july 11, 2008cni-jisc-ukoln, belfast1 irish scholarly resources: digitisation, access, and context:...

July 11, 2008 CNI-JISC-UKOLN, Belfast 1

Irish Scholarly Resources: Digitisation, Access, and Context:

2. Making Contextual Resources Accessible for Digital Resources -- ecai.org/neh2007

Michael BucklandElectronic Cultural Atlas Initiative and School of Information, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Work supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Studies and by the National Endowment for the Humanities.


Context determines understanding!

Five ideas about use of digital corpora. . . .

1. Understanding requires knowing the context.


Five ideas about use of digital corpora. . . .

1. Understanding requires knowing the context.

2. Using Internet resources should be like using a library reference collection – and as easy and as reliable.

3. Design: Find the context of any document, word, name, museum object, or event: What is related to it in what it is, where it came from, when it originated, and who is associated with it?

4.WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and WHO (“4W”) as a structure.

5.Make better use of existing descriptive metadata.


Any word, name, document, or event

Any resource:Audio, Images, Texts, Numeric data, Objects, Virtual reality, Webpages

Any catalog: Archives, Libraries, Museums, TV, Publishers

Connect it with its context – and other resources.

Facet Vocabulary Displays

WHAT Thesaurus Cross- e.g. LCSH references

WHERE Gazetteer Map

WHEN Period directory Timeline

WHO Biograph. dict. Personal e.g. Who’s Who relations

Context and relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies – ecai.org/neh2007


WHAT Subject headings Cross-references in& between vocabularies

Kung fu movies SEE Martial Arts filmsFORMERLY Hand-to-hand fighting, oriental, in motion pictures

“Automobile” in four dialects: - PASS MOT VEH, SPARK IGN ENG (U.S. Import/Export statistics) - TL 205 (Library of Congress Classification) - 180/280 (US Patent classification) - 3711 (Standard Industrial Classification)

“HS 847120 Digital auto data proc mach contng in the same housing a CPU and input & output device.”(International Harmonized Commodity Classification System).

NEED TO MAP TO & BETWEEN UNFAMILIAR VOCABULARIES

= Computer!


WHEN? What happened in IRELAND in 1690s?

Time Period Directory records in Google Earth. Zoom to Ireland and 1690s. Icon for siege of Limerick, 1690. Click link for library search. Catalog records list books and show context.


WHERE Place name gazetteer Map

Ctesiphon (Ancient site)

Dots link to portal


WHO Biographical Dictionary Complex relationships

Life events metadata

WHAT: Actions prisoner

WHERE: Places Holstein

WHEN: Times

1261-1262

WHO: People Margaret Sambiria

But ideally we need external links to the best resources!

Current project: Context finding for biographical texts.

Example: Electronic search engine pioneer.


Emanuel Goldberg, b. Moscow, 1881; son of Grigorii Goldberg; Univ. of Moscow, 1900-04; Ph.D w. Robert Luther, Leipzig Univ., 1906; Assistant, Adolf Miethe, TU Charlottenburg, 1906-07; Prof, Akad. f. graphische Künste, Leipzig, 1907-17; ICA, Zeiss Ikon, Dresden, 1917-1933; Kinamo cine camera, 1921; microdots, 1925; search engine, 1927; Contax 35 mm camera 1932; kidnapped by Nazi SA; refugee in Paris, 1933-37; Laboratory, Palestine, Israel, 1937; d. 1970.

WHO?

Click a name to search for an internet resource.



WHERE?

Trace a life-path.



WHAT?


Initial sketch for “Context Finding / Building” interface.

Save search path

Save link & notes as “stand-off” markup.

Save link & notes as embedded mark-up.

Insert / block text

Define facet

Ranked lists of suggested resources for each facet chosen

Display of search result


Scanned text Named Entities

Name finder


Hovering over a named entity highlights the areas where it appears in the text.


Named entities are linked to specific resources or dynamic searches over relevant databases.


Initially, named entities are linked to keyword searches at the appropriate name authorities and metadata services. Here we see a number of possible candidates for “Henry V”.


When editing an entity, the user can disambiguate it by linking it to a specific record from a naming authority. Here, the user is specifying that this instance of “Henry V” refers to “Henry V King of England 1387-1422”.


Now that it has been disambiguated, the named entity links directly to the

appropriate record.


Named entities not detected automatically can be added manually.


Edmund Hogan’s Onomasticon Goedelicum : Locorum et Tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae = An Index, with Identifications, to the Gaelic Names of Places and Tribes

If searchable online, one could, when reading an Irish studies text:

1. Search it (Context finder)

2. Markup text with links to it (Context builder);

3. Markup Hogan with reverse links to the Irish studies text (Context provider) – with rich consequences.


Links create infrastructure


Facet Vocabulary Displays Reference GenreWHAT Topics Cross-references Dictionary, EncyclopediaWHERE Places Maps Atlas, gazetteerWHEN Periods Timeline Almanac, ChronologyWHO Persons Personal relationships Biogr.dictionary, Whos Who

Reference Genre Vocabulary Displays FacetDictionary, encyclopedia Topics Cross-refs WHATAtlas, gazetteer Places Maps WHEREAlmanac, chronology Time Timelines WHENBiogr. Dict., Who’s Who Persons Personal relationships WHO

Paper-based reference collection: Codex determines structure and use.

Reversed in a digital environment: Metadata forms infrastructure.

The reference library is needed in the digital library environment.


Conclusion:

-- The context finder supports reference queries;

-- The context builder prompts reference queries;

-- The context provider develops a reference environment far richer than could be provided on paper;

-- These tools would empower users and well as reference librarians

-- . . . and editors, publishers, and everyone else

-- . . . even from laptops in dorms from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

-- This approach should work with any digital corpus


Any word, name, document, or event

Any resource:Audio, Images, Texts, Numeric data, Objects, Virtual reality, Webpages

Any catalog: Archives, Libraries, Museums, TV, Publishers

Connect it with its context – and other resources.

Facet Vocabulary Displays

WHAT Thesaurus Cross- e.g. LCSH references

WHERE Gazetteer Map

WHEN Period directory Timeline

WHO Biograph. dict. Personal e.g. Who’s Who relations

Context and relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies -- ecai.org/neh2007


We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities. - Support for the learner: What, Where, When and Who. (IMLS) http://ecai.org/imls2004 - Bringing lives to light: Biography in context. (IMLS) http://ecai.org/imls2006 - Context and relationships: Ireland and Irish studies. (NEH & IMLS) http://ecai.org/neh2007

july 11, 2008cni-jisc-ukoln, belfast1 irish scholarly resources: digitisation, access, and context:...

Documents

orgneh2007 slide

portal slide

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display of search result

library search

digital resources

relations context