Overview of content related to 'ahrc'

UK Reading Experience Database

editor — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Bethan Ruddock reports from the launch event for the UK Reading Experience Database, held at the Betty Boothroyd Library, the Open University, Milton Keynes, on 24 February 2011.

I was invited down to the Open University (OU) Betty Boothroyd Library in Milton Keynes for the launch of the UK Reading Experience Database (UK RED) [1]. I had been asked to attend to talk about the LOCAH Project and Linked Data, but I was also looking forward to learning about the RED Project.

This was the first of two launch days, and was designed for librarians, archivists, and information managers. A second launch day for teachers in Higher Education was to be held in London the next day.

What Is UK RED?

The tagline for UK RED is 'the experience of reading in Britain from 1450 to 1945', and the database brings together reading experiences, making them both searchable and browsable. What is a reading experience? It is evidence of anyone alive between the mid-15th and 20thcenturies having read and interacted with a book or other piece of writing, such as magazines, newspapers, letters - even playbills and advertisements. Ownership alone is not enough; there must be something to show that the person in question actually read the work or at least part of it.

This information can be found in a number of places - a printed book review would be an obvious example. The RED team also find many entries in diaries. Such entries can range from simple lists of books that someone has read over the course of a year, to detailed descriptions of when and where they read a particular book, and how they felt about it. Often diary entries are not actually about the book; it is mentioned in passing and in the context of a number of other activities.

While the owner's name on the flyleaf is not itself enough to justify a 'reading experience', annotations to the text are, as they show that the person has actually interacted with the text. Of course, you then have to consider whether the person whose name is on the flyleaf is the same as the person doing the annotating!

RED is much more than a list of 'people who have read books'. The database aims to bring out as much information as possible about the reading experience. The interface to submit a new entry allows you to specify where the reading was taking place, all the way down to a particular room in a particular house. It also aims to identify if the reading was silent or aloud, alone or with other people; whether the book was owned by the reader, a library book, borrowed, or even stolen. All these data are then used to build up a rich database of information on who was reading what (and how!) in Britain.

UK RED is not just concerned with reading experiences within Britain: team members also look at the reading experiences of citizens abroad. Edmund King, Research Associate, Reading Experience Database, OU, told us that, as a consequence, there are fascinating examples of what captured British soldiers were reading in prisoner-of-war (POW) camps as well as examples of what they were not allowed to read. Books in Welsh and Pakistani were banned, as well as atlases and anything about the Russian revolution. I do not know if there are corresponding records for what prisoners in UK POW camps were forbidden to read, but it would be very interesting to find out.

Intute Reflections at the End of an Era

editor — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Angela Joyce, Linda Kerr, Tim Machin, Paul Meehan and Caroline Williams look back at the history and achievements of Intute, and reflect on lessons learned as the service enters its final year.

An Attack on Professionalism and Scholarship? Democratising Archives and the Production of Knowledge

editor — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Andrew Flinn describes some recent developments in democratising the archive and asks whether these developments really deserve to be viewed as a threat to professional and academic standards.

This article was originally delivered as a paper for the 'Archives 2.0: Shifting Dialogues Between Users and Archivists' conference organised by the University of Manchester's ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) in March 2009. The paper came at an opportune time. I was absorbed in a research project examining independent and community archival initiatives in the UK and exploring the possibilities of user- (or community-)generated and contributed content for archives and historical research [1]. Furthermore I had just received referees' comments on a proposed research project examining the potential impact of the latter developments on professional archival practice. Whilst two of the reports were very positive, one was more than a little hostile. The reviewer was scathing about the focus of the proposed research on the democratisation of knowledge production, dismissing the notion as part of a short-term political agenda that was detrimental to the idea of scholarship and one with which the archive profession should not concern itself. In particular, scorn was reserved for the idea that, in future archive catalogues, many 'voices' might be enabled 'to supplement or even supplant the single, authoritative, professional voice', an idea which was described as being, in extremis, 'a frontal attack on professionalism, standards and scholarship'.

At the time of receiving this review and considering my response, I was also beginning to write my paper for the conference and had already decided that my theme would be democratising the archive. However I realised that these comments neatly encapsulated a powerful and genuine strand of thinking within the archive profession and academia more generally, which one might loosely term 'traditional'. Although there are now many user-generated content archive and heritage projects in existence, and terms such as participatory archives, Archives 2.0 and even History 2.0 are an increasingly common part of professional discourse [2], some, perhaps many, archivists and scholars remain deeply sceptical about the need for a democratisation of the archive and of scholarship.

In the end the research project was supported by the AHRC despite the critical review and has now commenced [3]. However, in this brief article I will try to respond to this strand of thinking by, first identifying what is meant by the democratisation of the archive and why advocates of such a thing believe it to be important. I will then briefly introduce two different but linked developments (independent or community archives and user- or community-generated content), which in harness with new technologies might play a role in such a democratisation, and in so doing challenge aspects of traditional archival thinking and practice. Finally I will offer a few thoughts on the shifts in our understanding of the archive and the resistance to those shifts. Ultimately, I will suggest that rather than viewing this debate as one between the expert (or the academic or the professional) and the crowd, it is in the concept of communities that the key might be found. A successful democratised and participatory archive is one which recognises that all those who come into contact with the archive (directly or indirectly), the 'community of the record', can and do affect our understanding and knowledge of that archive.

E-Curator: A 3D Web-based Archive for Conservators and Curators

editor — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Mona Hess, Graeme Were, Ian Brown, Sally MacDonald, Stuart Robson and Francesca Simon Millar describe a project which combines 3D colour laser scanning and e-Science technologies for capturing and sharing very large 3D scans and datasets about museum artefacts in a secure computing environment.

Introduction: The Evolving Field of Artefact Documentation

Digital heritage technologies promise a greater understanding of cultural objects cared for by museums. Recent technological advances in digital photography and image processing not only offer a high level of documentation, they also provide powerful analytical tools for conservation monitoring of cultural objects.

E-Publication and Open Access in the Arts and Humanities in the UK

editor — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Malcolm Heath, Michael Jubb and David Robey review recent UK discussions and evidence about e-publishing and open access, their impact and implications for researchers in the arts and humanities.

Newsline

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

TASI Workshops in November & December

There are currently places available on the following Nov/Dec workshops:

24 Hour Museum: From Past to Future

editor — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:00:00 +0000

As 24 Hour Museum rebuilds and looks outwards to new partnerships, Jon Pratty looks at challenges faced over the last seven years.

24 Hour Museum [1] is a successful and sustainable cultural Web site. Type the word 'museum' into Google UK and up it pops as a top five search result. Unlike the other top sites, all national museums or galleries, 24HM's remit covers the whole country, in eclectic subject areas, reaching a wide variety of audiences with simple and accessible content.

News and Events

editor — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Building Trust in Digital Repositories Using the DRAMBORA Toolkit

Pre-SOA Conference Workshop:
Building Trust in Digital Repositories Using the DRAMBORA Toolkit
27 August 2007, 11.00-16.00
The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/drambora-belfast-2007/

The JISC Annual Conference 2007

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Philip Pothen and colleagues provide an overview of the proceedings of this Spring's JISC Annual Conference.

Opening Keynote Address

The 2007 JISC conference began with a welcome from JISC Executive Secretary Dr Malcolm Read who thanked the more than 600 delegates for attending the conference, held for the fifth year running at the ICC in Birmingham.

News and Events

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Introduction to Federated Searching Technology & Developments

Date: 11 May 2007
Venue: Conference Room, Southport College, Mornington Road, Southport, PR9 0TT
Delegate Fee: £50.00

Intute: The New Best of the Web

editor — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:00:00 +0000

Caroline Williams describes Intute in the context of the online information environment and outlines aspirations for the future.

The Tasks of the AHDS: Ten Years on

editor — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:00:00 +0000

Alastair Dunning reviews 10 years in the history of the Arts and Humanities Data Service.

Retrospective on the RDN

editor — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:00:00 +0000

Debra Hiom, in the first of a two-part series on the Resource Discovery Network, looks back at the development of the RDN and its activities to date.

Introduction

This article will describe the history of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) [1], charting the development of subject gateways in the UK since 1993 to the present day. To help set the history of the gateways in the wider context of the resource discovery landscape in the last decade or so, readers are encouraged to refer to Lorcan Dempsey's recent article on the development of digital libraries [2].

Projects Into Services: The UK Experience

editor — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Brophy reviews the experience of the UK academic sector in turning digital library projects into sustainable services.

Introduction: The First Wave

It is worth remembering that there is a long history of successful commercialisation of digital library R&D projects in the UK. While there are probably even earlier examples, the obvious instances are the Birmingham Libraries Co-operative Mechanisation Project (BLCMP) and the South-West Academic Libraries Co-operative Automation Project (SWALCAP) from the 1960s.

Virtual Research Environments: Overview and Activity

editor — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Michael Fraser provides an overview of the virtual research environment (VRE) and introduces three JISC-funded projects in which Oxford University is participating.

Virtual research environments (VREs), as one hopes the name suggests, comprise digital infrastructure and services which enable research to take place. The idea of a VRE, which in this context includes cyberinfrastructure and e-infrastructure, arises from and remains intrinsically linked with, the development of e-science.

Supporting Local Data Users in the UK Academic Community

editor — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Luis Martinez and Stuart Macdonald discuss the differing areas of expertise within the UK data libraries with particular reference to their relationship with National Data Centres, the role of the Data Information Specialists Committee - UK (DISC-UK) and other information specialists.

This article will report on existing local data support infrastructures within the UK tertiary education community. It will discuss briefly early methods and traditions of data collection within UK territories. In addition it will focus on the current UK data landscape with particular reference to specialised national data centres which provide access to large-scale government surveys, macro socio-economic data, population censuses and spatial data.