Digital Libraries and Portals Saving National Cultural Heritage (IMI–BAS Experience)

The current research activities of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI—BAS) include the study and application of knowledge-based methods for the creation, integration and development of multimedia digital libraries with applications in cultural heritage. This report presents IMI-BAS’s developments at the digital library management systems and portals, i.e. the Bulgarian Iconographical Digital Library, the Bulgarian Folklore Digital Library and the Bulgarian Folklore Artery, etc. developed during the several national and international projects: - "Digital Libraries with Multimedia Content and its Application in Bulgarian Cultural Heritage" (contract 8/21.07.2005 between the IMI–BAS, and the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications; - FP6/IST/P-027451 PROJECT LOGOS "Knowledge-on-Demand for Ubiquitous Learning", EU FP6, IST, Priority 2.4.13 "Strengthening the Integration of the ICT research effort in an Enlarged Europe" - NSF project D-002-189 SINUS "Semantic Technologies for Web Services and Technology Enhanced Learning". - NSF project IO-03-03/2006 ―Development of Digital Libraries and Information Portal with Virtual Exposition "Bulgarian Folklore Heritage". The presented prototypes aims to provide flexible and effective access to the multimedia presentation of the cultural heritage artefacts and collections, maintaining different forms and format of the digitized information content and rich functionality for interaction. The developments are a result of long- standing interests and work in the technological developments in information systems, knowledge processing and content management systems. The current research activities aims at creating innovative solutions for assembling multimedia digital libraries for collaborative use in specific cultural heritage context, maintaining their semantic interoperability and creating new services for dynamic aggregation of their resources, access improvement, personification, intelligent curation of content, and content protection. The investigations are directed towards the development of distributed tools for aggregating heterogeneous content and ensuring semantic compatibility with the European digital library EUROPEANA, thus providing possibilities for pan- European access to rich digitalised collections of Bulgarian cultural heritage

DDB-EDM to FaBiO: The Case of the German Digital Library

Cultural heritage portals have the goal of providing users with seamless access to all their resources. This paper introduces initial efforts for a user-oriented restructuring of the German Digital Library (DDB). At present, cultural heritage objects (CHOs) in the DDB are modeled using an extended version of the Europeana Data Model (DDBEDM), which negatively impacts usability and exploration. These challenges can be addressed by leveraging ontologies, and building a knowledge graph from the DDB's voluminous collection. Towards this goal, an alignment of bibliographic metadata from DDB-EDM to FRBR-Aligned Bibliographic Ontology (FaBiO) is presented

DDB-EDM to FaBiO: The Case of the German Digital Library

Cultural heritage portals have the goal of providing users with seamless access to all their resources. This paper introduces initial efforts for a user-oriented restructuring of the German Digital Library (DDB). At present, cultural heritage objects (CHOs) in the DDB are modeled using an extended version of the Europeana Data Model (DDBEDM), which negatively impacts usability and exploration. These challenges can be addressed by exploiting ontologies, and building a knowledge graph from the DDB’s voluminous collection. Towards this goal, an alignment of bibliographic metadata from DDB-EDM to FRBR-Aligned Bibliographic Ontology (FaBiO) is presented

Context is Key: Library and Archive Collaboration for Digital Projects

Libraries and archives have different underlying philosophies towards items, metadata, goals, and core processes in their respective fields. With the proliferation of digital libraries and digitization efforts, both kinds of organizations can benefit from working together for the benefit of patrons and researchers. Presented in this article is a case study of a collaboration between the Texas Tech University Libraries Digital Resources Unit (DRU) and the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library (SWC), an archive of cultural heritage materials

Cognitive Styles within an Exploratory Search System for Digital Libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cognitive style on navigating a large digital library of cultural heritage information; specifically, the paper focus on the wholist/analytic dimension as experienced in the field of educational informatics. The hypothesis is that wholist and analytic users have characteristically different approaches when they explore, search and interact with digital libraries, which may have implications for system design. Design/methodology/approach – A detailed interactive IR evaluation of a large cultural heritage digital library was undertaken, along with the Riding CSA test. Participants carried out a range of information tasks, and the authors analysed their task performance, interactions and attitudes. Findings – The hypothesis on the differences in performance and behaviour between wholist and analytic users is supported. However, the authors also find that user attitudes towards the system are opposite to expectations and that users give positive feedback for functionality that supports activities in which they are cognitively weaker. Research limitations/implications – There is scope for testing results in a larger scale study, and/or with different systems. In particular, the findings on user attitudes warrant further investigation. Practical implications – Findings on user attitudes suggest that systems which support areas of weakness in users’ cognitive abilities are valued, indicating an opportunity to offer diverse functionality to support different cognitive weaknesses. Originality/value – A model is proposed suggesting a converse relationship between behaviour and attitudes; to support individual users displaying search/navigation behaviour mapped onto the strengths of their cognitive style, but placing greater value on interface features that support aspects in which they are weaker

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

EXAMINING TECHNICAL ISSUES OF THE WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY IN UGANDA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

With the agreement and subsequent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Library of Congress (LC) and the National Library of Uganda (NLU) in 2009, NLU became an active partner institution of the World Digital Library (WDL). Since then, technical processes related to digitizing Uganda’s cultural heritage have been managed. These include: identification of digitizable cultural materials/content selection, scanning, metadata, preservation and conservation and the creation of the Uganda Digital Repository. The aim of this paper was to examine the challenges encountered in managing the technical activities and propose solutions for better management of the WDL in Uganda. Objectives included: to examine the technical services involved in the digitisation process; to identify challenges faced in executing the technical processes; and to identify solutions to the challenges. Data collection was effected through analysis of WDL literature relevant to technical activities in general and the WDL (Uganda) in particular; participant observation of technical processes; and a Focus Group Discussion with employees. Personal experience also applied in explaining some aspects of the research. The paper should generate critical information and debate on the management of WDL technical processes, the challenges, and also strategies to overcome the challenges. The paper should benefit the project administrators, staff and other stakeholders in working towards better performance of the WDL in general and WDL (Uganda) in particular

Introduction: migrating heritage - experiences of cultural networks and cultural dialogue in Europe

No abstract available

The social web and archaeology's restructuring: impact, exploitation, disciplinary change

From blogs to crowdfunding, YouTube to LinkedIn, online photo-sharing sites to open-source community-based software projects, the social web has been a meaningful player in the development of archaeological practice for two decades now. Yet despite its myriad applications, it is still often appreciated as little more than a tool for communication, rather than a paradigm-shifting system that also shapes the questions we ask in our research, the nature and spread of our data, and the state of skill and expertise in the profession. We see this failure to critically engage with its dimensions as one of the most profound challenges confronting archaeology today. The social web is bound up in relations of power, control, freedom, labour and exploitation, with consequences that portend real instability for the cultural sector and for social welfare overall. Only a handful of archaeologists, however, are seriously debating these matters, which suggests the discipline is setting itself up to be swept away by our unreflective investment in the cognitive capitalist enterprise that marks much current web-based work. Here we review the state of play of the archaeological social web, and reflect on various conscientious activities aimed both at challenging practitioners’ current online interactions, and at otherwise situating the discipline as a more informed innovator with the social web’s possibilities