This document discusses the purpose and value of digitizing cultural heritage materials like manuscripts and artifacts. It provides examples of how digitization has allowed new ways of exploring objects through different lighting and imaging techniques. However, it also notes critiques that digitization can reinforce the prominence of only certain culturally significant works, and that access to digital surrogates is often too restricted. The document argues that for digitization to achieve its potential, digital images and data need to be shared openly across platforms in order to be analyzed and engaged with in new ways. Restricting access and only providing single, controlled views of objects limits this.
JABES 2015 - Digital curation and exploration : learning the lessons (of the...ABES
Les deux dernières décennies ont vu la réalisation d’un grand nombre de projets de
numérisation qui n’ont toutefois pas débouché sur la création de plateformes collaboratives
et intégrées susceptibles de constituer un support durable, que ce soit pour une recherche de
qualité, pour l’enseignement, ou pour des initiatives de toute nature.
Chercher à modéliser la diversité des ressources culturelles et des histoires collectives qui
leurs sont associées, et cela sous différents points de vue, demeure un défi de taille.
En dépit d’un investissement considérable, l’usage de la technologie pour une modélisation
du patrimoine culturel en est resté à un stade expérimental et parcellaire.
Cette communication cherche à établir en quoi la modélisation de la connaissance du
«monde réel » contribue à dresser une image fidèle et attrayante du patrimoine culturel, à
l’intérieur et au-delà des frontières nationales.
Workshop presentation for the SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) Wellington, 2013. Our library is working on making Inquiry the heart of our work with students and staff
Digital Programs & Initiatives @ Smithsonian Libraries: Scholarly Communicati...Martin Kalfatovic
Digital Programs & Initiatives @ Smithsonian Libraries: Scholarly Communications | Digital Library | Biodiversity Heritage Library. Martin R. Kalfatovic. Presentation for the National Library of Medicine Staff. Smithsonian Libraries. Washington, DC. 9 June 2017
JABES 2015 - Digital curation and exploration : learning the lessons (of the...ABES
Les deux dernières décennies ont vu la réalisation d’un grand nombre de projets de
numérisation qui n’ont toutefois pas débouché sur la création de plateformes collaboratives
et intégrées susceptibles de constituer un support durable, que ce soit pour une recherche de
qualité, pour l’enseignement, ou pour des initiatives de toute nature.
Chercher à modéliser la diversité des ressources culturelles et des histoires collectives qui
leurs sont associées, et cela sous différents points de vue, demeure un défi de taille.
En dépit d’un investissement considérable, l’usage de la technologie pour une modélisation
du patrimoine culturel en est resté à un stade expérimental et parcellaire.
Cette communication cherche à établir en quoi la modélisation de la connaissance du
«monde réel » contribue à dresser une image fidèle et attrayante du patrimoine culturel, à
l’intérieur et au-delà des frontières nationales.
Workshop presentation for the SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) Wellington, 2013. Our library is working on making Inquiry the heart of our work with students and staff
Digital Programs & Initiatives @ Smithsonian Libraries: Scholarly Communicati...Martin Kalfatovic
Digital Programs & Initiatives @ Smithsonian Libraries: Scholarly Communications | Digital Library | Biodiversity Heritage Library. Martin R. Kalfatovic. Presentation for the National Library of Medicine Staff. Smithsonian Libraries. Washington, DC. 9 June 2017
Presentation given at Digital Humanities Research Colloquium, 18 October 2017.
Abstract: On 11 October 2017 UCC's Office of the Vice President for Teaching & Learning hosted a #nextgenspaces learning event. One of the speakers, Prof. Stephen Heppell, noted the following: ‘next generation is here and it means business’ and ‘students are going to a world of surprises.’ With these points in mind how do libraries prepare for the library of the future? In this presentation I discuss traditional expertise and how this is adapted for the uncharted territories of the future.
MCG’s Museums+Tech 2016 presentation
All afternoonn lightning sessions
1. Russell Dornan, Wellcome Collection - Sleep Stories: crowdsourcing a patchwork of meaningful stories online and in person
2. Jason Evans, National Library of Wales - Sharing digital content with Wikimedia
3. Chloe Roberts, Wellcome Collection - Adaptive evolution with A/B testing
4. Anna Lowe, SMARTIFY - An Audioguide for the Digital Age
5. Sarah Cole, TIME/IMAGE - Poetic Places: making a geolocation app with little time, less money and no coding
6. Andrew Larking, Deeson - The naked bot
7. James Lloyd, Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology - Objects in the Round: photogrammetry for engagement and education
Network visualisations and the ‘so what?’ problemMia
A provocation for the 'Network analysis and the cultural heritage sector' workshop in Luxembourg, 8 June 2016. Talk notes are available at http://www.openobjects.org.uk/2016/06/network-visualisations-problem/
Invited workshop for the Humanities Research Center at Rice University, 7 March 2016.
This workshop will provide an overview of crowdsourcing in cultural heritage and consider the ethics and motivations for participation. International case studies will be discussed to provide real life illustrations of design tips and to inspire creative thinking.
Rethink research, illuminate history with the British LibraryMia
Join Dr Mia Ridge, Digital Curator for Western Heritage Collections at the British Library, to discover how research and technology can create a richer picture of our past. Living with Machines is a collaborative project between the Alan Turing Institute, universities and the British Library – home to the world’s most comprehensive research collection. Together, they are using data science and digital history methods to analyse millions of historical documents and understand the impact of mechanisation in the 19th century. Their initial approach has focused on specific regions like Yorkshire that will help tell us the story of industrialisation in Britain.
Makerspaces in Bibliotheken, OBA, 31 oktober 2016Fers
Presentatie bij Waag Society over bibliotheeklabs, bestemd voor medewerkers van de Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam. Zij beginnen aan een traject waarbij meerdere labs in Amsterdamse bibliotheken worden geïmplementeerd.
"The undiscovered country": digital special collections, scholarship, scale, ...Pip Willcox
“The undiscover’d country”: digital special collections, scholarship, scale, and society
For decades scholars have been using digital technologies to discover, locate, and view libraries' special collections. Increasingly these collections are available online, and their readers come from far beyond the academy, everywhere that people have access to the internet. Use of online resources is driven by curiosity and pleasure, as well as research. Digital tools and technologies with these collections—record, image, text—speed up traditional enquiry and enable entirely new questions to be imagined and answered. This talk gives a broad overview of the field, illustrated by case studies from the Bodleian Digital Library.
This talk was given as a Friends of the Bodleian public lecture, in the Weston Library, University of Oxford, 1 December 2015.
Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of shore to bend of bay: Take Down the...Martin Kalfatovic
Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of shore to bend of bay: Take Down the Fences … Here Comes the Crowd. Martin R. Kalfatovic. IMLS Focus: Inspiration and Innovation in Libraries and museums 2015. New Orleans. 16 November 2015
How does UCC Library use exhibitions? How to create an exhibition? Use the LibGuide: http://libguides.ucc.ie/exhibitions/home as a starting point. Presentation as part of CPPD schedule in UCC Library (2017).
Presentation given at Digital Humanities Research Colloquium, 18 October 2017.
Abstract: On 11 October 2017 UCC's Office of the Vice President for Teaching & Learning hosted a #nextgenspaces learning event. One of the speakers, Prof. Stephen Heppell, noted the following: ‘next generation is here and it means business’ and ‘students are going to a world of surprises.’ With these points in mind how do libraries prepare for the library of the future? In this presentation I discuss traditional expertise and how this is adapted for the uncharted territories of the future.
MCG’s Museums+Tech 2016 presentation
All afternoonn lightning sessions
1. Russell Dornan, Wellcome Collection - Sleep Stories: crowdsourcing a patchwork of meaningful stories online and in person
2. Jason Evans, National Library of Wales - Sharing digital content with Wikimedia
3. Chloe Roberts, Wellcome Collection - Adaptive evolution with A/B testing
4. Anna Lowe, SMARTIFY - An Audioguide for the Digital Age
5. Sarah Cole, TIME/IMAGE - Poetic Places: making a geolocation app with little time, less money and no coding
6. Andrew Larking, Deeson - The naked bot
7. James Lloyd, Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology - Objects in the Round: photogrammetry for engagement and education
Network visualisations and the ‘so what?’ problemMia
A provocation for the 'Network analysis and the cultural heritage sector' workshop in Luxembourg, 8 June 2016. Talk notes are available at http://www.openobjects.org.uk/2016/06/network-visualisations-problem/
Invited workshop for the Humanities Research Center at Rice University, 7 March 2016.
This workshop will provide an overview of crowdsourcing in cultural heritage and consider the ethics and motivations for participation. International case studies will be discussed to provide real life illustrations of design tips and to inspire creative thinking.
Rethink research, illuminate history with the British LibraryMia
Join Dr Mia Ridge, Digital Curator for Western Heritage Collections at the British Library, to discover how research and technology can create a richer picture of our past. Living with Machines is a collaborative project between the Alan Turing Institute, universities and the British Library – home to the world’s most comprehensive research collection. Together, they are using data science and digital history methods to analyse millions of historical documents and understand the impact of mechanisation in the 19th century. Their initial approach has focused on specific regions like Yorkshire that will help tell us the story of industrialisation in Britain.
Makerspaces in Bibliotheken, OBA, 31 oktober 2016Fers
Presentatie bij Waag Society over bibliotheeklabs, bestemd voor medewerkers van de Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam. Zij beginnen aan een traject waarbij meerdere labs in Amsterdamse bibliotheken worden geïmplementeerd.
"The undiscovered country": digital special collections, scholarship, scale, ...Pip Willcox
“The undiscover’d country”: digital special collections, scholarship, scale, and society
For decades scholars have been using digital technologies to discover, locate, and view libraries' special collections. Increasingly these collections are available online, and their readers come from far beyond the academy, everywhere that people have access to the internet. Use of online resources is driven by curiosity and pleasure, as well as research. Digital tools and technologies with these collections—record, image, text—speed up traditional enquiry and enable entirely new questions to be imagined and answered. This talk gives a broad overview of the field, illustrated by case studies from the Bodleian Digital Library.
This talk was given as a Friends of the Bodleian public lecture, in the Weston Library, University of Oxford, 1 December 2015.
Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of shore to bend of bay: Take Down the...Martin Kalfatovic
Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of shore to bend of bay: Take Down the Fences … Here Comes the Crowd. Martin R. Kalfatovic. IMLS Focus: Inspiration and Innovation in Libraries and museums 2015. New Orleans. 16 November 2015
How does UCC Library use exhibitions? How to create an exhibition? Use the LibGuide: http://libguides.ucc.ie/exhibitions/home as a starting point. Presentation as part of CPPD schedule in UCC Library (2017).
Cultural Heritage and the Technology of Culture: Finding the Nature of Illumi...Martin Kalfatovic
Cultural Heritage and the Technology of Culture: Finding the Nature of Illumination in Libraries and Museums. Martin R. Kalfatovic. 9th Shanghai International Library Forum. Shanghai, China. 19 October 2018.
Keynote lecture for the conference ‘From glass case to cyber-space: Chaucerian manuscripts across time/ Syrffio’r silff: hynt a helynt llawysgrifau Chaucer’ at the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, 14-16 April 2014
The DPLA and NY Heritage for Tech Camp 2014Larry Naukam
This is an introduction to the Digital Public Library of America and to New York Heritage. It was put together for showing these web sites to school media librarians and others, an helping them to use it more effectively. It may also be used to find items for use in the Common Core curriculum.
Crowdsourcing as productive engagement with cultural heritageMia
My keynote for the iSay conference "The Shape of Things"
http://isayevents.wordpress.com/shapeofthings/program/
My notes from the conference are at http://openobjects.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/notes-from-shape-of-things-new-and.html
Digital Cultural Heritage: Experiences from British LibraryNora McGregor
Slides from seminar on Digital Cultural Heritage given to UCL Institute of Sustainable Heritage's two programmes: the MSc Sustainable Heritage and the MRes Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology.
Slides from seminar on Digital Cultural Heritage given to UCL Institute of Sustainable Heritage's two programmes: the MSc Sustainable Heritage and the MRes Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology.
A lecture for the Public Archaeology course at UCL, 3/12/12
Links for all things mentioned are on the penultimate slide, it would mean far more with the text to go with it.
Researching Freemasonry in a Time of Coronavirus: Resources and OpportunitiesAndrew Prescott
Slides from a talk by Andrew Prescott for the Open Lectures in Freemasonry, 25 April 2020, describing some of the online resources available for investigating the history of British freemasonry. For more information on the Open Lectures on Freemasonry, go to openlfm.org
What Happens When the Internet of Things Meets the Middle Ages?Andrew Prescott
Keynote lecture by Andrew Prescott, University of Glasgow, to the second medieval materialities conference, 'Encountering the Material Medieval', University of St Andrews, 19-20 January 2017: https://medievalmaterialities.wordpress.com
Slides from presentation to Digital Editing Now conference, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 7-9 January 2016. The text of the talk is available at: https://medium.com/@Ajprescott/avoiding-the-rear-view-mirror-870319290bb2#.pobalr4rv
Short presentation for Alan Turing Institute workshop on heritage and cultural informatics at UCL, 10 November 2015. The picture only slides illustrate data of varying complexity.
Doing the Digital: How Scholars Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ComputerAndrew Prescott
Slides from keynote presentation to Social Media Knowledge Exchange meeting on Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century, University of Cambridge, 4 June 2015. Examines my changing relationship to scholarly communication, current pressures and drivers, and likely future trends.
Slides from keynote lecture by Andrew Prescott to the 7th Herrenhausen conference of the Volkswagen Foundation, 'Big Data in a Transdisciplinary Perspective'
Digital Transformations: keynote talk to Listening Experience Database Sympos...Andrew Prescott
Discussion of AHRC Digital Transformations theme, followed by discussion of nature of digital disruption and change. Examples of transformative projects involving use of sound, as part of symposium organised by the Listening Experience Database: http://led.kmi.open.ac.uk
8. Detail from autotype
facsimile of the Book of
Kells prepared for the
New Palaeographical
Society under Bond’s
supervision
9. Lessons of the Utrecht Psalter
Controversy
• Potential of new technologies to explore historical artefacts
in new ways
• Importance of maintaining scholarly and critical approach
• Need to engage with technology, bringing specialist
understanding to bear
• Need to take opportunities as they present themselves…
• …while developing a strategic approach
• That strategic approach nevertheless in itself reflects many
cultural assumptions
• These are all lessons that resonate in current understanding
of digital humanities
10. ‘And then I once again blush for shame when I remember the librarian from Poitiers in
1948, who treated me with awe because I came from the city of the Utrecht Psalter, the
existence of which I was not even aware of’. Hans Freudenthal.
11. Simon Tanner and Marilyn Deegan, Inspiring Research, Inspiring
Scholarship; The Value and Benefit of Digitised Resources for
Learning, Teaching, Research and Enjoyment (JISC: 2011)
Digitised resources are transforming the research process:
• New areas of research are enabled
• Rich research content is now widely accessible through innovative
interfaces and user-friendly research tools
• The researcher can now ask questions that were previously not feasible
• Researchers can engage in a new process of discovery and focus on
analysis rather than data collection
Widespread access to digitised resources enhances education and
research at all levels of attainment. They contribute to the vibrant cultural
and intellectual life of the UK, promoting education and enjoyment for all
whilst bestowing a range of benefits to local and national economies
13. A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Back to the Real’, Times
Literary Supplement, 7 June 2013
• Digital surrogates more expensive version of
microfilm
• Make it difficult to assess material
characteristics
• Discourage engagement with originals and
provide excuse for libraries to restrict access
• Expensive activity which diverts resources
from more pressing priorities such as training
in palaeography and conservation of originals
14. A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Back to the Real’, Times
Literary Supplement, 7 June 2013
Is it worth it? Do the ends justify the
unquantifiable cost of the means? Digitization
appears to be proceeding unchecked and
unfocused, deflecting students into a virtual
world and leaving them unequipped to deal
responsibly with real rare materials. I suspect
that the combination of poorly prepared
students and reductions in library staffing levels
will make real manuscripts ever more difficult to
access directly.
15. Edwards:
The Codex Sinaiticus is an interesting test case for apologists of digitization. Last year I was told
that the Codex Sinaiticus site got about 10,000 hits a month. That might seem a strong
justification for digitization. But it seems doubtful whether even a small fraction of that number
have the appropriate training – codicological, linguistic and textual – to approach the work in an
informed way. If my audience analysis is even broadly correct, the British Library is investing
heavily not in scholarship, but in a new branch of the entertainment industry.
16. Lost leaves from Codex Sinaiticus found in St
Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt in 1976
17. Text of Mark 1:1 in the British Library portion of the Codex Sinaiticus under standard
light, showing corrections including insertion of the phrase ‘Son of God’.
18. The same section of Mark 1:1 under raking light, with transcription and translation
19.
20. Google Books Isn’t Necessarily the Model
• Google Book search has become the pattern of ‘big digitisation’.
Manuscript digitisation such as Codex Sinaiticus frequently described
as boutique digitisation
• But a project such as Sinaiticus Is more complex in its aims and
ambitions
• With book search, assumption that the primary purpose of digitisation
is more quickly to locate information in the book
• With manuscripts, we are often as much interested in the physical
characteristics of the book as its contents. Images are therefore
important. Same applies to many other categories of material in
galleries, libraries, archives and museums
• Museums, library special collections and archives all share this
concern with using digitisation to investigate objects. Google Books
paradigm might not be best approach for wider GLAM sector
21. Imaging of the Beowulf manuscript using fibre optic backlighting to reveal letters and
words concealed by nineteenth-century conservation work:
22. Two sets of transcripts made for
the Danish antiquary
Thorkelin, now in the Royal
Library Copenhagen, compared
with the original manuscript
23.
24. William Kilbride, ‘Whose Beowulf Is it Anyway? ‘, Internet Archaeology 9.
http://dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.9.12
25.
26.
27.
28. William Schipper, 'Dry-Point Compilation Notes in the
Benedictional of St Æthelwold', British Library Journal, 20
(1994), 17-34
29. The dry point note ‘In’ is not readily visible in this ‘vanilla’ digitisation of f. 27v of the
Benedictional of St Æthelwold. Ideally we need a series of images exploring different
aspects of this folio.
30. The words ‘Item alia’ under ‘thesauros’ on f. 63v are
barely noticeable on the ‘vanilla’ digitisation
Some very simple image processing would make
the dry point note clearer, if only the image was
downloadable (it isn’t)
31.
32. Dr Adrian Wisnicki of Birkbeck College, University of London, working in blue
light at the National Library of Scotland. Dr Wisnicki and other members of
the Livingstone diary project spent 2 weeks at NLS taking images of David
Livingstone's diary and letters
36. Moulds from James Watts’s workshop were 3D scanned by a team led by
Professor Stuart Robson and Dr Mona Hess from UCL, and the resulting 3D scan
was printed. The result was a previously unknown bust of Watt:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/9892
37. Another Critique of Digitisation
• It reinforces existing canonicities: illuminated
manuscripts; famous authors; historical
treasures. Little known, unfashionable, obscure is
overlooked
• We are too often only presented with a
single, controlled view of the object
• Access to and reuse of the images is often strictly
controlled and restricted
• It becomes an instrument by which the curator
can retain a role as gatekeeper and can control
our engagement
38. Whose Access?
• In digitisation so far, access has been one way traffic
• Digital images are presented in institutional silos, firmly
locked down and kept under a curatorial lock and key
which inhibits creation of an archive of different
perspectives
• If we present digital images in packages that are as
restrictive as printed forms, no surprise that we don’t
use digital images in different ways
• If scholars can freely
download, link, exchange, interrogate images, new
forms of scholarly discourse will emerge
44. The Walters is a museum that’s free to the public, and to be public these days is to be on the
Internet. Therefore to be a public museum your digital data should be free. And the great thing
about digital data, particularly of historic collections, is that they’re the greatest advert that
these collections have
The other important thing is to put the data in places where people can find it — making the
data, as it were, promiscuous. That means putting it on Flickr, Pinterest, that sort of thing; these
are forums people are used to using and commenting on, which they already use to build
datasets of their own
The digital data is not a threat to the real data, it’s just an advertisement that only increases the
aura of the original
48. • The purpose of digitisation is to explore objects in
new ways as well as increasing access
• It cannot achieve this purpose if we put the data
in straightjackets
• Don’t give one-dimensional views of objects.
Share data giving different perspectives on the
object
• When data is released it will be shared, linked and
analysed. It can’t be shared, linked and analysed
in a series of separate institutional silos
• The watchwords are:
openness, promiscuity, simplicity
• Share, and surprising things happen. We achieve
value
This early experiment helped pave the way for the Electronic Beowulf project, in which we used fibre optic backlighting to record hundreds of readings in the Beowulf manuscript which had been concealed by conservation work in the nineteenth century.