B8106 - Information Science and Cultural Heritage (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to introduce the issue of organizing knowledge in archives and libraries, providing also a theoretical and practical overview of digital methods for the encoding, analysis, and semantic representation of texts (literary and not). In particular at the end of the course the students will be able to: use the standards of the domain for data description; manage the practices oriented to the enrichment of data through semantic strategies (ontologies and controlled vocabularies); create complex metadata for digital objects in the cultural heritage domain; create, manipulate, query, organise and disseminate electronic documents in digital text collections.

Course contents

The course is organized in two modules.

Module 1

The module wants to focus on three strictly related topics:

• the study of international standards in the (G)LAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museum) domain (metadata element sets and value vocabularies);
• the reflection on the concept of KO (Knowledge Organization) and in particular on the role of ontologies as conceptual models;
• the analysis of semantic (digital) activities in (G)LAM through KO methods.

In particular the course will give to students the skills for creating LOD (Linked Open Data) in the (G)LAM domain.

Module 2

The module offers a gentle introduction to problems, approaches, and technologies for encoding, representing, organizing, and manipulating knowledge.

At the end of the module students:

• are aware of theoretical and practical aspects relevant to text encoding (XML/TEI);
• have acquired all the required skills to produce a machine-readable text (XML and HTML);
• can annotate and extract structured data from encoded texts;
• can manipulate text and semi-structured data via programming languages (e.g. XSLT, Python);
• can transform data into several formats and representations (e.g. HTML, RDF, JSON),
• can produce Linked Open Data.

Readings/Bibliography

Students are required to read, before attending the course: DH101, an Introduction to Digital Humanities (the pdf is available on Virtuale).

All teaching materials and lecture slides will be made available online.

Module 1

For the preparation of the final examination, students are required to read the following materials, together with the lecture slides and the resources discussed during the course:

• The BOOK on LOD: Tom Heath and Christian Bizer (2011) Linked Data: Evolving the Web into a Global Data Space (1st edition). Synthesis Lectures on the Semantic Web: Theory and Technology, 1:1, 1-136. Morgan & Claypool. <http://linkeddatabook.com/editions/1.0/ >
• The PAPER (LODLAM in digital collections): Marilena Daquino, Francesca Mambelli, Silvio Peroni, Francesca Tomasi, Fabio Vitali. Enhancing semantic expressivity in the cultural heritage domain: exposing the Zeri Photo Archive as Linked Open Data, 2017.
• The PAPER (LODLAM in digital editions): Barzaghi, Sebastian; Palmero Aprosio, Alessio; Paolucci, Francesco; Tomasi, Francesca; Tonelli, Sara; Vignocchi, Marialaura; Vitali, Fabio,The Semantic Digital Edition of Aldo Moro’s Writings: A Workflow supporting Data Sharing and Replicability, «ACM JOURNAL ON COMPUTING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE», 2025, 18, pp. 1 - 22.
  

 

Module 2

Lecture notes will be freely available from a dedicated GitHub repository <https://github.com/marilenadaquino/tesr_dhdk> before the course starts (please check this page before the beginning of the course for further information).

Slides and any additional material will be made available a few days before each lecture in the same repository.

Suggested readings are provided during classes.

Teaching methods

The course combines lectures and hands-on classes.

Lectures provide the theoretical foundations and introduce the main concepts, methods, and frameworks.

Hands-on classes allow students to apply the acquired knowledge through practical exercises, case studies, and project-based activities, fostering active learning and the development of analytical and technical skills.

Assessment methods

The Project

The exam consists of an individual project to be developed and presented during an oral examination. In brief:

• Choose a text

• Identify relevant entities and relationships

• Create the XML/TEI document

• Select standards for describing entities and relationships

• Develop your conceptual model

• Describe the entities and relationships (XML, JSON, CSV)

• Enrich your XML/TEI file

• Transform all files into HTML

• Transform all files into RDF

• Produce a knowledge graph

• Create a website including documentation and access to all files

Detailed specifications are available on Virtuale.

The project URL must be sent to Prof. Tomasi and Prof. Daquino two days before the date of the oral exam.

During the oral examination, students will also be assessed on the concepts and topics covered throughout the whole course.

Evaluation Criteria

• Topic relevance and coherence – 15%

• Use of technical/disciplinary terminology – 25%

• Correct and complete implementation – 25%

• Knowledge of models, schemas, and languages – 25%

• Project completeness – 10%

Grading

• 91–100%: Excellent final grade

• 71–90%: Good final grade

• 51–70%: Sufficient/Fair grade

• Below 50%: Fail

Teaching tools

Classes are held in a classroom equipped with personal computers connected to the Intranet and Internet.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students.

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Tomasi

See the website of Marilena Daquino