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).

Module 1

For the preparation for the final examination, students are required to read:

• A BOOK. 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/ >;
• A GUIDEBOOK. LiAM. Linked Archival Metadata: A Guidebook (version 0.99). <http://infomotions.com/sandbox/liam/tmp/guidebook.pdf >;
• A PAPER ON KO. Birger Hjørland. Knowledge organization (KO), 2016.
  <http://www.isko.org/cyclo/knowledge_organization >;
  
• A sample of a PROJECT on LODLAM. 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. <https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.01188 >.

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

Lectures and hands-on classes.

Assessment methods

The exam consists in a project to be developed and presented during an oral colloquim. Specs are:

1. Collection & Relationships

• Topic: Choose a meaningful topic (e.g., feminist literature, medieval manuscripts, digital art pieces, scientific instruments).

• Collection: Collecting at least 10 heterogeneous items, provided by online institutions, and recognize metadata.

• Relationships: Elaborate meaningful connections among the items (e.g., same author, same theme, part-of, citation, influence).

2. Text Item

Pick one item (e.g., a literary text, a historical document) and provide:

a. TEI/XML Encoding

• Sample if too long

• Must follow TEI Guidelines 

b. TEI → HTML

• Provide:

  • A Python script

  • A XSLT stylesheet

  • And the final HTML document

c. TEI → RDF

• Use Python (e.g. with rdflib)

• Provide:

  • Transformation script

  • Final RDF dataset (TTL, RDF/XML, or JSON-LD)

3. Ontology Design

a. Theoretical Model

• Recognize entities in your items (e.g. a specific Person, Book, Place, Document, etc.), define relationships (e.g. wrote, createdIn), and add metadata already provided by the institutions.

b. Conceptual Model

• Draw a diagram recognizing abstract classes, properties, and relations in order to prepare your ontology.

c. Ontology

• Use existing vocabularies

• Extend if needed (with proper namespaces) 

4. RDF Dataset

• Describe all 10 items using your ontology

• Create a RDF dataset for each object via Python

• Store all in a single RDF dataset (in Turtle, RDF/XML, or JSON-LD)

5. Website

• Should include:

  • Project description

  • All files and datasets 

6. Teamwork & Oral Exam

• Maximum 3 people

• Each member must:

  • Clearly document their personal contribution

  • Be able to discuss the full project

  • Show understanding of:

    • Semantic Web principles and Linked Open Data

    • Metadata, schemas, ontologies and controlled vocabularies for the cultural heritage

    • TEI/XML modeling and related technologies

    • RDF, Ontologies, XSLT/Python tools

Evaluation Criteria

• Topic relevance and coherence 15%
• Use of technical/disciplinary vocabulary 25%
• Correct and complete implementation 25%
• Knowledge of models, schemas, languages 25%
• Project completeness 10%

Grade

91-100% will lead to a excellent final grade

71-90% will lead to a good final grade

51-70% will lead to a sufficient/fair grade

<50% will lead to a failure in passing the exam

 

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