Europeana Cloud Kick-Off Meeting, 4 March 2013, The Hague, The Netherlands. Work Package 1: Assessing Researcher Needs in the Cloud and Ensuring Community Engagement, by Agiatis Bernardou and Alastair Dunning

1. Work Package 1: Assessing Researcher Needs in
the Cloud and Ensuring Community Engagement
Agiatis Benardou (DCU – Athena RC)
05 March 2013, The Hague

2. Participants
 ATHENA Research and Innovation Center (Athena RC) - WP
Leader
 Stichting LIBER (LIBER)
 Goeteborgs Universitet (UGOT)
 Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie Van Wetenschappen (KNAW) /
Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies (NIOD)
 Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
 The University Of Edinburgh (UEDIN)
 Consortium Of European Research Libraries (CERL)
 Stichting Europeana (EF)
 Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (NLW)
 Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities
(DARIAH-EU) (unfunded partner)

3. WP 1 Objectives
To identify and define the Humanities and Social Sciences research communities that will be
supported via the Europeana Cloud
To identify and define the Humanities and Social Sciences research communities that will be
supported via the Europeana Cloud
To develop an effective research content strategy for Europeana, based on an evidence-
based account of usefulness of Europeana and The European Library resources for research
in the Humanities and Social Sciences
To develop an effective research content strategy for Europeana, based on an evidence-
based account of usefulness of Europeana and The European Library resources for research
in the Humanities and Social Sciences
To improve the understanding of digital tools, research processes and content used in the
Humanities and Social Sciences, thus informing the development of tools and aggregation of
content in the Europeana Cloud
To improve the understanding of digital tools, research processes and content used in the
Humanities and Social Sciences, thus informing the development of tools and aggregation of
content in the Europeana Cloud
To actively engage the Humanities and Social Sciences research communities in establishing
user requirements for the development of Europeana Cloud
To actively engage the Humanities and Social Sciences research communities in establishing
user requirements for the development of Europeana Cloud

4. WP1: Tasks Overview

5. Task Objective Months Lead Beneficiary Deliverable(s) Month(s)
1.1 Humanities and Social
Sciences Research
Communities Advisory
Board
1-36 NIOD 1.1 Research Communities
identification and definition
report
6 (Jul ‘13)
1.2 Developing a Content
Strategy for Europeana
Research
1-36 CERL 1.4 Content priorities for
Humanities and Social
Sciences Research
Communities
1.5 Content Strategy Report
18 (Jul ‘14)
36 (Oct ‘15)
1.3 Research user
requirements for
Europeana: digital
research practices, tools
and content
1-26 DCU – ATHENA
R.C.
1.2 State of the art report on
digital research practices,
tools and scholarly content
use
1.3 User requirements
analysis and case studies
report
9 (Oct ‘13)
30 (Jul ‘15)
1.4 Research Community
Engagement: Expert
Forums
3-30 TCD 1.6 Expert Forums with
reports
30 (Jul ‘15)
1.5 Research Community
User Evaluation
24-36 DCU – ATHENA
R.C.
1.7 Research Community
Evaluation Report
36 (Oct ‘15)

6. Task 1.1: Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Communities Advisory Board
(RCAB)

7. Sub-Task Objective Milestones/Deliverables Interconnections
1.1.1 Establish the RCAB M1.1 RCAB established
1.1.2 RCAB coordination M1.5 RCAB meetings
complete
Validating WP1
deliverables
1.1.3 Research
Communities
identification and
definition
D1.1 Research
Communities identification
and definition report
Task 1.3.4 Research
Communities Web
Survey

8. Task 1.2: Developing a Content Strategy
for Europeana Research

9. Sub-Task Objective Milestones/Deliverables Interconnections
1.2.1 Desk Research: state of
the art on scholarly content
use
M1.2 to contribute to D1.2
WP4 (Ingestion of Content
and Metadata Development)
1.2.2 Matching Europeana
content to the Research
Communities
D1.4 T1.1.3 Research community
web survey design
T1.3.5 Identify and create
Humanities and Social
Sciences case studies
T1.3.4 Research
Communities web survey
WP4 (Ingestion of Content
and Metadata Development)
1.2.3 Content Strategy
Development
D1.6 WP4 (Ingestion of Content
and Metadata Development)
WP6 (Dissemination and
Networking)

10. Task 1.3: Research user requirements for
Europeana: digital research practices, tools
and content

11. Sub-Task Objective Milestones/Deliverables Interconnections
1.3.1 Desk research: digital
research practices state of
the art
M1.4 to contribute to D1.2
1.3.2 Desk research: digital tools
state of the art
D1.2 WP3 (Exploiting Europeana
Cloud with services and
tools for researchers)
1.3.3 Research community web
survey design
1.3.4 Research Communities web
survey
M1.3 T1.1.3 Research
Communities identification
and definition
1.3.5 Identify and create
Humanities and Social
Sciences case studies
T1.4.1
1.3.6 User requirements analysis
and case studies report
D1.3 WP3 (Exploiting Europeana
Cloud with services and
tools for researchers):
Iterative Development of
Tools

12. Task 1.4: Research
Community Engagement:
Expert Forums

13. Sub-Task Objective Milestones/Deliverables Interconnections
1.4.1 Case Studies Expert Forum
#1
T.3.5 Identify and create
Humanities and Social
Sciences case studies
1.4.2 Tools & Content for
Humanities Research:
Expert Forum #2
T1.2 Developing a Content
Strategy for Europeana
Research
WP3 (Exploiting Europeana
Cloud with services and tools
for researchers): Iterative
Development of Tools
1.4.3 Tools & Content for Social
Science Research Expert
Fοrum #3
T1.2 Developing a Content
Strategy for Europeana
Research
WP3 (Exploiting Europeana
Cloud with services and tools
for researchers): Iterative
Development of Tools
1.4.4 Future Recommendations
Workshop (Expert Forum
#4)
D1.5

14. Task 1.5: Research Community User
Evaluation

15. Sub-Task Objective Milestones/Deliverables Interconnections
1.5.1 Evaluation Framework
Design
1.5.2 Evaluation workshops M1.6 WP3 (Exploiting
Europeana Cloud with
services and tools for
researchers): Iterative
Development of Tools
1.5.3 Analysis, write-up and
reporting update
D1.7

16. Researchers and Content:
What do you think?

17. Generic Primitives* Features Included
Searching Direct searching Chaining Browsing Probing Accessing
Collecting Gathering Organizing
Reading Scanning Assessing Rereading
Writing Assembling Co-authoring Annotating
Sharing Collaborating Networking Consulting Disseminating
* Based on Palmer et al 2009

18. Researchers and Content
 What kinds of research communities in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
communities does your content serve?
 What kinds of communities within the Humanities and the Social Sciences would we
like to serve within eCloud?
 Do different subjects approach the discovery and use of content differently?
 Does behaviour change for different types of content / format? (E.g. journals,
images, audio/visual, manuscripts, historical records etc)
 Is multidisciplinarity a drawback in interacting with content and if so, in what ways?

19. Discovery and Access of Content
 How do users discover content appropriate to their research? What are they key
problems they face at this stage?
 What about catalogue information which is not available in digital form?
 What about rights restrictions permitting access?
 What are the finding aids provided and how do users interact with them?
 Do different kinds of users interact differently with different kinds of finding aids?
 What are the main problems encountered by users regarding access and privacy?
 What are your views on user generated content?
 What are the key problems with the terminology researchers use to access content?

20. Use of Content
What do researchers usually do once they have gained access to the content they need?
How do they annotate and organize their material? What could be done to facilitate this
process fot them?
What new tools do you think could assist researchers most in navigating themselves
within your collections and making the most of them?
Sharing of Content
How do researchers share, redistribute and disseminate content? What are the main
pitfalls in this?
What are your views on crowd sourcing and social media tools?
Curation of Content
In what ways can researchers enrich, through annotation and scholarly critical editions,
content?

21. By the end of the project what are the 5 key
barriers to using content for Humanities and
Social Sciences research that we should
overcome?

22. Thank you
Agiatis Benardou
a.benardou@dcu.gr