84211 - Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2018/2019

Learning outcomes

The course aims to initiate to the digital humanities field. The analysis of the main theories, methodologies and techniques of the domain, are the strategy to acquire skills on digital project planning in the humanities. The study, in particular, of the standard models used in archives, libraries and museums, allow students to learn how to produce, preserve and disseminate digital cultural collections in integrated environments.

Course contents

The course wants to initiate to digital humanities with a special focus on languages, models, tools and infrastructures for the enhancement of cultural heritage: literary texts, archive documents, bibliographic material and museum objects.

The course will be organized on three macro areas:

  1. Analysis of the main transversal tools in DH: WWW (protocol, addressing, languages); Formal languages for the representation of semi-structured data (XML and schema); The semantic web and the linked open data (Semantic Web Stack - URIs, RDFs and ontologies); Data display systems (HTML + CSS and information architecture principles); The interface design (web page elements and browsing systems).
  2. Study of the DH domain through the main research areas, but with a special focus on: digital scholarship and textual editing; Digital libraries, archives and museums. In particular, projects will be analyzed to enucleate the specific features of the process of building a digital resource in the DH domain.
  3. Classification of the main standards for the description of cultural heritage resources, and related ontologies, in the context of: resource dissemination (Dublin Core); Description of literary texts (TEI); Archival description (ISAD / EAD; ISAAR / EAC); Bibliography description (ISBD, FRBR); Museum management (LIDO, CIDOC-CRM); Cross-ontologies (RAD, RIC-CM).

Readings/Bibliography

A suggested reading, before the start of the course, is:
A Companion to Digital Humanities, ed. Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, John Unsworth. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. <http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/>. In particular chapters: 1, 14, 16, 17, 22, 31.

Further readings will be proposed and discussed during the lessons.

In detail some Web resources will be used:

1. for languages
:
TEI - <http://www.tei-c.org>; <http://teibyexample.org/>
XML - <https://www.w3schools.com/xml/>
HTML, CSS, user interface design - <https://www.codecademy.com/>
SEMANTIC WEB - <https://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/>
LINKED DATA - <http://linkeddata.org/>

2. for DH projects and journals:
DH PROJECTS
Projects using the TEI: <http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Projects/>
EADH projects: <http://eadh.org/projects>

DH JOURNALS
Journal of DH - <http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/>
DHQ - <http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/>
DSH - <https://academic.oup.com/dsh> (via proxy)
TEI journal - <https://journal.tei-c.org/journal/index>

A reference:
Paolo Monella, Digital Humanities Bibliography,
<http://www1.unipa.it/paolo.monella/lincei/bibliography.html>

3. for Standards:
METADATA for ALL, <http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1628/1543>

Jenn Riley, Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe, copy 2009-10, <http://jennriley.com/metadatamap/>.

W3C Incubator Group Report, Library Linked Data Incubator Group: Datasets, Value Vocabularies, and Metadata Element Sets. 25 October 2011, <https://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/XGR-lld-vocabdataset-20111025/>.

LODLAM (Linked Open Data for Library, Archives and Museums): Mauro Guerrini, Tiziana Possemato, Linked data: un nuovo alfabeto del web semantico. JLIS.it. Vol. 4, n. 1 (Gennaio/January 2013) - <https://www.jlis.it/article/viewFile/6305/7892>

Italian standard in LAM (Libraries, Archives and Museums):
ICCU: <http://www.iccu.sbn.it/opencms/opencms/it/main/standard/>
ICCD: <http://www.iccd.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/473/standard-catalografici>
ANAI: <http://www.anai.org/anai-cms/cms.view?munu_str=0_1_3&numDoc=111>
ICOM: <http://icom.museum/professional-standards/standards-guidelines/>

Teaching methods

Lessons;
Seminars;
Online tools;
Software analysis.

Assessment methods

The assessment will be based on:

1. Presentation of an original work on one of the course topics. The argument will need to be a theme not already discussed in detail during the course. The work will need to be summarized in a presentation of about 15 slides on PowerPoint (bibliography and sitography included) and presented in maximum 30 minutes.

2. Discussion of the features of one digital resource in the humanities, with particular reference to: descriptive model and adaptation to descriptive standards; peculiarities in the implementation of this model; management of data, in particular reference to specific technical solutions; presentation of data and access.

Non-attending students are required, in addition to the preparation of the seminar and the critical discussion of a digital resource in the humanities, even discuss about the chapters of the two volumes in bibliography.

The evaluation will be based on the following parameters:

  • failing grades. 1) The choosen argument replicates what already discussed in class; the work does not demonstrate an adequated bibliographical survey; the presentation does not respect the timing. 2) The discussion of the digital resource does not prove acquisition of the technical vocabulary of the discipline; the description shows an insufficient study of the choosen digital resource; the choice of the resource is based on a resource already widely discussed during the lesson.
  • passing grades. 1) The presented work, even if new compared to what was discussed in class, demonstrates a minimum bibliographical survey; the presentation observes the timing. 2) The discussion of the digital resource shows the partial acquisition of the technical vocabulary of the discipline; the description reveals a limited study of the resource; the choice of the resource is based on previously discussed Web sites.
  • good grades. 1) The topic of the seminar is a new argument, and demonstrates adequate bibliographical survey; the presentation respects the timing. 2) The discussion of the digital resource shows the full acquisition of the technical vocabulary of the discipline; the description reveals an analytical study of the resource; the choice of the resource is based on a Web site not discussed during the lesson.
  • excellent grades. 1) The topic of the seminar demonstrates a serious and careful bibliographical survey; the research shows autonomous reworking ability; the presentation respects the timing. 2) The discussion of the digital resource demonstrates acquisition of the technical vocabulary of the discipline; the description shows an in-depth and analytical study of the resource; the presentation is based on a site never discussed nor presented during the lectures.



Teaching tools

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

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Tomasi