Session 8: Unlocking Collections: expanding research library frontiers
Thursday 6th July – 9.45-11:15
Chair: Kirsty Lingstadt, University of York, United Kingdom
8.1: Sharing Cultural Heritage Images as Data: Supporting Open Science through Interoperability
Presenter: Beth Knazook, Digital Repository of Ireland, Ireland
Cultural heritage data are both inputs and outputs to the research process: they are the raw materials needed for a range of research activities in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and they are also often the outputs of those disciplinary fields, informing the interpretation and reuse of artefacts, objects, or records held by the institutions that shape and preserve cultural memory. Very few of these institutions consider their digital assets to be “data”, however, necessarily limiting the interoperability and potential value of these materials across a wide variety of scientific domains.
As one of 11 case studies in the WorldFAIR Project, a major global collaboration led by CODATA and involving partners from thirteen countries across Africa, Australasia, Europe, and North and South America, the Cultural Heritage case study seeks to explore how image-sharing practices in memory institutions can be aligned more closely with the FAIR Principles for research data. This alignment aims to support the wider reuse and harmonisation of cultural heritage images with digital resources produced by other domains, recognizing that interest in cultural heritage images may not be limited to researchers working from a cultural heritage perspective.
This talk will explore the ‘FAIRness’ of current methodologies and practices in the cultural heritage sector that has been used to transform a wide variety of materials into digital assets, followed by an overview of the recommendations to be tested at the Digital Repository of Ireland to support the interoperability of cultural heritage data with resources in the larger digital research ecosystem. The outcomes of the DRI’s case study will contribute to the development of a cross-domain interoperability framework (CDIF) and recommendations for FAIR assessment produced by the WorldFAIR Project.
8.2: Accessible and inclusive collections: enhancing the reach of library and archive collections through remote technologies
Presenter: Christina Kamposiori, Research Libraries UK, United Kingdom
The closure of libraries and archives during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic restricted access to research and learning materials. Successive periods of national lockdown, and on-going social distancing rules, have significantly disrupted the ability of scholars to conduct research and have affected the student learning experience. In response to these challenges, research libraries and archives have been experimenting with the provision of geographically remote access to heritage and cultural collections through the creation of Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs) and Virtual Teaching Spaces (VTSs).
Research Libraries UK (RLUK), in collaboration with its partners, has been tracking the development of these services since 2020 and investigating their potential as digital research infrastructure. It has conducted three international studies exploring the institutional perspectives with regard to their creation and delivery as well as the academic perception and use of the services. This paper will bring together the results of the two most recent international surveys (Kamposiori, 2022a; Kamposiori, 2022b) exploring their development and use.
The first survey documented the most recent innovations in the development and delivery of VRRs and VTSs across the international research library and archives community. The second survey explored the academic, research, and student awareness of and experience with VRRs and VTSs. Findings showed that remote technologies have strong potential to transform collections and make them more accessible and inclusive, as well as facilitate collaboration. Thus, research libraries and archives which have either developed VRRs and VTSs or planning to develop these services are currently considering how remote technologies can be best utilised in the post-pandemic era to engage successfully with a variety of user communities locally and internationally, such as during virtual or hybrid/ blended sessions. Presenting the user perspective alongside the survey results on current practices in the development of VRRs and VTSs will aim to generate discussion around service improvement and sustainability through the creation of audience-focused strategies.
The goal of the paper will be to demonstrate how the reach of library and archive collections can be enhanced through the use of remote technologies and provide recommendations for the development of VRRs and VTSs based on user experience. Finally, it will touch upon the theme of partnerships and connections by highlighting the potential of these technologies to foster cross-institutional collaboration for the benefit of users.
8.3: Opening up library collections for creative reuse
Presenters: Martijn Kleppe and Jeroen Vandommele, KB National Library of The Netherlands, The Netherlands
Traditionally, collections of research libraries are being used by researchers for a variety of academic research purposes. However, due to the increased availability of open digital collections on non-traditional library platforms, such as Wikipedia, Europeana and Flickr, these collections have sparked the interest of new sorts of user groups. Artists, the creative industry, commercial companies and citizens are increasingly aware of its existence and actively use library collections for a variety of reasons.
The KB, the national library of the Netherlands is aiming to open up its collections not only for academic users, but for all Dutch citizens. To learn how non-academic users experience the way collections are presented, the authors undertook experiments with three types of users from the creative field. First, three professional artists were embedded as artists in residence for four weeks to explore the collection and create artworks from their field of expertise. Second, students of the Royal Academy of Art explored our manuscript collection of early modern alba amicorum (friendship books) and created new ways to experience them, ranging from Augmented Reality productions, physical installations, and performances, to a more traditional book publication and expositions. Third, students of Industrial Design were challenged to create new ways for users to physically interact with digital collections. They created a range of installations that allow users to interact and explore the collections by movement or sound.
In this paper presentation, the authors will discuss what all three types of creative users have created and will reflect on what we as a national library learned. Their findings show that users from the creative field and with a non-academic background apply a significant other search and explore strategy and found difficulty using traditional library tools such as catalogues or keywords. The users also struggled with navigating the available digital collections, actually preferring the tangible experience of the physical book. As such, they needed extensive personal guidance and access to areas the general public is not allowed to visit.
When (national) libraries truly want every citizen to experience and use the richness of its collections, new ways of providing access should be explored, for example by allowing users to search the whole collection full text, find ways to provide access to our secure storage facilities or enable them to do a visual search on our image collections. The presentation will be concluded by presenting the plans the authors are now working on to further open up our collections by applying new techniques from the field of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual and Augmented Reality.