On automating editions:The affordances of Handwritten Text Recognition platforms for scholarly editing

Recent developments in Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) mean that automated editions – presentational editions generated from both digital images of text, and their corresponding transcriptions created by artificial intelligence – are now available to adopt, adapt, and critique. This paper responds to an absence within scholarly editing literature regarding HTR. HTR is a machine-learning approach that creates accurate transcriptions of images of handwritten documents. We highlight developments in text recognition technology, demonstrating that automated standardised editions are no longer a future possibility, but a reality necessary of consideration within a scholarly editing framework.We do this via a case study of creating a standardised online edition in the HTR platform Transkribus of the manuscripts of Marjorie Fleming (1803-1811), a Scottish child author who became posthumously famous for her free-thinking and precocious diaries. As well as providing a cost-effective way to generate machine-processable transcripts at scale, Transkribus can now generate digital online editions via its ‘read&amp;search’ platform. This provides an efficient mechanism to share and search digitised texts, bypassing previous procedures and disrupting established processes for data formatting, hosting, and delivery of online editions. However, we show that while read&amp;search can be considered a scholarly digital edition, it needs further development to be encountered as a critical digital edition, providing suggestions for ongoing development. Automating the process of creating scholarly digital editions will encourage others to create them, democratising the digital edition landscape, although we reflect on the ramifications this may have. <br/

tranScriptorium: a european project on handwritten text recognition

The tranScriptorium project aims to develop innovative, efficient and cost-effective solutions for annotating handwritten historical documents using modern, holistic Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology. Three actions are planned in tranScriptorium: i) improve basic image preprocessing and holistic HTR techniques; ii) develop novel indexing and keyword searching approaches; and iii) capitalize on new, user-friendly interactive-predictive HTR approaches for computer-assisted operation.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 600707 - tranScriptorium.Sánchez Peiró, JA.; Mühlberger, G.; Gatos, B.; Schofield, P.; Depuydt, K.; Davis, RM.; Vidal, E.... (2013). tranScriptorium: a european project on handwritten text recognition. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2494266.2494294

Targeted COVID-19 Vaccination (TAV-COVID) Considering Limited Vaccination Capacities-An Agent-Based Modeling Evaluation

(1) Background: The Austrian supply of COVID-19 vaccine is limited for now. We aim to provide evidence-based guidance to the authorities in order to minimize COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths in Austria. (2) Methods: We used a dynamic agent-based population model to compare different vaccination strategies targeted to the elderly (65 ≥ years), middle aged (45-64 years), younger (15-44 years), vulnerable (risk of severe disease due to comorbidities), and healthcare workers (HCW). First, outcomes were optimized for an initially available vaccine batch for 200,000 individuals. Second, stepwise optimization was performed deriving a prioritization sequence for 2.45 million individuals, maximizing the reduction in total hospitalizations and deaths compared to no vaccination. We considered sterilizing and non-sterilizing immunity, assuming a 70% effectiveness. (3) Results: Maximum reduction of hospitalizations and deaths was achieved by starting vaccination with the elderly and vulnerable followed by middle-aged, HCW, and younger individuals. Optimizations for vaccinating 2.45 million individuals yielded the same prioritization and avoided approximately one third of deaths and hospitalizations. Starting vaccination with HCW leads to slightly smaller reductions but maximizes occupational safety. (4) Conclusion: To minimize COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths, our study shows that elderly and vulnerable persons should be prioritized for vaccination until further vaccines are available

Vollständige Digitalisierung des Innsbrucker Zeitungsarchivs

The collection of newspaper clippings from the Newspaper Archive Innsbruck is one of the largest in the German-speaking countries. It provides comprehensive information on tens of thousands of authors, actors and directors from all over the world. Since October 2004 the old stock of this archive - at about 800.000 pages - has been scanned at the University Library Innsbruck with an automatic optical character recognition and has been provided to the public. This paper describes the technical background of the project. A test version of the online-archive can be seen at http://webapp.uibk.ac.at/iza

Digital Humanities in Austria: Transkribus. A European research infrastructure for the automated recognition and searching of historical documents: EOSC: Austria takes initiative

Presentation from Günter Mühlberger, Coordinator READ Project, University of Innsbruc