Connecting the Humanities through Research Infrastructures

International audienceSeveral Research Infrastructures(RIs)exist in the Humanities and Social Sciences, some –such as CLARIN, DARIAH and CESSDA –which address specific areas of interest, i.e. linguistic studies, digital humanities and social science data archives. RIs are also unique in their scope and application, largely tailored to their specific community needs. However, commonalities do exist and it is recognised that benefits are to be gained from these such as efficient use of resources, enabling multi-disciplinary research and sharing good practices. As such,a bridging project PARTHENOS has worked closely with CLARIN and DARIAH as well as ARIADNE (archaeology), CENDARI (history), EHRI (holocaust studies) and E-RIHS (heritage science) to iden-tify, develop and promote these commonalities. In this paper, we present some specif-ic examples of cross-discipline and trans-border applications arising from joint RI collaboration, allowing for entirely new avenues of researc

From theory to praxis: Lessons learned from the elaboration of Baure teaching materials

This paper addresses the question how theoretical linguists working on the documentation of endangered languages can contribute to the preservation of those languages and the development of materials that help preserve and revitalize them. Are field linguists with no background in educational sciences adequately trained for developing teaching materials? Do the data from a documentation project serve as a good base for materials that support language preservation? Which pitfalls can be easily avoided, and how can you ensure that the materials are valuable for the community and actually serve their needs? The paper is based on the lessons learned from the elaboration of Baure teaching materials. Baure is an Arawak language of the southern branch (Aikhenvald 1999: 65-71, Danielsen forthcoming), spoken in the Bolivian lowlands. With only approximately 20 native speakers left, it is considered a critically endangered language and since the speakers are all elderly, the language may get extinct within the next few decades. Several initiatives have been taken to revitalize the Baure language, by the local schools and the Baure indigenous movement, as well as by field linguists studying the language. Alongside a documentation project, we have produced several materials for the community, among which a digital vocabulary trainer, a memory game, and a bilingual story book. On request of the local school board to provide more materials in the language, a Baure course book was published in 2012. It was taken into account that none of the teachers is actually a native Baure speaker and the course book was specifically designed for second language learning. Teacher training is known to be an essential part of teaching endangered languages and inadequate teacher training may cause the failure of teaching programs (Hinton 2001: 349). However, this is particularly challenging when the teachers do not speak the language. In order to present the course book, give a basic introduction on the Baure grammar, and assist the teachers in implementing the materials, workshops were organized for 80 local teachers. This paper critically reflects on teaching materials produced by field linguists not specialized in educational sciences, which are based on data collected in documentation projects. It highlights both the successes and shortcomings of the elaboration of the Baure course book, and discusses how the materials were received by the community and integrated in the school curriculum. Based on this experience, recommendations are given to field linguists seeking to produce similar materials

Measuring Effectiveness – A study on changes in minority language use and perception due to revitalisation efforts, with evidence from North Frisian

This poster presents the project Measuring Effectiveness – A study on changes in minority language use and perception due to revitalisation efforts, with evidence from North Frisian which was recently launched at the Department of Frisian at the Europa-Universität Flensburg. The project aims to measure the effectiveness of past and present revitalisation activities for North Frisian, a severely endangered West Germanic language spoken by some 5000-7000 speakers along the coastline and islands of Northwestern Germany (Århammar 2008). At present, the socio-demographic description of North Frisian lacks truly robust figures on the number of speakers and the geographical spread of where North Frisian is spoken. In addition, it is not sufficiently clear which language planning and revitalisation efforts have been implemented in which places throughout the region over what time period(s), thus making it difficult to arrive at a distinguishing analysis of the application and success of such efforts. Our project aims at filling these gaps, providing insight into the nature as well as into the effects of these different revitalisation activities. The poster introduces the project’s objectives and illustrates how the research questions are operationalised in terms of tasks and milestones. In addition, the poster shows how the project is embedded in the wider research programme Sustaining Minority Languages in Europe (SMiLE), funded by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

DARIAH (in-kind) contributions: a visual walk-through

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Visual Analytics of the DARIAH in-kind contributions

One of the main products of the Humanities at Scale project was a profound (re)-conceptualisation of the DARIAH in-kinds and a web-based service [2] to collect, review and display in-kind contributions, in short DARIAH contributions. [1] This paper looks at the results of the implementation phase of this new service, and particularly focuses on baseline statistics and visual analytics of the content submitted (about 300 contributions for 2017 and 2018). In general, for European Research Infrastructures, so-called in-kind contributions are a way for the members to account for their national eorts under the umbrella of the ERIC. They may represent contributions available for all ERIC members (e.g., central services executed by an institution in a member country) and/or contributions which embody, complement, or enhance the mission and strategic actions of an ERIC on the national level. DARIAH's reference model [1] on the basis of which contributions are dened, introduces two main categories: `services' and `activities'. For them a detailed metadata scheme has been devised. Submitted contributions are further subject to a detailed self-assessment and reviewing process, one part of which is dedicated to determine those contributions which are put up for the financial accountability of a member's contributions. The web-based service replaces earlier forms of template-based and data-based submission of in-kinds, and enables immediate comparison of the submissions - also by a couple of visual interfaces (map, tables). In this paper, we aim to demonstrate the main benets of the tool and zoom into three aspects. The DARIAH contribution tool relies on the tedious and comprehensive work of the National Coordinators which are in charge of the submission process. To make their often invisible work more visible is one motivation behind this paper. The submitted content as such forms an interesting empirical base for reflection on what is seen as a DARIAH contribution by the DARIAH community. This, in turn, can inform the DARIAH strategy and help to monitor the success of its actions. This is the second motivation. Submissions can still vary in form greatly, despite the formal model. They remain human generated content. Analysing the variety helps to tune the tool to user requirements, to fix bugs, and to curate the data it collects. We conclude our paper with reflections on the future use of the tool and its connection to other DARIAH strategic actions, as designed in the Strategic Action Plan II

DARIAH (in-kind) contributions: a visual walk-through

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“Stap voor stap richting een nationale data-infrastructuur”: DANS lanceert domeingerichte Data Stations

Op verzoek van onderzoekers en dataprofessionals bewaart DANS bijna 200.000 datasets gegarandeerd duurzaam. Het KNAW/NWO-instituut is sinds 2006 een belangrijke speler binnen de Nederlandse en wereldwijde onderzoeksgemeenschap. De komende periode gaat DANS domeingerichte Data Stations aanbieden, diensten die zijn toegesneden op de behoeften binnen wetenschappelijke disciplines. Daarmee wordt DANS naast een archief voor datasets uit voltooide onderzoeksprojecten, ook een omgeving waarin onderzoekers datasets kunnen vormen, bewerken, analyseren en delen

Flexible Metadata Schemes for Research Data Repositories

This paper presents how DANS, which participates in the CLARIAH+ project, works on a Common Framework which makes it possible to expose CMDI metadata via a DANS discovery service. The Common Framework refers to discussions in CLARIN about integrating standards in Dataverse. This paper informs CLARIAH+ about the explorations of the envisioned use of the Common Framework and reports about the possibilities and challenges of the interoperability of these metadata schemes. The challenges faced are: First, a proposal of a core set of CMDI metadata as recommendation. Second, the extraction of CMDI metadata and transform and load the metadata fields into the Dataverse core set of metadata. Third, a workflow for prediction and linking concepts from external controlled vocabularies to CMDI metadata values. Fourth, the extension of the Common Framework with support for FAIR controlled vocabularies to create FAIR metadata. Fifth, the extension of the export functionality of Dataverse to export deposited CMDI metadata back to the original CMDI format