Cultural Heritage Repositories Research Articles

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.

Moving from ISAD(G) to a CIDOC CRM-based Linked Data Model in the Portuguese Archives

Archives are facing numerous challenges. On the one hand, archival assets are evolving to encompass digitized documents and increasing quantities of born-digital information in diverse formats. On the other hand, the audience is changing along with how it wishes to access archival material. Moreover, the interoperability requirements of cultural heritage repositories are growing. In this context, the Portuguese Archives started an ambitious program aiming to evolve its data model, migrate existing records, and build a new archival management system appropriate to both archival tasks and public access. The overall goal is to have a fine-grained and flexible description, more machine-actionable than the current one. This work describes ArchOnto, a linked open data model for archives, and rules for its automatic population from existing records. ArchOnto adopts a semantic web approach and encompasses the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model and additional ontologies, envisioning interoperability with datasets curated by multiple communities of practice. Existing ISAD(G)-conforming descriptions are being migrated to the new model using the direct mappings provided here. We used a sample of 25 records associated with different description levels to validate the completeness and conformity of ArchOnto to existing data. This work is in progress and is original in several respects: (1) it is one of the first approaches to use CIDOC CRM in the context of archives, identifying problems and questions that emerged during the process and pinpointing possible solutions; (2) it addresses the balance in the model between the migration of existing records and the construction of new ones by archive professionals; and (3) it adopts an open world view on linking archival data to global information sources.

Digital Cultural Heritage

Session 1: Preserving Memories during the Wartime: Ukraine
 Ulia Gosart, Assistant Professor, School of Information, San Jose State University
 The first session focuses on pedagogical strategies supportive of utilizing and preserving Digital Cultural Heritage. Presented in a case study manner, the panel connects experiences of digital preservation with development of relevant curricula. The case studies include preserving memories during wartime in Ukraine; African American cultural heritage in the southwest of the US; conserving traditional knowledge (TK) and indigenous knowledge (IK) within Indigenous communities in Western Pacific. Each Case can lead to innovative pedagogy possibilities be they emerging as components of traditional educational programs; or exist as elements of innovative teaching centers, and/or growing interdisciplinary collaborations.
 
 Session 2: African American Digital Cultural Heritage through the San Antonio Public Library
 DL Grant jr, Carver Library Branch Manager, San Antonio, TX
 Libraries now transcend more traditional services and resources offering informal gatherings and community events that uniquely uplift the various communities they serve. History harvests, as they are sometimes known, celebrate the cultural heritage of the users leading to preservation of archival matter via digitization. This San Antonio based case study touches on two such services: 1) oral history events that weave stories of the past and document as well as entertain; and 2) a funeral program collection gone digital, making researching African American cultural heritage easier to research. With so much as a cellphone phone one can connect to electronic representations that document families, communities, rituals, institutions and genealogy, to name a few. These library programs encourage donations and help to ensure survivability of cultural heritage.
 
 Session 3: Digital Cultural Heritage and Our Existential Threat
 Cecilia Salvatore: Professor, School of Information Studies, Dominican University
 In communities where their existence is threatened by global climate change, the need for a digital cultural heritage repository is stark and poignant. For example, the small island nations in the Western Pacific, which are responsible for only 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet they are disproportionally facing many of the threats of climate change head on. The communities on these islands are not simply passive towards what’s going on. They want to be equipped with the resources to tackle climate change. And they know that their own traditional knowledge and indigenous knowledge, which has been passed on for hundreds of years, is the most critical resource. The presenter describes TK/IK in the Pacific Islands, some current practices for preserving this knowledge, and the role of digital cultural heritage tools and methodologies.

Callaccitra Undagi Mahottama: A Documentary Film on “Undagi” Bali as a Cultural Heritage Digital Repository Content

Abstract
 Purpose: A film entitled Calaccitra Undagi Mahottama (CUM) is used as a model for documenting cultural actors, as a starting point and inspiration for the development of a culture-based creative industry, as suggestions on synergies between villages, local governments, educational institutions, and centers in cultural conservation with digital cultural heritage repositories.
 Research methods: This descriptive research empirically examines objects with a qualitative-analytic approach. The research inductively dissects the film CUM as a case object, from concept to process, and then synthesizes a documentary film formulation as a solution to preserving Balinese culture through RDWB.
 Findings: Synergy Scheme Map of the Village Video Movement with the Cultural Heritage Digital Repository, with CUM movie as a pilot project. The position of CUM's documentary films is to prioritize cultural preservation through biographical historical information with a historical approach. Bali needs more data collection on cultural resource assets in villages that still need to be appointed.
 Implication: The position of the Provincial Government of Bali is to be the leading actor, apart from being the initiator and also the leading actor in the process, supported by educational institutions and related social institutions as cultural curators.

A WEB-BASED PLATFORM FOR MANAGEMENT AND VISUALIZATION OF GEOMETRIC DOCUMENTATION PRODUCTS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES

Abstract. The mission of digital Cultural Heritage (CH) repositories goes beyond engagement and dissemination; their research data should be approached and correlated spatially and semantically in the service of conservation and accessibility. Therefore, a flexible system is needed to expand, reuse and repurpose their content, addressing online collaboration, real time progress and ease of use. Towards this direction, the “METEORA” web-based platform is a novel and holistic approach to the organization, management and visualization of the 3D and 2D documentation products of CH sites. It integrates a multi-scale 3D viewer based on the 3DHOP framework, personalized information access and interactive tools for data retrieval and presentation. Emphasis is given in the development of a mid-level interface for creating, updating and maintaining 3DHOP’s functionalities and customizing information based on the user’s scientific specialty and field of interest. The proposed admin control panel updates the state of the current visualization, allows the integration of 3D models and multimedia and automates the creation of clickable points of interest on top of the 3D surfaces. It is based on a MySQL Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that supports the back-end User Interface (UI) with create, read, update and delete (CRUD) management functions of a typical RESTful service. Moreover, all the control mechanisms as well as the procedures of authentication, authorization and encryption of the credentials of the certified users are configured through the PHP scripting language and JSON files. The resulting platform achieves maximum adaptability in digital archiving of heterogeneous datasets and has increasing efficiency in representing all types of data supported by 3DHOP.

A Survey of Geospatial Semantic Web for Cultural Heritage

The amount of digital cultural heritage data produced by cultural heritage institutions is growing rapidly. Digital cultural heritage repositories have therefore become an efficient and effective way to disseminate and exploit digital cultural heritage data. However, many digital cultural heritage repositories worldwide share technical challenges such as data integration and interoperability among national and regional digital cultural heritage repositories. The result is dispersed and poorly-linked cultured heritage data, backed by non-standardized search interfaces, which thwart users’ attempts to contextualize information from distributed repositories. A recently introduced geospatial semantic web is being adopted by a great many new and existing digital cultural heritage repositories to overcome these challenges. However, no one has yet conducted a conceptual survey of the geospatial semantic web concepts for a cultural heritage audience. A conceptual survey of these concepts pertinent to the cultural heritage field is, therefore, needed. Such a survey equips cultural heritage professionals and practitioners with an overview of all the necessary tools, and free and open source semantic web and geospatial semantic web platforms that can be used to implement geospatial semantic web-based cultural heritage repositories. Hence, this article surveys the state-of-the-art geospatial semantic web concepts, which are pertinent to the cultural heritage field. It then proposes a framework to turn geospatial cultural heritage data into machine-readable and processable resource description framework (RDF) data to use in the geospatial semantic web, with a case study to demonstrate its applicability. Furthermore, it outlines key free and open source semantic web and geospatial semantic platforms for cultural heritage institutions. In addition, it examines leading cultural heritage projects employing the geospatial semantic web. Finally, the article discusses attributes of the geospatial semantic web that require more attention, that can result in generating new ideas and research questions for both the geospatial semantic web and cultural heritage fields.

Profiling of knowledge organisation systems for the annotation of Linked Data cultural resources

The importance of cultural heritage for supporting the knowledge economy has promoted its digitisation and online publication. Many cultural heritage repositories have published millions of digitised items using semantic web technologies and Linked Data approaches. These repositories frequently use knowledge organisation systems to classify the resources, but the domain heterogeneity makes it difficult to know if they are the most suitable ones. This paper describes the process used to discover and profile the knowledge organisation systems used in the cultural heritage domain. Additionally, for those knowledge organisation systems with a thesaurus-like structure, a detailed quality analysis is performed. The results of this analysis can be used as a key factor for the selection of knowledge organisation systems in classification tasks.

Diversity and Inclusion at East Tennessee State University’s Archives of Appalachia

As East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) Archives of Appalachia approaches its fortieth anniversary, it aims to renew itself as an archive of the twenty-first century through development of a new strategic plan and mission. Diversity and inclusion are a committed part of ETSU’s mission to regional stewardship and the Archives seeks to become a more diversified cultural heritage repository and culturally competent workplace. This article applies a top-down approach to understanding diversity- and inclusion-related responses at both the university and department levels to assess current and potential diversity and inclusion initiatives. A selected analysis using the Strategic Diversity Manifesto framework juxtaposes the Archives’ diversity and inclusion responses for its local/regional communities and LGBTQ communities. Consequently, the article reports on goals and actions the Archives can take to become a more engaged member of its diverse communities.

Comparing Byzantine and Arabic poetry: Introductory remarks

Older generations of modern critics pronounced negative assessments of both Byzantine and Arabic poetry for lacking originality and creativity. Further, medieval readers of Greek and Arabic presumably could not properly understand the content of this poetry because they were too focused on its vocabulary, grammatical points, and rhetorical tropes. On occasion, modern critics have suggested that medieval Arabic culture possessed no literary criticism and that Byzantine culture in effect possessed no belles lettres. Recent positive re-evaluations in both disciplines either propose to take medieval Greek and Arabic poetic and literary texts in their own terms or analyse them in order to show that they possess characteristics valued by modernity. Arabic poetry has been much more widely studied than its Byzantine counterpart because both medieval and modern Arabic literary critics were interested in it as a repository of Arab cultural heritage. Modern judgements regarding the relation between the poetry of the pre-Christian and the pre-Islamic periods and the poetry produced within the time of monotheistic belief were frequently influenced by modern political realities, and especially calls for increased secularization pronounced both in Europe and the Ottoman empire. Detecting analogies in how medieval Greek and Arabic literary cultures have been assessed by modernity can help identify modern prejudices that obstruct more productive approaches to the medieval literary material. The paper also examines the process whereby older pagan classics were preserved and made to serve the needs in two medieval monotheistic societies, the Byzantine and the Arabic one.

ИЗ ИСТОРИИ СОХРАНЕНИЯ ПАМЯТНИКОВ КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ В ТОМСКЕ В 1917–1920 гг.

The article deals with the topic of cultural heritage. It attracts many researchers but still it is not studied well. In the opinion of the authors, the view that protection of cultural memorials was weak during the Revolution of 1917 requires more in-depth reflection. On Tomsk materials, the authors can see that traditions of careful attitude to memorials of culture were formed by 1917. Political freedoms granted by the Revolution and social enthusiasm mounted in those years provided development of new cultural traditions, including the preservation of cultural values. The authors must say that during 1917-1920 boards of administration in culture and education were formed, abolished and newly constructed in Tomsk. At the same time, public and private institutions in the field of culture were shaped, and the largest of them were the History-and-Philology Faculty of Tomsk University and the Siberia Research Institute. It is necessary to say that protection of memorials of history and culture were among the most important problems of activities of the organizations. Specialists-historians of Tomsk University and their colleagues developed scientific bases of cultural heritage preservation. Else, they did much in order to survey and preserve the diversity of history and culture memorials. Facts from archives, documentary publications, periodicals of the revolutionary years enabled the authors of this article to provide a stirring picture of the work of professors and teachers of the History-and-Philology Faculty of Tomsk University. In the most difficult conditions of the political and socio-economic instability in Siberia in 1917-1920, they were engaged in collecting and studying the memorials of culture. E.V. Dil', B.P. Denike, P.G. Lyubomirov, M.K. Azadovskiy, I.M. Myagkov, V.F. Smolin, N.N. Bakay, A.D. Grigoriev and others collected and systematized historical documents, rare books, objects of archeology and ethnography, Russian dialects of Siberia. In addition, they gathered material objects and visual testimonies of the revolutionary era. At the same time, good cultural and educational work was implemented in Tomsk. The passion and dedication of the participants of the cultural process in the Revolution offered an opportunity to save many artifacts and memorials of spiritual culture in Siberia. Museum, archival and book funds collected during the period under study formed the basis of the repository of cultural heritage in Tomsk, Biysk, Novoni-kolayevsk (Novosibirsk).

The Development Of Cultural Heritage Repository Based On Ontology

Malaysia is known for its traditional cultural heritage. This is reflected from a diverge range of practices and ways of life of its people. Nevertheless, the traditional cultural heritage has been gradually forgotten overtime. The information related to traditional cultural heritage can be obtained from various sources and locations but is inconsistent thus resulting in information seeking difficulties. A repository of cultural heritage was constructed to overcome the problem. The repository was built based on ontology which enable semantic knowledge representation and searching. The ontology consists of tangible objects that are listed as national heritage objects by the National Heritage Department (JWN). Additional information is also collected from various sources, including the National Library, the National Museum, the history books, articles and online references. Classes for each object was identified using middle-out approach. An information retrieval system prototype was constructed to test the effectiveness of information management and access. The evaluation of the prototype shows that the ontology has improved the information management and information searching of tangible heritage. This cultural heritage repository could be extended as a main hub of national cultural heritage management and access.

Exploring cultural heritage repositories with creative intelligence. The Labyrinth 3D system

In cultural heritage, the use of ontologies makes the description of artworks clearer and self-explanatory, with advantages in terms of interoperability. The current shift towards semantic encoding opens the way to the creation of interfaces that allow the users to build personal paths in heritage collections by exploiting the relations over the artworks.In the attempt to leverage this multiplicity of paths, we designed and implemented a system, called Labyrinth 3D, which integrates the semantic annotation of cultural objects with the interaction style of 3D games. The system immerses the user into a virtual 3D labyrinth, where turning points and paths represent the semantic relations over cultural objects, with the goal of engaging the user in the exploration of the collection.

The Russian Language in the Socio-Cultural Adaptation of Kurds Who Resettled to the Republic of Adygea

Migration flows, which have significantly altered the demographic composition of the South of Russia over the last 25 years, are connected with the inflow of population with poor knowledge of the Russian language. One of the numerous ethnic groups that compactly settled in the Krasnogvardeysky District of the Republic of Adygea is the Kurds (more than 5,000 people). According to the census of the Russian Federation in 2010, every 13th Kurd in Adygea did not speak Russian. In a multiethnic environment, which is characteristic of the Republic of Adygea, the Russian language plays an important unifying role. It largely provides the political stability of the region, true friendship of peoples, and tolerance towards different cultures. Most materials were obtained by researchers in the course of three years of work with the Kurds of Adygea, numerous interviews with people of different ages and occupations, and due to studying the official documents of the administrations of rural settlements and observation of the behavior of students in school and ordinary people in everyday life. The authors used statistical, logical, and sociometric techniques and methods of interdisciplinary research considering the Kurdish ethnic group from the standpoint of sociology and cultural anthropology, as well as the method of participant observation, which allows stating changes that occur in the development of ethnic groups. The Kurds of Adygea demonstrate high conservation of their verbal native language, but least of all are interested in obtaining a good education, knowledge of the Russian language, which does not contribute to successful adaptation and creates certain social risks. Supporting the position of preservation and development of the native language, we are convinced that the knowledge of the Russian language as the state and world language is the norm for all Russians, and its rapid learning by settlers and their children will contribute to the successful future of the entire ethnic group. The value of the Russian language in contemporary Russia is not confined to the fact that it is a state language in modern Russia. In the country where more than hundred nations live, the Russian language is the language of interethnic communication and it is recognized by the UN as the world language. Any document of the UN among other seven world languages should be necessarily translated into Russian. The richness of the Russian language is supported by a large number of artistic, scientific and political literatures, which has received an international recognition. And today the Russian language remains the repository of national, historical, cultural, and spiritual heritage of not only the ethnic Russians, but also of all Russian nationals. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s2p283

The resilience of traditional dance as a repository of cultural heritage: The case of Ingoma of Malawi

This paper explores how Ingoma, a dance of the Ngoni of Malawi can be described as an identity marker and a cultural text of the Ngoni. The Ngoni constitute one of the nine major ethnic groups of Malawi. Unlike the other eight ethnic groups, however, the Ngonido do not have a language with which they are identified and use for everyday communication. This is largely due to socio-cultural and political influences that they experienced in the areas they settled. Notwithstanding this aspect of their identity, their dance Ingoma has stood the test of time and continues to be transmitted from one generation to another. Since language is key to the transmission of dance, the paper also examines the implications of transmitting dance in other people’s language. The paper focuses on three main groups of the Ngoni, namely, the M’mbelwaJere found in the north, the MpezeniJere found in the west and the GomaniMaseko in the centre. The Ingoma performances by groups from each of these areas were investigated.

Nigerian Museum and Art Preservation: A Repository of Cultural Heritage

Nigerian Museum and Art Preservation: A Repository of Cultural Heritage

Nrityakosha

Preservation of intangible cultural heritage, such as music and dance, requires encoding of background knowledge together with digitized records of the performances. We present an ontology-based approach for designing a cultural heritage repository for that purpose. Since dance and music are recorded in multimedia format, we use Multimedia Web Ontology Language (MOWL) to encode the domain knowledge. We propose an architectural framework that includes a method to construct the ontology with a labeled set of training data and use of the ontology to automatically annotate new instances of digital heritage artifacts. The annotations enable creation of a semantic navigation environment in a cultural heritage repository. We have demonstrated the efficacy of our approach by constructing an ontology for the cultural heritage domain of Indian classical dance, and have developed a browsing application for semantic access to the heritage collection of Indian dance videos.

Research challenges for digital archives of 3D cultural heritage models

The increasing creation of 3D cultural heritage models has resulted in a need for the establishment of centralized digital archives. We advocate open repositories of scientifically authenticated 3D models based on the example of traditional scholarly journals, with standard mechanisms for preservation, peer review, publication, updating, and dissemination of the 3D models. However, fully realizing this vision will require addressing a number of related research challenges. In this article, we first give a brief background of the virtual heritage discipline, and characterize the need for centralized 3D archives, including a preliminary needs assessment survey of virtual heritage practitioners. Then we describe several existing 3D cultural heritage repositories, and enumerate a number of technical research challenges that should be addressed to realize an ideal archive. These challenges include digital rights management for the 3D models, clear depiction of uncertainty in 3D reconstructions, version control for 3D models, effective metadata structures, long-term preservation, interoperability, and 3D searching. Other concerns are provision for the application of computational analysis tools, and the organizational structure of a peer-reviewed 3D model archive.

Establishing the national digital cultural heritage repository in Malaysia

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to uncover the perceptions of information professionals with regards to the establishment of a National Digital Cultural Heritage Repository Center (NDCHR) in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a modified Delphi study to identify the factors that contribute towards the establishment of an NDCHR in Malaysia. A three‐round modified Delphi study was used in this study to obtain consensus among the experts with regards to the factors that contribute towards the establishment of the central repository.FindingsThe establishment of an NDCHR requires collaboration efforts among the different types of cultural institution in Malaysia. The aspiration of the establishment to improve accessibility, resource discovery, preservation and promotion of the nation's cultural heritage information would contribute toward restructuring some common grounds and thinking among the different types of cultural institutions with respect to effective approaches to managing and organising the nation's digital cultural heritage information.Practical implicationsFindings and discovery of the study are significant in providing a general framework to establish an NDCHR in MalaysiaOriginality/valueThe outcome of the study will contribute toward the establishment of a central repository for digital cultural heritage information in Malaysia.

A disclosure index to measure the quality of annual reporting by museums in New Zealand and the UK

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the reporting practice of leading museums in New Zealand (NZ) and the UK to develop a museums' performance accountability disclosure index.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports a study of annual reporting by 16 museums in NZ and the UK. Because of the unique nature of the industry the disclosure index uses a framework which draws on the balanced scorecard (BSC). The BSC provides a link between internal reporting of key performance issues and the need of a community organisation to report to the public.FindingsOverall, the quality of reporting in each country is found to be of a similar standard. The strongest parts of reports are those dealing with internal processes and objectives, and the weakest are those reporting on learning and growth.Originality/valueMuseums are a key repository of tangible cultural heritage of huge intrinsic value both to the community now, but of more importance to future generations. However, the performance and accountability of this sector is basically without research or commentary, and this paper addresses this deficiency.

Dissemination of Cultural Heritage and Impact of Pilgrim Tourism at Gangasagar Island

Tourism plays a great role towards socio-economic changes. According to Indian sentiment the pilgrim centers or tirthasthan used to visit by number of tourists to earn virtue. Gangasagar is one of such centre where taking holy dip during makar sankranti, thought as, in life of a person earns that much of virtue which one can earn by visiting all the pilgrim centers throughout the life. The present paper aims to highlight the impact of pilgrim tourists at Gangasagar Island of Sundarban Biosphere and also projects the role of myth centering around Kapil Muni temple at Gangasagar which attracts not only tourists but also disseminate over the generation its cultural tenets which is valuable, being one of the repository of the great Indian cultural heritage.