DARIAH ANNUAL EVENT 2023: Cultural Heritage Data as Humanities Research Data?

Collections in libraries, archives and museums have been at the heart of humanities research for centuries. However, with the current focus on data-driven research, data management plans and the research data lifecycle, in what ways do we need to think differently about cultural heritage collections ‘as data’ (Padilla et al., 2019)? Inspired by the proclamation “cultural heritage data is humanities research data” (Tasovac et al., 2020), this year’s DARIAH Annual Event will seek to explore what this means in practice.

What does it mean for cultural heritage institutions to provide access to their ‘collections as data’ (Padilla et al., 2019)? Do we need to think of different workflows for digitised and born-digital data (Mahey et al., 2019)? What is the role of data stewardship and training in this process? How can we foster successful collaborations with the cultural heritage sector (Angelaki et al., 2019)? What kinds of collaborations between arts and humanities researchers, cultural heritage professionals and computer, information and data scientists would be needed?

How should we think about cultural heritage data in the context of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)? What would the ideal cultural heritage data infrastructure look like? How can we ensure the accessibility and usability of such platforms and interfaces? Could experimental initiatives such as the common European data space for cultural heritage or the Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage become the infrastructural boost that we need to instigate digital transformation?

To inspire your submission to this year’s DARIAH Annual Event, we propose the following three themes:

1. Sustainable workflows for data management and curation

The provision of cultural heritage collections as data requires a substantial rethinking of the way that libraries, archives and museums provide access to their collections. How do cultural heritage institutions manage the balancing act between serving researchers and the general public in terms of data, access, reuse? To what extent do they offer their data in a way that makes it readily usable for researchers? What tools are currently available to facilitate the creation of cultural heritage datasets and for corpus building? How are such datasets described? Could these descriptions be internationally agreed and standardised? What are the current best practices for cultural heritage institutions to make their collections FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable)? How can these best practices be translated into sustainable workflows?

2. Imagining experimental data spaces for cultural heritage

Within the context of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Open Marketplace has already made substantial in-roads in aggregating and contextualising tools, services, training materials, datasets, publications and workflows for the SSH research communities. Within the cultural heritage sector, the development of a common European data space for cultural heritage and Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage are both set to innovate the access to and sharing of cultural heritage data. How can cultural heritage institutions contribute to the creation of such data spaces? What could the next steps and building blocks be? If data spaces are intended to facilitate and enhance access to data, how will the accessibility and usability of such platforms and interfaces be ensured? What roles could research infrastructures such as DARIAH play in the development of such data spaces?

3. Advancing digital methods for the analysis of cultural heritage

What do collections as data mean for methodological advancement in the arts and humanities? Do digital methods such as Text and Data Mining, Natural Language Processing and Network Analysis move from the fringes to the mainstream? What opportunities do interdisciplinary collaborations in the areas of Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning enable us to advance humanities-specific knowledge extraction? How can advancing digital methods foster innovative and diverse forms of research output such including data publications and overlay journals?