Data Archiving and Networked Services

Computational history amonge-science, digital humanities and research infrastructures: accomplishments and challenges

Peter Doorn (Director, DANS)

Digital Methods and Tools for Historical ResearchLisbon, November 18, 2011

DANS is an institute of KNAW and NWO

Contents• What is DANS?• E-Science & Digital Humanities• Computational History• Research Infrastructures

What is DANS?• Institute of Dutch Academy and Research Funding

Organisation (KNAW & NWO) since 2005• First predecessor dates back to 1964 (Steinmetz Foundation),

NHDA (Historical Data Archive 1989)• Task: provide permanent access to data in the humanities and

social sciences (gradually expanding to other domains)• Main activities:

– digital archive (eg. collections in history, social sciences, archaeology)– data projects in collaboration with research communities and partner

organisations– advice and support (Data Seal of Approval, Persistent Identifier

Infrastructure)

Mission and tasks • DANS promotes permanent access to digital

research data• DANS encourages scientific researchers to archive

and reuse data by means of our online archiving system EASY

• DANS provides access, through Narcis.nl, to thousands of scientific datasets, e-publications and other research information in the Netherlands

• DANS provides training and advice• DANS performs research into archiving of and access

to digital information

www.dans.knaw.nl

Electronic archiving system EASY: 20,000 data sets

5 Criteria16 guidelinesResearch Data:• can be found on the

Internet• are accessible (clear

rights and licenses)• are in a usable format• are reliable• can be referred to

(persistent identifier)

03-05-2023

Data Seal of Approval

Connecting content & community

NARCIS.nl: Research Information

Computational History

e-Science, e-Humanities and e-History

• e-Science: “Science increasingly done through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet, using very large data collections, tera-scale computing resources and high performance visualisation.“ (Department of Trade and Industry; Research Council e-Science Core Programme)

• Humanities computing: “Humanities computing is an academic field concerned with the application of computing tools to arts and humanities data or to their use in the creation of these data.” (McCarty 1999)

Historical computing• Charles Harvey: historical computing must be concerned with the creation

of models of the past or representations of past realities.• Matthew Woollard: History and computing is not only about historical

research, but also about historical resource creation.• George Welling: Historical Informatics (computational history) is a new field

of interdisciplinary specialization dealing with pragmatic and conceptual issues related to the use of information and communication technologies in the teaching, research and public communication of history.

• Lawrence McCrank (2002): Historical information science integrates equally the subject matter of a historical field of investigation, quantified social science and linguistic research methodologies, computer science and technology, and information science, which is focused on historical information sources, structures, and communications.”

• Boonstra, Breure, Doorn (2004): Historical information science is the discipline that deals with specific information problems in historical research and in the sources that are used for historical research, and tries to solve these information problems in a generic way with the help of computing tools

Four categories of information problems in historical research

• information problems…– of historical sources (representation)– of relationships between sources (harmonization, linkage)– of historical analysis (qualitative and quantitative)– of the presentation of sources or analysis (visualization,

edition)

Life cycle of historical

information

What kind of digital infrastructure do historians and other humanities

scholars need?

Digitalising historical censuses

www.volkstellingen.nl

Shipping in the “Golden Age”

Journal entries, 26-29 September 1758

Ship’s name: NoordbevelandMonth: September

Year: 1758

Day: Tuesday

Date: 26thWeather on board Wind

Peculiarities

Dutch Shipping Routes 1750-1850

Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI

Collaboratories

Qualitative interviews and oral history data

• Sustainable storage of digital collection of “Telling Witnesses”– 500 interviews (videos en transcripts) with

eyewitnesses to WW II– 46 projects, funded by Ministry of Health,

welfare and sport• Veteran Tapes

– Collaboration with Veterans Institute and KWALON (Working Group for Qualitative Research), funded by SURF Foundation

– 1000 interviews with veterans (WO II to Bosnia)

– Enhanced publication: 25 transcripts, 6 researchers, book & web, links to archive

Medieval Memoria Online

Infrastructures are required to support and maintain the collaborative efforts

• Services need to be sustainable• Therefore they need to be generic and re-usable

DARIAH, the emerging Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities aims to “link and provide access to distributed digital source materials of many kinds”

European Research Infrastructures: DARIAH.EU and CLARIN.EU

• DARIAH: Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities

• CLARIN: Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure

• Collaboration: CLARIAH – Common Lab Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (proposal for National Roadmap submitted yesterday!)

DARIAH member states and national contact partners

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Zagreb/Croatia

Copenhagen/Denmark (VCC2)

Ljubljana/Slovenia

Vienna

Goettingen

Den Haag/Netherlands(VCC3)

Dublin

Paris

Athens

Germany(VCC1/

VCC4/DCO)

France(VCC3/DCO)

Austria(VCC1)

Ireland(VCC2)

London

UK

VilniusLithuania

Swit-zerlandBern

Italy

NorwayOslo

Tirana/Albania

Belgrade

Serbia

Ministry of Tourism Culture Youth and Sports

Digital Renaissance Foundation (FRD)

Florence

Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)TGE ADONIS

University of GoettingenGoettingen State and University Library (SUB)

Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

King's College LondonCentre for e-Research (CeRcH)

Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)

University of Oslo Museum of Cultural History (KHM)

Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)Institute for Corpus Linguistics

and Text Technology

Institute of Contemporary History (ICH)

Center for Digital Humanities (CDH)

Academy of Athens (AA)Research Centre for the Study

of Modern Greek History

Digital Curation Unit (DCU)Institute for the Management

of Information Systems

Vilnius University

University of Copenhagen (KU) Department of Scandinavian Research

MemberObserverCooperating PartnerNon-EU (Cooperating Partner)

Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI)Centre for Information and Computer Science

Add 3D and Virtual Reality content to Europeana

19 partners from 13 countries

Data Archiving and Networked ServicesAnna van Saksenlaan 10, 2593 HT Den Haag. Postbus 93067, 2509 AB Den Haag.T 070 3446 484, F 070 3446 482, E info@dans.knaw.nl

Thank you for your attention!www.dans.knaw.nl