Digitised History: the impact of digitisation on research into 18th and 19th Century Britain
20 July 2010, 10am-4pm
British Library Conference Centre, Euston Road, London
• Explore the impact of the large scale digitisation of newspapers
• Consider the effect that this has had on research and researchers
• Question the implied changes to research methodologies
Not only has the digitisation of historical newspapers made it easier to discover information about events from the past, but the way in which they have been digitised makes it possible to discover how those events were represented, debated and sold as news. This conference will debate current limitations of this digitisation as well as opportunities for future development.
The conference is being organised jointly by the British Library and JISC. Speakers will include Professor Laurel Brake, Professor Tim Hitchcock, Professor Robert Shoemaker, Professor Miles Taylor and Dr James Mussell.
For more information and to book tickets visit the Institute of Historical Research’s website. Many thanks to the Institute for hosting the online registration form.
£35.00 for full registration
£25.00 student concession
Tracking the Exchange of Ideas in the Enlightenment
One of the projects in the Digging into Data Challenge is entitled Digging into the Enlightenment: Mapping the Republic of Letters
It traces the flow of correspondence between intellectuals in eighteenth-century Europe, thus helping giving an indication of the flow of ideas from writers such as Adam Smith, David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
This YouTube video, featuring Dr Dan Edelstein from the US side of the team at Stanford University, is a useful introduction to the project, and reveals some of the general aims of the broader Digging into Data programme. Also involved in the project are Dr Chris Weaver from the University of Oklahoma and, in the UK, Robert McNamee from the University of Oxford.
Funding for releasing your digital content
JISC has recently published its 02/10 call, entitled ‘Deposit of research outputs and Exposing digital content for education and research.’
Strand II, focussed on exposing digital content, may well be of interest to digitisation projects.
Often digitisation projects develop specific interfaces so that their users can search and browse through the digitised collections.
However, the recent advent of concepts such as linked data and APIs allows for content to be exposed and made available in other ways, thus allowing other users to builds tools, integrate other data, and provide novel methods of visualisation as well as allowing for machine driven discovery and representation of the resources
This call provides an opportunity, therefore, for digitisation projects to expose their content, this allowing users new and ways of exploring the content.
David Flanders (d.flanders @AT@ jisc.ac.uk) is the relevant JISC member of staff who can provide more information.
European Digital Libraries Funding Opportunities
The European Community recently held a meeting in Luxembourg to inform potential applicants about their the ICT Policy Support Programme.
30 million Euros have been allocated to the digital libraries strand which aims to improve accessibility, use and preservation of Europe’s rich and diverse cultural and scientific heritage.
The call is broken up into six objectives, three focussing on cultural content and Europeana. The other three focus on ’scientific’ information and the wider issues surrounding digital libraries.
Three objectives relate to Europeana:
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Coordinating Europeana
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Enhancing/Aggregating content in European
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Digitising content for Europeana
Three more objectives relate to further actions in the wider area of digital libraries:
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Access to European Rights
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Information / Registry of Orphan WorksOpen access to scientific information
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Statistics on cultural heritage digitisation activities
For those wanting further details on the call, I have produced a report outlining the details of the call.
Exporting metadata to portals
As an addition to its successful Freeze Frame digitisation project, JISC asked the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute to explore what was needed to export their collection of 20,000 digitised images to portals such as Europeana and Flickr, as well as to commerical image providers.
The request led the Institute to a full-scale overhaul of they managed and exported their images, and the report on the JISC website provides plenty of useful detail on their thinking behind the change, plus some recommendations for others in similar circumstances.
Some of the key findings from the full report (pdf file) are :
- Metadata is often created in the context of a single, localised website rather than for re-use on other sites.
- Creating shareable metadata needs much greater attention to keywords, credits and rights.
- Institutions that are serious about exporting their content need to build rigourous image management processes to avoid data export becoming a laborious manual task.
- Development of such systems can then also help provide sophisticated management of internal processes.
- Personnel and structures at the portals often change making it difficult for content providers to build working partnerships.
- Evaluating the success of exporting metadata or content to others’ portals is a particularly tricky business.
Part-time project officer job at Oxford University
Oxford University Computing Services is looking for a Project Officer (part-time, fixed-term) to work on the RunCoCo project. The work involves:
* running a communication campaign and developing engaging Web content to successfully promote the RunCoCo project and support its user community
* managing project events and overseeing the production of training materials
* providing advice to a number of community digitisation projectsDetails and an application form are available from http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/jobs/ Completed applications must be received by 12 noon on 26th March 2010, and interviews will be held on 7th April 2010.
Visual Resources Digitisation Officer - Job Vacancy
Visual Resources Digitisation Officer (FIXED TERM CONTRACT)
5 months (1.0 FTE) or 10 months (0.5 FTE)
ADD LINKS
Salary: £27,318to £30,748 pa based on 1.0 FTE
Location: Farnham
Ref: 10-LIBR143-02
The University for the Creative Arts has campuses at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester and is home to 6,500 students from over 70 countries studying on courses in fashion, graphics, design, media, fine art and architecture.
The Imagio project is a Library and Learning Services project funded by the University to support teaching and learning.
Phase one of the project produced a policy and technical framework for the capture and storage of digital images. The Visual Resources Digitisation Officer will be responsible for the implementation and dissemination of phase two: the creation of a digital still image resource for use by academic staff.
This newly created post provides an exciting opportunity for someone wishing to gain experience in the development of digital image databases within an HE library setting.
It would suit a candidate with initiative who enjoys interacting and liaising with a wide-range of people.
Candidates should have a professional qualification in librarianship or information science with library experience, preferably in the HE sector. Experience of visual resources in a creative HE environment, and digitisation skills would be an advantage, as would a knowledge of copyright and IPR.
Application forms, Vacancy Summary and further information relating to the University for the Creative Arts are available for download or alternatively contact the Human Resources Department via email HR@ucreative.ac.uk or on 01252 892681 (24 hours -quoting the relevant reference).
The closing date for receipt of applications is 25 February 2010
Interviews will be held on week commencing 08 March 2010
We value the diversity of our organisation and welcome applicants from all sections of the community.
Winners of the AHRC’s Digital Programme
The Arts and Humanities Research Council has released details of the winners of its ‘Digital Equipment and Database Enhancement for Impact’ scheme.
21 projects have been funded at a value of just over £4m.
Dr GP Earl £232,575.00
School of Humanities, University of Southampton
Reflectance Transformation Imaging Systems for Ancient Documentary ArtefactsProfessor J Ellis £332,520.00
Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London
Consolidated Moving Image and Sound Database FrameworkDr BA Fennell £334,574.00
School of Language and Literature, University of Aberdeen
Language and Linguistic Evidence in the 1641 DepositionsProfessor RS Fensham £347,592.00
Dance Film and Theatre, University of Surrey
Digital Dance Archives (DDA): cross-collection interactivity and enhanced user engagement with dance resourcesProfessor PH Gray £111,768.00
School of History and Anthropology, The Queen’s University of Belfast
Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration, 18th-20th Centuries (DIPPAM)Mr C Harrison £182,135.00
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Elements of Drawing: Enhancement and Dissemination for ImpactProfessor AF Hartley £159,293.00
School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds
IntelliText - Intelligent Tools for Creating and Analysing Electronic Text Corpora for Humanities ResearchDr E Leach £191,189.00
Music Faculty, University of Oxford
DIAMM: Digital Image Archive of Medieval MusicDr AA Marsden £139,505.00
Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University
Digital Arts Innovation Laboratory (DAILab)Dr A Mazel £120,679.00
School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University
Rock Art Mobile ProjectDr M Melaugh £260,179.00
INCORE, University of Ulster
Visualising the Conflict: Immersion in the Landscape of Victims and Commemoration in Northern IrelandDr DT Murphy £109,606.00
Electronics, University of York
The Virtual Acoustics and Auralization DatabaseDr D Obbink £113,487.00
Classics Faculty, University of Oxford
A Collaboration between Classics and Astrophysics: An Advanced Multispectral Imaging Laboratory Optimised through Crowd-Sourced Statistical AnalysisProfessor W. R. Owens £100,778.00
Department of Literature, The Open University
Developing an International Digital Network in the History of Reading: collaboration between the UK Reading Experience Database and invited partners.Mr D Pritchard £139,531.00
Digital Design Studio, Glasgow School of Art
Enhancing Engagement with 3D Heritage Data through Semantic AnnotationProfessor JD Richards £141,771.00
Department of Archaeology, University of York
ADS+: Enhancing and Sustaining the Archaeology Data Service digital repositoryProfessor TP Schofield £262,673.00
Bentham Project, University College London
The Bentham Papers Transcription InitiativeProfessor D Tudhope £109,802.00
Faculty of Advanced Technology, University of Glamorgan
Semantic Technologies Enhancing Links and Linked data for Archaeological Resources (STELLAR)Dr C Watts £136,498.00
English, Birkbeck College
Voiceworks Digital Song/Text Project: a collaboration between Birkbeck Centre for Poetics, Wigmore Hall & Guildhall School of Music & DramaMr K Woolford (Conditional award) £487,794.00
School of Media, Film and Music, University of Sussex
Motion in Place PlatformProfessor A Yarrington £61,462.00
Department of History of Art, University of Glasgow
Mobilising ‘Mapping Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851-1951′ (Mobilising Mapping)
European Conference on Digital Libraries - Call for Papers
14th European Conference on Digital Libraries - Call for Papers
September 6-10, 2010
Glasgow, UK
Overview
The European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL) is the leading European scientific forum on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues, bringing together researchers, developers, content providers and users in the field.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Digital Libraries and Mobility
- Digital Library Architectures
- Digital Library Infrastructure
- Digital Preservation and Curation
- Information Mining in Digital Libraries
- Information Retrieval in Digital Libraries
- Interoperability of Digital Library Systems and Services
- Knowledge Organisation Systems
- Metadata Standards and Protocols in Digital Library Systems
- Multilinguality in Digital Libraries
- Multimedia Digital Libraries
- Personal Information Management and Personal Digital Libraries
- Personalisation in Digital Library Systems and Settings
- Policies for Digital Library systems
- Social Networking, Web 2.0 and Collaborative Interfaces in Digital LibrariesUser Interfaces for Digital Libraries
- User Studies for and Evaluation of Digital Library Systems and Applications
- Visualisation in Digital Libraries
Submissions
All contributions must be written in English. They must follow the formatting guidelines of Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) and must be submitted via the conference submission system.
Further information
For further information, please visit the conference web site at http://www.ecdl2010.org/ or email info@ecdl2010.org.
Archiving for the Future Conference
Archiving for the Future: using archives to enhance learning and teaching in drama and theatre studies
Event Description:
This event is being organised in conjunction with the Institute for Performing Arts Development at the University of East London and the CEDAR (Clustering and Enhancing Digital Archives for Research) project: a unique approach to clustering and enhancing digital theatre archives through a collaboration between UEL, Royal Holloway, Sheffield and Nottingham universities as well as Kings College, London.
The day will consist of a series of presentations of good practice in using digital archives with undergraduate and postgraduate students.
It will include an opportunity for delegates to experiment and reflect on the use of archives for their own practice.
The target audience for the event is: drama/theatre studies lecturers, researchers, theatre historians, digital and web-practitioners, archivists, library and learning support service staff.
Topics covered will include:
- The use of the East London Theatre Archive for undergraduate theatre students;
- The connection between archives and web-based platforms for learning;
- Making archives ‘living’ through the user-interface.
The event aims to provide an opportunity for the sharing of teaching pedagogies and an open forum for the discussion of methodological and other concerns.
More details are available from the event Programme