Abstracts
Digital Library Applications: the Abstracts of the Session (Panel I)
Smiljana ANTONIJEVIC, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Laura GURAK, University of Minnesota
Trust in online interaction: an analysis of the socio-psychological features of online communities and user engagement
Research on digital technology and culture has always understood that the power and potential of the Internet lies in the unique dynamics and possibilities for online communities and user engagement. No where is this concept of user and communal power more clearly visible than with today’s social networking applications and Web 2.0 forms. Unlike the early “web era,” which was primarily a one-way distribution model, contemporary users expect to play an active role in shaping their online experience, and want systems that are smart, customizable, and cross traditional boundaries. Consequently, digital libraries should transcend the “search and access” approach, and serve as collaborative knowledge environments that promote user communities actively engaged in creation, modification, and distribution of information objects. This paper — part of the authors’ joint project on trust in online interaction — contributes to enhancement of collaborative knowledge environments by advancing understanding of key socio-psychological features of online communities and user engagement. We first review the history of online communities, from pre-Web forms to contemporary 3D virtual environments, focusing on the socio-psychological features that have sustained over time. Next, we discuss the state of affairs with regard to recommender systems, as a specific type of user engagement and participative knowledge production. We then examine collaborative knowledge spaces in the Second Life virtual environment, focusing on technological, communicative, and behavioral specificities of online interaction observed in this environment. Finally, we promote empowerment of user communities in collaborative knowledge environments by providing a set of recommendations rooted in understanding of both enduring socio-psychological features of online interaction and user engagement, as well as of contemporary net-based social formations and user expectations.
Max KAISER, Austrian National Library
EuropeanaConnect – Enhancing user access to European digital heritage
This paper will present main aspects of the EuropeanaConnect project (http://www.europeanaconnect.eu), a Best Practice Network co-funded by the European Commission as part of the eContentplus programme. EuropeanaConnect is one of the core projects for the implementation of Europeana, the European Digital Library, Archive and Museum (http://www.europeana.eu) and will deliver components to build a truly interoperable, multilingual and user-oriented service for all. The project will build a stable and broad layer of semantic data which will enable semantically based content discovery. EuropeanaConnect will also facilitate multilingual access by providing multilingual translation of queries and results. We will also implement two new access channels to the cultural content in Europeana which are highly demanded, namely 1) a spatio-temporal access channel and 2) an access channel for mobile devices. A multimedia annotation service will allow users to make their own contributions by commenting, discussing or linking Europeana content. A GIS service will allow users to query and display content based on spatial dimensions. A Service Registry will lower the barrier for using functionality of external web services integrated with Europeana. The project will also deploy key infrastructure components for Europeana, like an OAI Management Infrastructure for large-scale data harvesting, a Metadata Registry to ensure interoperability and a Persistent Identifier Resolution Service. We will also develop the Europeana Licensing Framework for gathering and maintaining rights information for objects, thereby facilitating future licensed content integration. Moreover EuropeanaConnect will add a critical mass of 200.000 audio tracks to Europeana. All development will be rooted in user needs and during the project a Registry of Test Users will be set up. EuropeanaConnect will provide tailored methodologies for an effective and harmonised approach to user-involvement in assessing Europeana services. The paper will focus on the new access channels and value added services which EuropeanaConnect will provide for users of Europeana.
Silvia GSTREIN, University of Innsbruck
The user-driven approach of content selection for digitization – the eBooks on demand Network
In line with the i2010 strategy of the EC European libraries are currently systematically digitising and making available their cultural heritage. But due to the enormous amount it will take some decades until all books, journals and other library material will be available in digital format. Nevertheless researchers, readers and users often cannot wait, they need access to historical books either for professional or personal purposes „here and now“. This is exactly the starting point for the eBooks-on-Demand (EOD) Network, a trans-European digital document delivery service for end-users all over the world. Its vision is that every book which has been published in Europe between 1500 and 1900 shall be available in digital format: on request of a user, for a moderate fee and within some days. The EOD Network comprises currently over 20 European libraries from 10 European countries. Since 2007 the service is up and running, more than one thousand PDF eBooks have already been produced and delivered to users from over 30 countries and finally also made available to the public through the digital libraries of the participating institutions. User reactions are enthusiastic and also the interest from other libraries is highly encouraging. Within the EC Culture programme a new project is being co-funded for the next 4 years. One of the proposed goals is the support of the cultural dialogue among readers and users of historical books by supplying existing Web2.0 based social platforms with information on selected historical books so that readers all over the world which are interested in a specific book can easily interact with each other, exchange information and share reading experiences – independently from where they are and which background they may have. Thus, the paper proposes to deal with the following two topics: On the one hand, the user-driven approach of content selection for digitization in addition to mass digitization and the experience made with that and on the other hand, the attempt to supply web 2.0 platforms and their users with bits and pieces of historical books.
Tomi KAUPPINEN, Helsinki University of Technology
SmartMuseum knowledge exchange platform for cross-European cultural content integration and mobile publication
Serge NOIRET, European University Institute
Promoting libraries as “publishers”: the European University Institute European History Primary Sources (EHPS) Portal
Andrea BOZZI, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale “Antonio Zampolli”, CNR
Pinakes Text. A tool to compare, interoperate, distribute and navigate among digital texts
The Pinakes Text (PKT) application is a research tool produced at the Institute for Computational Linguistics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa and supported by the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale of Florence. This application is the result of a long-term experimentation (see the EU project Bambi) in the field of computational philology and aims to offer a tool to researchers interested in producing collaborative critical editions of digital documents. PKT allows to compare, interoperate, distribute and navigate among huge amounts of digital texts, using the well-known tagging meta-language produced by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). One of the core elements of the application is that it introduces an off-text encoding system by which a schema (or ontology) makes it possible to refer a concept (person name, place, date or whatever abstraction) to a single portion of text. In this way each author of a critical edition can add his own view to the same text or text set. Among the main functions of PKT there is also the possibility to select a given text in the form of image and relate it to its digital transcription. Furthermore, it is possible to introduce variants transmitted by different witnesses of the same text using the methods currently available to produce different types of editions (genetic, diplomatic, etc.). PKT offers a set of generic functions that each user can tailor to his/her own needs. For example, the user can decide to have a set of digital images of the so-called “best manuscript” recording all the text variations found in the other manuscripts. Furthermore, the images of all sources could be used, and all transcriptions could be generated by mapping the differences recorded in a critical apparatus. In this way, all variations, notes and bibliographical apparatus can be navigated. The navigation interface offers the possibility to build very fine queries on the digital corpora providing the user with information concerning editor, method, etc. employed. The query builder can customize access and decide at which granularity level the user wants to have access. Finally, by using the schema of the Pinakes 3.0 project, it is also possible to bring catalographic and editorial data together in order to access all kinds of sources at any point of the text and to dispose of all the texts needed for any catalogued object.
Zinaida MANZˇUCH, Institute of Library and Information Science, Vilnius University
Digitisation and communication of memory: from theory to practice
Brian KELLY, UKOLN – University of Bath
Empowering users and their institutions: a risks and opportunities framework for exploiting the potential of the Social Web
Following the initial excitement generated by Web 2.0 we are now seeing Web 2.0 concepts being adopted across many sectors, including cultural heritage. Libraries, with their responsibilities for facilitating access to information resources and engaging with their user communities, have been early adopters of Web 2.0, and the term ‘Library 2.0′ is now becoming accepted. A similar phenomena is also happening in the museums and archives sectors, with the terms ‘Museum 2.0′ and ‘Archives 2.0′ gaining currency. But how should we ensure that the initial enthusiasms for use of Web 2.0 services and approaches become embedded within the organisation? And are cultural heritage organisations aware of the potential risks associated with making use of externally-provided services such as Facebook, YouTube and del.icio.us, including misuse of such services, associated legal concerns as well as the dangers of making use of services for which there may be no formal contractual agreements? In this paper the author argues that the cultural heritage sector needs to recognise that the Web 2.0 world isn’t an environment in which delivery of the user needs can be guaranteed. Rather we are in an environment in which institutions and our users, need to take a risk management approach to the use of networked services. The paper describes a framework which is being developed which aims to ensure that institutions have considered the risks associated with use of Web 2.0 technologies and services and have identified strategies for dealing with potential risks in order to achieve the goal of balancing the risks and benefits in order to maximise the dividends to be gained by use of Web 2.0.
Aly CONTEH, British Library
User collaboration in mass digitisation of textual materials
The paper will address how web based collaboration tools can engage users in the building of historical printed text resources created by mass digitisation projects. The drivers for developing such tools, identifying the benefits that can be derived for both the user community and cultural heritage institutions, will be presented. The perceived risks, such as new errors introduced by the users, and the limitations of engaging with users in this way will be set out with the lessons that can be learnt from existing activities, such as the National Library of Australia’s newspaper website which supports collaborative correction of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) output. The paper will present the work of the IMPACT (Improving Access to Text, http://www.impact-project.eu) project, a large-scale integrating project funded by the European Commission as part of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). One of the aims of the project is to develop tools that help improve OCR results for historical printed texts, specifically those works published before the industrial production of books from the middle of the 19th century. Whilst technological improvements to image processing and OCR engine technology are key to improving access to historic text, engaging the user community has an important role to play. Utilising the intended user can aid in achieving the levels of accuracy currently found in born digital materials. Improving OCR results to this level is key to producing resources that support better resource discovery and enabling greater performance when applying text mining and accessibility tools to the extracted text. The IMPACT project will specifically develop a tool that supports collaborative correction and validation of OCR results and a tool to allow user involvement in building historical dictionaries which can be used to validate word recognition. The technologies use the characteristics of human perception as a basis for error detection.
Frank AMBROSIO, Georgetown University Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship
MyDante and Ellipsis: defining the user’s role in a virtual reading community
Wendy M. DUFF, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
The museum environment in transition: the impact of technology on museum work
Fred STIELOW, American Public University System
Perspectives from an online university community
No institution sits closer to digitization and the blurring of archival, library, and museum lines than Online Education. And, no part of Online Education has a purer perspective on this paradigm shift than for-profit universities. The fastest growing segment of the market is already a major user and likely arbiter for the future of digital materials—yet largely absence from mainstream discussions. This paper opens a dialogue with the American Public University System (APUS), a fully online and regionally accredited institution of 50,000 students in over 100 countries. Such setting is inherently entrepreneurial and intertwined with the Web. Continued existence depends on the Internet for delivery of educationally and technologically appropriate formats. Like many of its competitors, APUS has added incentives from underwriting the costs of course materials. As suggested below, this representative of the for-profit user community is also an innovator and uniquely positioned for dialogue with digital libraries:
- Online Library Locus: APUS empowered its Online Library at the center of a sophisticated and proactive Electronic Course Materials project. ECM’s cornerstone is a telecommuting cohort of subject librarians, who mirror the University’s curriculum. These sister online experts ensure quality control and currency through data-mining across the Deep and Open Web—including Cultural Heritage sites.
- Course Material Shift: In a significant shift for Academic libraries, collection development was turned from research to direct classroom support. The focus is exclusively electronic information, which must meld across archival, library, museum, and new Web formats/tools. As part of a strategy to reduce costly reliance on textbooks, the Online Library also successfully took ownership of Bookstore operations.
- Education/Faculty Centric: ECM reflects a partnership with faculty and online educational concentration on session-specific electronic course packets. In addition, librarians parlayed their Information Literacy skills along with home-grown digital tutorials and Departmental portals into classroom prominence.
- Web Community Building: Since asynchronous education readily excludes vital socializing aspects, librarians also took the opportunity to lead Web 2.0 explorations and community building wherever students gather. The Library thus contracted for Wikispaces, opened FaceBook and LinkedIn pages, and hired an Immersive Education Librarian–who coordinated the University’s Second Life initiative. Finally, staff seeks to promote cross-disciplinary knowledge centers, as well as the conference’s opportunities to explore new communities with its digital library brethren.
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