Cultural Heritage Collections Research Articles

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (NEH)

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (NEH)

Engaging culturally and linguistically diverse youth in semiotic analysis for community‐based inquiry

AbstractThis manuscript examines multimodal storytelling as community inquiry for an urban high school class of 30 first‐ and second‐generation bi/multilingual immigrant students, most of whom maintained transnational connections. We share how these students, in an A.P. Research class, engaged in community‐based inquiry and utilized various multimodal artifacts from a university cultural heritage collection, including a field trip to the cultural heritage archives, to analyze signs and symbols. We asked: How did students engage with semiotic resources and approaches to support inquiry about their school and neighborhood communities? Findings showed that students drew upon their linguistic and cultural experiences to analyze signs and symbols, yet in their digital storytelling presentations some student groups chose signs and symbols that reified stereotypical views of their neighborhood despite their insider status in the local community. We offer recommendations for using cultural heritage artifacts to advance multimodal meaning‐making in teaching and research.

Community Partnerships in Digital Cultural Heritage: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACTCommunity partnerships with libraries, archives, and museums are increasingly recognized as essential to developing and stewarding complete, accurate, and equitable digital cultural records. While research and practice in this area has burgeoned, there is limited empirical research characterizing the state of the field. This study offers preliminary findings of a systematic, state‐of‐the‐art review of community‐institutional partnerships in digital cultural heritage collections and initiatives. This review systematically identifies wide‐ranging, active community partnerships among relevant institutions and their high‐level objectives, and a correlated array of approaches taken in pursuit of those objectives. The resulting conceptual framework and open access dataset form the base of a toolkit supporting community‐institutional partnerships for a more sustainable, community‐centered cultural record.

Adapting Machine Translation Engines to the Needs of Cultural Heritage Metadata

The Europeana digital library features cultural heritage collections from over 3,000 European institutions described in 37 languages. However, most textual metadata describe the records in a single language, the data providers’ language. Improving Europeana’s multilingual accessibility presents challenges due to the unique characteristics of cultural heritage metadata, often expressed in short phrases and using in-domain terminology. This work presents the EuropeanaTranslate project’s approach and results, aimed at translating Europeana metadata records from 23 EU languages into English. Machine Translation engines were trained on a cleaned selection of bilingual and synthetic data from Europeana, including multilingual vocabularies and relevant cultural heritage repositories. Automatic translations were evaluated through standard metrics and human assessments by linguists and domain cultural heritage experts. The results showed significant improvements when compared to the generic engines used before the in-domain training as well as the eTranslation service for most languages. The EuropeanaTranslate engines have translated over 29 million metadata records on Europeana.eu. Additionally, the MT engines and training datasets are publicly available via the European Language Grid Catalogue and the ELRC-SHARE repository.

Leveraging community engagement to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 11

The aim of this study was to determine the ways in which academic libraries in South Africa use community engagement as a strategy to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – specifically Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 11 – in the context of the study. It followed a multi-methods approach to interview and hold focus group discussions with heads of libraries and librarians, respectively, in South African public university libraries. It was found that the libraries advance these Sustainable Development Goals in various ways, such as by employing library student assistants and interns from different backgrounds, and by serving as employers themselves. Furthermore, the libraries serve as custodians of local culture and heritage by curating, digitising and preserving local collections for posterity. However, collaborative efforts between the libraries and other heritage institutions, such as museums, archives and galleries, are few and far between, which is deemed a missed opportunity for more meaningful cultural and heritage impacts for these institutions. More collaborations and partnerships between these institutions are recommended, especially with regard to the digitisation of cultural heritage collections. Therefore, a clarion call is made for libraries to think more expansively about their role and consider including sustainable thinking as part of their mission in line with the American Library Association. The results demonstrate that libraries are uniquely positioned to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Interoperability of Oral History Metadata: An Ontological Model

ABSTRACT This article presents the metadata characteristics of oral history collections and the challenges faced when attempting to provide long-term access to audio or video recordings. We propose an ontological model combining the International Committee for Documentation Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) from the cultural heritage field with European Broadcasting Union Core (EBUCore) from the European audiovisual community. We form a mapping methodology with the goal of combining the strongest attributes from these two standards. The goal of this research is to generate a conceptual model for the description of oral history interviews in order to reveal the entities participating in the interviews, their semantics, and their relationships. The proposed model enables the meaningful exchange of information of audiovisual collections and their integration with other cultural heritage collections in the online environment.

Collection Data: Sharing, Discovery, Inspiration, and Innovation

In recent years, the traditional use of digital collections as surrogates for the physical has shifted to a paradigm of viewing collections as data suitable for computational use and novel research methods. The burgeoning collections as data movement is gaining momentum among galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) worldwide. Strategic initiatives, experimentation, innovation, and inspirational learning are occurring as digital libraries and digital humanities progress and work to develop sustainable approaches for collections as data programs. What is the position of collections as data in an ever-changing information landscape of open access, linked data, and shared data of cultural heritage collections? What has the past decade brought to the field?

Preserving Cultural Identity in Historic Cities: Exploring the Intersection of Tradition and Development in Varanasi, India

Historic cities are invaluable collections of cultural heritage, embodying centuries of history, tradition, and identity.Varanasi, known as India's oldest city, has a rich history and architectural style that combines Hindu, Islamic, and Mughalinfluences. Its core consists of ancient temples, ghats, and traditional houses. However, the quick speed of expansion andurbanization has raised worries about preservation of its cultural identity, posing a delicate balance between historicityand demands of modernization and expansion. This paper looks at the complex interplay of cultural identity, tradition, andchange in the architectural environment of historic cities, with a particular emphasis on Varanasi. The study investigatesthe impact of urban development on the city’s cultural fabric. The paper will investigate both historical and contemporaryarchitectural practices, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities that exist at this intersection. The paperhighlights the necessity of creating a balance between cultural identity and urban development.

Where to Start: Creating a Roadmap for Collection Storage Planning Through a Collaborative Values-Based Approach: A National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections project at The New York Public Library

Collection storage is one of the most complex collaborations a museum, library, or archive can undertake. A high-level initial assessment can help overcome the inertia and complexity that overwhelms larger organizations due to the number of stakeholders, spaces, and collections. Large institutions need to rise above room-level preservation issues and focus on global, values-based thinking. With support from the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (SCHC) program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), The Research Libraries of the New York Public Library (NYPL) designed a collaborative pre-planning exercise to inform long-range collection storage planning for over fifty storage areas within its Manhattan research centers. Pulling together experts in architecture, preservation environment, and sustainability to review NYPL’s storage needs in collaboration with an internal team of stakeholders, the project established foundations for ongoing values-based collaborative planning. Project design and considerations on synthesizing observations into recommendations are discussed in this article.

Is medieval distant viewing possible? : Extending and enriching annotation of legacy image collections using visual analytics

Abstract Distant viewing approaches have typically used image datasets close to the contemporary image data used to train machine learning models. To work with images from other historical periods requires expert annotated data, and the quality of labels is crucial for the quality of results. Especially when working with cultural heritage collections that contain myriad uncertainties, annotating data, or re-annotating, legacy data is an arduous task. In this paper, we describe working with two pre-annotated sets of medieval manuscript images that exhibit conflicting and overlapping metadata. Since a manual reconciliation of the two legacy ontologies would be very expensive, we aim (1) to create a more uniform set of descriptive labels to serve as a “bridge” in the combined dataset, and (2) to establish a high-quality hierarchical classification that can be used as a valuable input for subsequent supervised machine learning. To achieve these goals, we developed visualization and interaction mechanisms, enabling medievalists to combine, regularize and extend the vocabulary used to describe these, and other cognate, image datasets. The visual interfaces provide experts an overview of relationships in the data going beyond the sum total of the metadata. Word and image embeddings as well as co-occurrences of labels across the datasets enable batch re-annotation of images, recommendation of label candidates, and support composing a hierarchical classification of labels.

Application of computer vision techniques for 3D matching and retrieval of archaeological objects

Background As cultural institutions embark in projects oriented to digitise art and archaeological collections in three dimensions, the need for developing means to access the resulting 3D models has become imperative. Shape recognition techniques developed in the field of computer vision can help in this task. Methods This paper describes the implementation of three shape descriptors, specifically shape distributions, reflective symmetry and spherical harmonics as part of the development of a search engine that retrieves 3D models from an archaeological database without the need of using keywords as query criteria. Use case The usefulness of this system is obvious in the context of cultural heritage museums, where it is essential to provide automatic access to archaeological and art collections. The prototype described in this paper uses, as study case, 3D models of archaeological objects belonging to Museo del Templo Mayor, a Mexican institution that preserves one of the largest collections of Aztec cultural heritage. Conclusions This work is part of an ongoing project focused on creating generic methodologies and user-friendly computational tools for shape analysis for the benefit of scholars and students interested in describing, interpreting and disseminating new knowledge about the morphology of cultural objects.

Tracing the lead source of maiolica: a pilot isotopic study on artefacts from the area of Florence, Italy (fifteenth–nineteenth century)

The manufacturing of Italian maiolica (tin-glazed pottery) was extremely appreciated during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, leading to the production and collection of a rich cultural heritage. This pilot study aims to characterize the production technique and the origin of the lead used as a flux in a set of samples of maiolica glazes made in the area of Florence over a wide time span, ranging from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. In particular, this is the first study that applies provenance analysis, using lead isotopes, to tin-glazed artefacts made in the site of Montelupo Fiorentino and by the Ginori manufactory in Doccia (Florence, Italy), both important production centres of ceramics in Italy. The samples were first analysed by scanning electron microscopy to characterize their layer structure and chemical composition. Lead isotope analysis was then performed by thermal ionization mass spectrometry and showed that the samples tend to be distributed into distinct groups according to their period of production. Moreover, the comparison with the lead isotope composition of the deposits of the European and circum-Mediterranean area from which lead was historically extracted showed that the isotopic composition of the samples differs from that of the Italian deposits, suggesting that lead was imported from abroad. The isotopic composition of all the investigated maiolica glazes is compatible with German ore deposits, in agreement with what is reported by the historical sources relating to the lead supply areas.

Risk analysis for preventive conservation of heritage collections in Mediterranean museums: case study of the museum of fine arts in Alexandria (Egypt)

The impacts of climate change on heritage collections in Mediterranean museums are serious and lead to accelerated material degradation, loss of value, increasing conservation costs and climatisation. Climate change scenarios and simulation models have been developed to predict the extreme and average future environmental conditions and to assess the future long-term risks caused by global warming for museum buildings and their collections in Mediterranean countries, with Egypt being particularly at risk. This paper presents the results of the risk analysis of the indoor and outdoor environments in Alexandria Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) in Egypt to provide an overview of the current situation of conservation and museum management and to provide evidence-based data to support decision-making regarding preventive conservation given the museum's limited funding, capacity and resources. Unfortunately, the air quality in the museum cannot be considered satisfactory and specific measures need to be taken to improve the level of air quality and museum and building management. The results enabled an assessment of indoor air quality and provided information on potential risks to the museum building and collections, including variations in temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH), concentrations of NO2, SO2, O3, CO2, acetic and formic acid and lighting conditions, as well as the location and management of the museum. The results necessitate the development of a preventive conservation plan to address the challenges associated with high T/RH fluctuations and pollution pressure. This requires more regular use of the HVAC system within certain T/RH set points as well as minimising light exposure and the use of UV-filtering glazing. Care should be taken to ensure that housekeeping and emergency preparedness reduce the damping and salt florescence in the museum building. However, dealing with the impact of climate change on indoor and outdoor environments and museum collections in Mediterranean museums requires a holistic and adaptive approach that includes joint collaboration, research, training and strategic planning to ensure the long-term preservation of valuable cultural heritage collections in different climates with customised adaptations based on local environmental conditions, resources and needs. Resilience planning should be region-specific and take into account the potential impacts of extreme weather events, sea level rise and other climate-related challenges.

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (NEH)

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (NEH)

Mapping European Digital Heritage Politics: An Empirical Study of Europeana as a Web-based Network

ABSTRACT Europeana is a cultural heritage initiative financed by the European Union (EU) with the primary scope of curating a platform aggregating digital collections of European cultural heritage. Among other tasks, Europeana designs best practices and digital tools aligned with the EU’s digital cultural policy to support the digitization of cultural heritage institutions in the member states. Therefore, it can be considered a socio-political actor building an international network. Nevertheless, it has mainly been studied as a digital service. To investigate Europeana’s impact on the European cultural sector, this work proposes a three-level methodology combining web mapping, close reading of websites, and statistical analysis. This methodology offers a comprehensive picture of the Europeana platform’s role on the web, providing evidence of its action as a social hub gathering a network of national and local actors in the European cultural environment.

Investigating the Intersections of Ethics and Artificial Intelligence in the Collections as Data Position Papers

ABSTRACTA paradigm shift is currently underway with the emergence of the Collections as Data movement, which advocates the creation and dissemination of cultural heritage collections that are amenable to large‐scale computation to empower both collection managers and users. Although this discourse is beginning to gain some traction in the literature, critical evidence‐based assessments of the opportunities and risks of this process are underexplored. This paper presents the results of a content analysis of the official position statements (n = 83) produced in the Collections as Data forums and written by international professionals working with digital collections. Although preliminary, the analysis presented and discussed here sheds light on the initial reception of the idea of Collections as Data and its articulation in practice. The study represents the first systematic attempt to explore the complexities of the intersection of ethics and artificial intelligence in the context of cultural heritage, aiming at providing a valuable precedent for further elaboration and discussion.

Content Analysis of Libraries’ Instagram Posts: Cultural Collection, Activities, and Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Abstract Libraries’ roles and contributions in promoting and raising awareness of culture and cultural heritage to support the sustainability of cultural life can be strengthened by utilizing social media platforms, including Instagram. However, there is a gap in studies and research relating to how academic libraries reflect their cultural functions through social media, i.e., Instagram. This paper provides a content analysis of academic libraries’ Instagram accounts at three academic libraries located in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. These libraries represent their universities’ concerns with promoting sustainable development goals, specifically Sustainable Development Goal 11 (make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable). This study analyzed and categorized the Instagram posts of academic libraries related to culture and cultural heritage to answer the following research question: how do academic libraries reflect their cultural functions through social media, i.e., Instagram? The results show that the academic libraries studied here considered reflecting their cultural functions through social media by informing users about various cultural events, collections, facts, and news on Instagram.

Cultural Heritage Collections as Data

Amaç: Günümüzde dijital insani bilimler araştırmalarında kullanılan ana veri/bilgi kaynakları dijital ortama aktarılmış çözünürlüğü yüksek belgeler ve verilerden oluşan koleksiyonlar ile bu koleksiyonlara ait makinece okunabilir ve işlem yapılabilir üstverilerdir. Bu araştırmanın amacı dijital insani bilimler araştırmacılarının “veri olarak koleksiyonlara” yönelik ihtiyaç ve beklentilerini ve kültürel bellek kurumlarının bu ihtiyaç ve beklentileri ne ölçüde karşıladıklarını saptamaktır.
 Yöntem: Araştırma kapsamında nitel yöntemler kullanılmış, 10 dijital insani bilimler araştırmacısı ve 16 kültürel bellek kurumu temsilcisi ile yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmacılara 20, kurum temsilcilerine 23 soru sorulmuş, tüm görüşme kayıtları çözümlenmiş (transkribe edilmiş) ve MaxQDA nitel veri analiz yazılımı aracılığıyla görüşme kayıtlarının içerik analizi yapılmıştır.
 Bulgular: Araştırmacılar koleksiyonlara makinece okunabilir ve işlem yapılabilir formatlarda veri setleri halinde erişmeye ihtiyaç duymaktadırlar. Protokol karşılığında veya talep olduğunda koleksiyonlarını bu şekilde paylaşabilecek az sayıda kurum olsa da henüz hiçbir kurum makinece okunabilir formatlarda ve bilişimsel erişime uygun biçimde dijital koleksiyonlarını hizmete açmamıştır. Kurumların koleksiyonlarını dönüştürmek için nitelikli personele, bütçeye, teknik altyapıya, yönetim desteğine, işbirliğine, zamana ve konuya ilişkin bir rehbere ihtiyaçları bulunmaktadır.
 Sonuç: Kurumlar, üstverileri düzenlemek, koleksiyonları dijitalleştirmek ve bu koleksiyonları veri olarak koleksiyon yaklaşımına uygun olarak araştırmacıların erişimine açmak için bu konuda farkındalık oluşturmalı, teknik, idari ve maddi yönlerden desteklenmeli ve nitelikli personel yetiştirmelidir.
 Özgünlük: Bu çalışma hem araştırmacıların hem de kültürel bellek kurumlarının bakış açılarından Türkiye’de veri olarak koleksiyonlar hizmetine yönelik gereksinimleri, beklentileri ve engelleri saptayan ilk araştırmadır.

Building a community of resilience and response—development of disaster response and training programmes

The increasing impact of catastrophic disasters has inspired a strong network of cooperative disaster resiliency programmes focussing on protection and response for heritage collections and sites around the world. A dedicated community of professionals has developed successful partnership organisations that form a collaboration of institutions, first responders, local community groups and volunteers. At the core in the United States is a consortium of governmental and private organisations. Advocating for and safeguarding cultural heritage against risks draws on conventions, policy frameworks and guidance, becoming an imperative part of effective collection and site management. This article outlines the history, missions, interrelationship and expanded programming of this resolute, primarily volunteer community. The evolution of strategic disaster resilience in North America is non-linear, as are the histories of the organisations and individuals who have contributed to the nascent specialty. Key people and agencies are dedicated to protecting cultural assets and progressively improving and professionalising disaster resilience and recovery. The strategic, physical and psychological needs of disaster-affected communities are now standard management protocols for cultural heritage collections. Tangible documentation of these changes and interconnections are spread between professional repositories and personal archives, with minimal finding aids and dependence on individual memories. This information is gathered, regularly shared and updated as part of experiential training but seldom published in historical or scholarly articles. This article is intended to bridge the gap between a literature review and a record of experiences that have moved the profession of cultural heritage responder and their support organisations forward in time.

How generous interface affect user experience and behavior: Evaluating the information display interface for museum cultural heritage

AbstractMuseum web interfaces continue to be important in how users search for information and navigate through digital cultural heritage resources. A generous interface was deemed appropriate for displaying large amounts of digital cultural heritage. However, more example verification is required in this field of study. This study compared the traditional interface and the generous interface of the Liaoning Provincial Museum to investigate the role of a generous interface for cultural heritage collections. Forty second‐year design graduate students were randomly assigned to one of two interface groups: traditional interface or generous interface. Four variables were measured to compare the differences between the two interfaces for the participants. In addition, two parameters, holding time and average retrieval time, are recorded and used to evaluate and compare the impact of the two interfaces on user behavior. The generous interface, according to the findings, is more effective than the traditional interface in increasing participants' engagement with cultural heritage and is perceived to be more aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the generous interface has been proven to be more suitable for casual leisure users to explore cultural heritage information. This research provides the basis and reference for developing the web interface of cultural heritage collections.