the experiment, constructing multimodal queries. Assigned search task type and searcher expertise had an effect on query modes utilized. Journalistic images were mostly described and queried for on the semantic level but also syntactic attributes were used. Constraining the description led to more abstract descriptions. Image similarity was evaluated mainly based on generic semantics. However, functionally oriented categories were also constructed, especially by domain experts. Availability of page context promoted thematic rather than object-based categorization. The findings increase our understanding of user behavior in image description, categorization, and searching, as well as have implications for future solutions in journalistic image access. The contexts of image production, use, and search merit more interest in research as these could be leveraged for supporting annotation and retrieval. Multiple access points should be created for journalistic images based on image content and function. Support for multimodal query formulation should also be offered. The contributions of this dissertation may be used to create evaluation criteria for journalistic image access systems

Regional music collection practices in libraries: A qualitative systematic review and thematic analysis of the literature

Regional music collections document the music of a particular geographic area, bringing together unique artifacts that represent the local history and culture. The practice of collecting regional music is now taking place at many academic and public libraries. With increasing frequency and a diversity of methods, these collections are now also being presented online, expanding access to a wider audience. This paper presents the results of a qualitative systematic review and evidence synthesis, which aims to capture current practices in the management and representation regional music collections in libraries. In particular, the review aims to analyze the findings of scholarly, professional and grey literature related to regional music collection practices in academic and public libraries within North America. NVivo software was used to conduct content analysis of core literature findings in order to identify key themes within the literature. This review provides insight into the past and current practices surrounding the acquisition, management, and presentation of these special collections. The “big picture” of regional music collections will be discussed, including where they are held, current practices and guidelines for establishing and maintaining these collections, and potential areas for growth and innovation - especially in regard to digital collections and new publishing models for music

Deep Focus and Cinematic Faith: An Extended Review

Reviewed Titles: Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue by Robert K. Johnston, Craig Detweiler, and Kutter Callaway. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2019. 262 pp. ISBN: 9781540960030; and Cinematic Faith: A Christian Perspective on Movies and Meaning by William D. Romanowski. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2019. 226 pp. ISBN: 9780801098659

Shaking Heritage

Any moment the earth can shake, but we do not know when or where. If it happens, our Heritage might be in danger. Shaking Heritage addresses the topic of the seismic vulnerability of museum collections. It develops a way to assess the seismic risks for movable Heritage, proposing a synthetic method to rate the vulnerable settings. It discusses the necessity of integrating museography and anti-seismic solutions for museums and exhibitions, and studies exhibit solutions that would improve the seismic safety of collections and setups. It stresses the necessity of constructing shared guidelines and policies for the safety of the movable Heritage. Shaking Heritage is a step forward in acknowledging the importance of the anti-seismic culture among museum institutions and researchers