Presentation of Roxanne Wyns (LIBIS - KU Leuven Bibliotheken) at LIBER 2018 Challenges for Researchers in the Digital Humanities: custom development vs. sustainable research infrastructures.

1. Challenges for Researchers in the
Digital Humanities
Custom development vs. sustainable research infrastructures
Roxanne Wyns
Innovation manager LIBIS @ KU Leuven
Roxanne.Wyns@libis.kuleuven.be

2. 2
Digital transformation of research
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UK Data Archive
JISC
University of Virginia Library

3. 3
Services for researchers @ KU Leuven
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KU Leuven

4. Sustainable RI
Sustainable service portfolio

5. Integrated Database for Early Music
IDEM project

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Integrated Database for Early Music project
Alamire Foundation
• International Centre for the Study of Music in the
Low Countries
• Research on medieval music manuscripts
Hercules call 2013
• Flemish investment fund for research
infrastructures
• Proposal accepted, budget heavily reduced
IDEM project
Manuscript illumination.
Probably created by the workshop of Petrus Alamire for the
Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Lady in 's-Hertogenbosch
(around 1530’s).
Source: idemdatabase.org
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IDEM project – Budget limitations
• Main budget preserved for storage & long
term preservation
• Limited resources for database, website,
and viewer
• No budget for post-project maintenance
and support
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Budget cut on post-project
maintenance influenced the
selection of tools

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IDEM project - Selection of tools
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LIAS ingester
Lias
Uploader
?
LIAS ingester
Lias
Uploader
Clear communication on pros
& cons of offered tools and
total cost of ownership

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IDEM – Selection of IIIF Mirador viewer
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Sources: iiif.io, projectmirador.org, idemdatabase.org, Mirador demo

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IDEM project - Tools & infrastructure
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LIAS ingester
Lias
Uploader
?

11. GLAM tools for sustainable RI

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GLAM tools for sustainable RI
Just a few examples
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nabucco.arts.kuleuven.be heron-net.be/pa_cct/

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GLAM tools for sustainable RI
Just a few examples
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lectio.ghum.kuleuven.be In development

14. One size does not fit all

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One size does not fit all
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Discovery
Enrich
ment
Data

16. Challenges & opportunities
From a service provider point of view

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Budget vs. Requirements
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Budget for IT usually
underestimated

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Technical knowhow
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Awareness and IT knowledge are growing

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Sustainability
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Costs for maintenance, storage
and support remains the biggest
challenge for humanities
research groups
TB

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Opportunities
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Growing number of partnerships through
investments and diversification of services

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Opportunities
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Clear communication
on the limitations and
what to expect (TCO)
Working together to
achieve our goals
Willingness to
collaborate and share
developments is
growing
Alternative financing
mechanisms for post-
project sustainability
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/132926626478982555/

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Benifits for Humanities researchers
• Have access to both financial and personnel
resources to execute technology projects
• Can interpret and translate the research needs
into technical requirements
• Can link up with other service providers and
vendors to achieve technical innovation
• Can provide qualitative, scalable, affordable and
reusable services
• Are the best guarantee for technical and financial
sustainability
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Technical research
support services at the
University …

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Sources & reading material
• ESFRI - Strategy Report on Research Infrastructures
• European Commission - Long term sustainability of Research Infrastructures, Exploring RI's full
potential
• Workshop report
• Non paper
• Report on the consultation on the Long Term Sustainability of Research Infrastructures
• Presentations
• Note on research infrastructures by LERU Working Group of Deans of Natural Sciences
• How to create a successful opensource project. St. Andrews 2012
• The Impacts of Large Research Infrastructures on Economic Innovation and on Society: Case
Studies at CERN
• European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures
• Finland’s Strategy and Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2014–2020
• Dublin City University Research Infrastructure Policy
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Thank you! Questions?
Dr. Lynda Sayce prepares a manuscript in the Alamire Digital Lab in Vatican City.
© Veerle Francke - Alamire
Roxanne Wyns - Roxanne.Wyns@libis.kuleuven.be
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