Elag2015 ivory tower
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AHRC project, Exploring British Design: The Archives Hub and Brighton Design Archives worked together on a project to explore new ways to integrate archive catalogues into an entity based model.
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Elag2015 ivory tower
- 1. Exploring British Design From IvoryTower to People Power11/06/2015 To add a background image to this slide; drag a picture to the placeholder below, or click the icon in the centre of the placeholder to browse for and add an image. Once added, the image can be cropped, resized or repositioned to suit. Jane Stevenson, Jisc Pete Johnston, Jisc Tom Hart, Jisc Catherine Moriarty, Brighton Design Archives Anna Kisby Compton, Brighton Design Archives
- 2. Exploring British Design »AHRC: “DigitalTransformations aims to exploit the potential of digital technologies to transform research in the arts and humanities” »Archives Hub: aggregator of archive descriptions »Brighton Design Archives, the University of Brighton 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 2
- 3. Project Aims » Exploring Britain's design history by involving information professionals, historians and researchers » Moving away from traditional collection-level archival descriptions towards more inter-connectivity » Enabling researchers to explore and connect people, subjects, and events. » Using the XML standard, EncodedArchival Context - Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families (EAC-CPF) » Creating high-quality bespoke name authority records for British designers and making these openly available for further utilisation 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 3
- 4. The IvoryTower Or “Ignorance is Bliss” 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 4
- 5. People Power Or, “Once you introduce people, things are a lot more complicated” 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 5 Flickr: nolnet, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nolnet/5502831713/
- 6. Student workshops »We asked focus groups of postgraduate students: › How do you research? »We gave them an event, person or building to think about and asked them to chart their research paths 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 6
- 7. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 7
- 8. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 8
- 9. Research Paths: results » Google is the most common starting point » There is often a strong visual emphasis to research » It is common to utilise the references listed in Wikipedia » The library is one part of a diverse landscape; library searches can produce ‘meaningless results’ (too many results; relevance not clear) » Online research: immediacy but issues of trust, results may not be very specific, obscure sources may be hidden » Personal habits and past experience play a large part » Research (i) means to an end (ii) an important (enjoyable!) process » Serendipity is valued – browsing the library shelves is a good example 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 9
- 10. Student workshops »We asked a group of postgraduate students: › Think about websites and what you like and dislike about them »We showed them some sites and discussed them 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 10
- 11. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 11
- 12. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 12 http://va.goodformandspectacle.com/
- 13. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 13
- 14. Student workshops »Students did not like sites that seemed patronising »They liked the ‘explore’ features »They talked about discovery beyond what the site appeared to provide »They tended to ask about whether they could search for ‘x’ or ‘y’ – something relevant to their own particular research interests, e.g. gender studies 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 14 http://blog.archiveshub.ac.uk/category/exploring-british-design/
- 15. Documenting Archives »An archive is described through a collection description »One archive = one document describing the archive 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 15
- 16. From search box… 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 16
- 18. Collection 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 18 Collection Person Organis ation …to search result From A to B, From B to C, And then from C you get to D. But this does not enable you To get to C from A or Q CollectionPerson Person A B C Place Collection Person Person Event Date Q Occup ation ? ?
- 19. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 19 Person Collectio n Person Collectio n Collection Person Place Organis ation Image
- 20. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 20 Person Collectio n Collectio n
- 21. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 21 Person Person Person Person Org Org Collectio n Collectio n
- 22. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 22 http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/
- 24. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 24
- 25. Exploring British Design Or, “Beating a Path through the Dense Dark Undergrowth is HardWork” 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 25
- 26. Any thing can be a focus for a user/application »Archival materials »Persons, organisations »Places »Events »Relations »Objects
- 28. Data sources »Bringing together data from different sources › Archives Hub data › Hand crafted data created for the project – chronologies – relationships – relationship type › Hard to create this data any other way › Looked at other sources (Design Museum) 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 28
- 29. EAC-CPF »EAC-CPF – XML format for organisations/persons/families »Data went beyond what is supported by EAC-CPF › images linked to agents (people) and events › ‘see also’ »Formats can provide rigour but they can constrain »EAC-CPF essentially for data sharing – provide export 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 29
- 30. Tools »We didn’t find suitable robust tools for data creation »xEAC – good functionality (VIAF lookup) but glitches › didn’t seem to support whole EAC standard › couldn’t go beyond EAC limitations »Variations in our data were always likely to challenge available tools »“tidy datasets are all alike but every messy dataset is messy in its own way" 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 30
- 31. Entities and Events »Go beyond ‘find records to match x query’ »Focus was on person, organisation & events › matches through various criteria »We do not have standards where events are foregrounded »EAC-CPF treats events as secondary 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 31
- 34. Observations » Lack of tools » Data variations and inconsistencies › Tools are looking for consistency – i.e. is this person the same as that person, if so I can link them › Hand-crafted means rich data but hard to ensure consistency › Archives Hub data is full of variations » Responsive development requires flexibilty and it isn’t easy! » So many decisions about data structures - what’s in, what’s out » Not enough resource…. 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 34
- 35. Observations »Could we have done it differently? › Maybe a different set of technologies, e.g. take time to learn about elastic search › Maybe prioritising things differently – easy to say in hindsight »Too many ideas can be a dangerous thing! 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 35
- 36. Expanding Our Focus » Record = about one person/organisation? » No! In reality it is about many people, organisations, places and events » Small scale but multiple connections meant our approach was strained (x80 people = 800 entities) › e.g. If Maxwell Fry went to X art school then we have information about that art school, even if its just that he attended it (but as it is a focus, we can add more connections) » A record focus is a narrow focus; it does not bring to the fore all these different entities 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 36
- 37. Exploring British Design ….Website coming soon 11/06/2015 Title of presentation (Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide) 37 Thank you.
Editor's Notes
- Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide (click ‘Apply’ to change only the currently selected slide, or ‘Apply to All’ to change the footers on all slides). To add a background image to this slide; drag a picture to the placeholder or click the icon in the centre of the placeholder to browse for and add another image. Once added, the image can be cropped, resized or repositioned to suit.
- Working within defined boundaries is easier, especially if the territory within the boundaries is under your control.
- The project I want to talk about harnesses people power in two ways: Input from researchers Defining and connecting people within the data Also interesting potential for crowdsourcing
- But what is it that researchers want? How can we find out what they want without leading them?
- Two students looked at an image representing the Festival of Britain (1951). How would they go about finding out more?
- This is the diagram tidied up. It shows the research paths the students thought they might take.
- We discussed the issues with the students and found some common themes and ideas about research…although we also found that research can be a very individual thing, especially due to the influence of personal experience and habit.
- The DPLA has a search box but with the idea of exploration brought more to the fore. The students were keen on this idea of exploration – the options looked interesting and worth looking at.
- We asked them about sites where there is no search box at all and a sense of ‘random stuf’f. They were a bit puzzled by this. This is from George Oates, from Good Form and Spectacle – the V&A Spelunker.
- A library with the idea of ‘stuff’ brought to the fore and the search box relegated. Most students found the language used here rather patronising. Maybe postgraduate students generally prefer something a little more serious sounding?
- Current cataloguing practice in libraries and archives is predicated on the idea of a descriptive ‘document’ about the book, archive or artefact in question. In archives it is often quite narrative.
- We also think in terms of accessing the descriptive information we provide through search boxes – typically the researcher types in a search term and off they go…
- So, going back to the paradigm of searching collections….
- We can think of a collection description as one mass. It refers to entities within itself, but the entities are by and large ‘locked into’ the description, or even if they are links, you can usually only get from one collection description to another. It is a linear approach. Effectively it is ‘first degree links’.
- There have been efforts to go beyond this, mainly by pulling people records out and treating them separately.
- Separating out people means you can link collection descriptions.
- The efforts to do this are usually focussed on one entity – the people/organisations/collections one entity is related to.
- SNAC, the Mellon funded project, does this at scale, pulling out ‘name authority’ records to link them to archive collection descriptions.
- SNAC provides a biographical focus with the idea of relations
- Relationships between people are a great way to further research, but often they are ‘first degre’ relations.
- Our aim was to explore the creation of a landscape of entities, with the complex relationships that reflect reality.
- Hub data – process a bit like SNAC – search through pot of EAD and find records through whatever criteria, e.g. person name relationship type and crafted, otherwise person ‘associated with’ another person is the best you could do Could draw data from other sources – VIAF, SNAC
- EAC-CPF – is it really appropriate for going well beyond archival data?
- May well be great tools out there- take time to find and check out. But often they ask for ‘tidy data’.
- We used spreadsheets to create relationship data and events data. We extracted data from the archives hub. We wanted to bring in other data but ran out of time
- Use of Google refine. Potentially look up place names on Geonames. VIAF lookup really a manual process
- Difficult in a project like this to draw your scope – so many possibilities!