The impact of digitization and digital resource design on the scholarly workflow in art history

The technological progress of the past decades has had a transformative effect on both cultural institutions and academic research. It is generally accepted that mass digitization projects led by museums, libraries and archives have allowed institutions to reach new audiences and increase the impact of their collections, while the emergence of digital libraries and other types of digital resources has opened up new opportunities for scholars in terms of accessing diverse types of information. Yet, our knowledge of the impact of these resources on the scholarly workflow beyond the stage of discovery remains limited; this paper argues for the importance of understanding user behavior and needs for building digital resources that have a positive effect on the whole scholarly workflow. By employing an ethnographic approach to the study of art historians’ habits we get a detailed view of the effect that digitization and digital resource design can have on scholars’ work, from the seeking of the information to the construction of the research argument. The complex information behavior of art historians and the challenges they often face when interacting with digital resources make them a great example to demonstrate the impact that these can have on the research process

Embedding creativity into digital resources: Improving information discovery for art history

Over the past decades, technological advancement and the mass digitization of information resources have led to the development of a range of digital resources for academic scholarship. Understanding the needs of scholars when employing digital resources for their work can lead to the building of digital infrastructure that not only enables access to the required information but also has the potential to transform scholarship through having a positive effect on the whole scholarly workflow. Through this article, we show how the design of digital libraries and resources can be improved to enhance information discovery and use in art history, while also benefiting other key areas of the research process. By employing an ethnographic approach to the study of scholarly practices, we developed a sound understanding of art historians’ behaviour when interacting with information at different stages of the scholarly workflow. Our results show that scholars exhibited highly creative behaviour when conducting core scholarly activities, such as information seeking and use. Yet, the challenges they often encountered showed that there is still more work to be done to improve digital infrastructure and tools for scholarship in the field. Part of this article will focus on the user requirements for designing systems that facilitate discovery, encourage creative use of information, and trigger inspiration

Cultural institutions in the digital age: British Museum’s use of Facebook Insights

Over the last decade, museums have experienced a strong cultural shift from objectoriented towards audience-oriented strategic approaches. This paper reviews the relevant literature on this transition and provides supportive evidence of the impact that social media have upon the relationship between cultural organisations and their audiences. Data deriving from the use of the British Museum’s Facebook page provides a comprehensive evaluation of the museum’s general social media strategy. Given the dominance and widespread use of Facebook and other social media, the degree of engagement of cultural organisations with them, seem to have become an inseparable factor on the scale of effectiveness of the relation with their audiences and the levels of visitor attendance. This research aims, by using one of the most prestigious museums in Britain as a case study, to provide an initial comprehensive set of insights into the use of social media by cultural organisations. The findings of this study are based on research conducted for the first author’s postgraduate studies at the Centre for Digital Humanities, Department of Information studies, University College London

Accessing and Using Digital Libraries in Art History

Over the past decades, the increase in the use of digital resources and the growth of research conducted in digital environments has transformed academic scholarship. The goal of this paper is to highlight the importance of understanding user behavior and needs for building digital libraries and resources that have a positive effect on the whole scholarly workflow. For this purpose, the art historical discipline will be used as a case study; by employing an ethnographic approach to the study of scholarly habits, we managed to uncover the requirements that scholars in the field have in terms of accessing and using digital libraries. The complex information behavior of art historians as well as the challenges they often face when interacting with digital resources make them a great example to demonstrate the impact that digital libraries and archives can have on the research process

Building Personal Research Collections in Art History.

Over the past decades, the increase in the use of digital resources and the growth of research conducted in digital environments has transformed academic scholarship. Never before has there been such breadth of information and services available for scholars to use; most importantly, though, such developments offer the advantage of not only speeding up the research process, but also for facilitating innovative research enquiry. Yet, especially in the area of the Arts and Humanities, the capabilities developed by new technologies have had a great impact on the scholarly practices of its disciplines

Embedding creativity into digital resources: Improving information discovery for art history

Over the past decades, technological advancement and the mass digitization of information resources have led to the development of a range of digital resources for academic scholarship. Understanding the needs of scholars when employing digital resources for their work can lead to the building of digital infrastructure that not only enables access to the required information but also has the potential to transform scholarship through having a positive effect on the whole scholarly workflow. Through this article, we show how the design of digital libraries and resources can be improved to enhance information discovery and use in art history, while also benefiting other key areas of the research process. By employing an ethnographic approach to the study of scholarly practices, we developed a sound understanding of art historians’ behaviour when interacting with information at different stages of the scholarly workflow. Our results show that scholars exhibited highly creative behaviour when conducting core scholarly activities, such as information seeking and use. Yet, the challenges they often encountered showed that there is still more work to be done to improve digital infrastructure and tools for scholarship in the field. Part of this article will focus on the user requirements for designing systems that facilitate discovery, encourage creative use of information, and trigger inspiration

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Affective Experiences

The paper critically reflects on the meanings and research on affective experiences in digital mediated environments. Computing, media and design, communication as well as art and cultural products are significantly engaging with aspects of affect and emotions, arguably as a part of the ‘the affective turn’ (Clough 2007). The text considers discussions, initiated at the AHRC funded project ‘New Media, Audiences and Affective Experiences’. The project provided scope for new knowledge and skills development on researching experience and affect in digital mediated platforms and art interventions on the mentioned crossing disciplines. We regard affective experiences as the elusive factor that connects the fields and their practices, requiring attention and unfolding. The project aspired to reveal creative approaches across disciplines that ‘produce and describe’ affective experiences, illustrating how they synthesise and expand the notion of affect. The reflections entail a critical summary of the project’s interventions, including designers and practitioners’ perspectives on elaborating affective aspects in their work. Additionally, issues on multi and interdisciplinary research are considered with the paper portraying a selection of applied research methods for creating and measuring affect online and in research labs as well as the employment of design experimental approaches (see Figure 4). We conclude that some of our initial understanding of affective experiences has been assured; yet, foremost, this reflective paper highlights the complexities of creating, steering, experiencing and evaluating these types of experiences and their constant evolution with creative approaches and emerging technologies