IRCDL 2014: X Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries

IRCDL is a yearly conference for Italian researchers on Digital Libraries related topics. One of the focus of IRCDL 2014 is on emphasizing the multidisciplinary nature of the research on digital libraries which not only goes from computer science to humanities but also crosses among areas in the same field, ranging for example from archival to librarian sciences or from information management systems to new knowledge environments. This is a continued challenge for the DL field and there is the need to continue to contribute to improve the cooperation between the many communities that share common objectives.

Dep. Inform Engineering Padua-logoAnother focus of IRCDL 2014 is on the profound change that is happening on the world of scientific communication, where the object of scientific communication is no longer a linear text, although digital, but an object-centric network that consists of text, data, images, videos, blogs, etc. This change is likely to transform the nature and the role of the Digital Library and its relationship with the thematic data center. It is vitally important that this change is presented and discussed at IRCDL 2014. The aim of IRCDL 2014 is once more to provide the opportunity to explore new ideas, techniques and tools and to exchange experiences also from on-going projects.

Topics of IRCDL 2014 include but are not limited to:

  • Formal and methodological foundations of digital libraries
  • DL Architectures and infrastructures
  • System interoperability and data integration
  • Ontologies and linked data for digital libraries
  • Metadata creation, management, and curation
  • User interfaces and visualisation
  • Information Access, Usability, and Personalization
  • Long-term preservation
  • Collaborative and adaptive environments
  • Social networking and networked information
  • Quality and evaluation of digital libraries
  • Digital libraries for education and learning
  • Digital libraries for the evaluation of research quality and scholarly impact (bibliometric indicators, citation analysis etc.)
  • Exploitation of digital cultural heritage collections
  • Semantic publishing and digital libraries
  • Linking data to publications
  • New models for scholarly publishing

IMS-Padova-logoResearch papers, describing original ideas on those topics and on other fundamental aspects of digital libraries and technology, are solicited. Moreover, short papers on early research results, demos  and projects are also welcome. Research papers presenting original works should not exceed 12 pages, whereas short papers on early research results should not exceed 6 pages and papers presenting demos or projects should not exceed 4 pages.

Papers should be submitted electronically as a PDF file at:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ircdl2014

cultura-logoSubmissions must be formatted according to Authors Instructions for Springer-Verlag LNCS Proceedings. Accepted papers in PDF format will be published in on-line proceedings (max 12 pages) at the time of the conference and presented at the conference. After the conference, some selected authors will be invited to submit a revised version of their paper for a possible inclusion in the post-proceedings volume. The revised version of each paper must take into account the suggestions and the comments received during the discussion at the conference; the revised versions are going to be reviewed by at least two reviewers.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Deadlines

Submission Deadline: December 13, 2013

Acceptance Notification: January 10, 2014

Registration deadline: January 17, 2014

Final version submission: January 20, 2014

Conference

Conference: January 30-31, 2014

Post-Proceedings

Revised Version Submission: March 28, 2014

Post-proceedings Publication: by July, 2014

The IRCDL conferences have been launched and initially sponsored by DELOS, an EU FP6 Network of Excellence on digital libraries, together with the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padua. Over the years IRCDL has become a self-sustainable event that is supported by the Italian Digital Libraries Community. The 2014 edition is sponsored by the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padua and by CULTURA, EU Project for the development of next generation adaptive systems aimed at increasing and enhancing the use of digital humanities collections. IRCDL Steering Committee is composed of:

  • Maristella Agosti, University of Padua
  • Tiziana Catarci, University of Rome “La Sapienza”
  • Alberto Del Bimbo, University of Florence
  • Floriana Esposito, University of Bari
  • Carlo Tasso, University of Udine
  • Costantino Thanos, ISTI CNR, Pisa


A Virtual Research Community for the Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage @ ICT 2013, Vilnius
Norbert Meyer (Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center) took a presentation of the EUDAT project

Norbert Meyer (Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center) took a presentation of the EUDAT project

A network of projects and initiatives working worldwide in the domain of DCH, digital arts, digital performances, digital humanities, digital preservation and e-infrastructures  was born during the EGI Community Forum in Manchester

The networking session “A Virtual Research Community for the Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage” held at the ICT2013 Conference in Vilnius, intended to continue the discussion which was carried out in the last months through a series of joint events to identify common goals, strategies and synergies between the projects.

The aim is to progress in setting up a common plan for establishing a Virtual Research Community for the preservation of DCH, to be acknowledged at European level by the world of e-infrastructure and to target the opportunities offered by Horizon2020

Here below you can find all the presentations made during the event and some background information.

 

Programme and presentations

16:50 – 17:00 Welcome and introduction (Antonella Fresa, Promoter Srl, download PDF)

17:00 – 17:05 EUDAT: last achievements and next steps (Norbert Meyer, Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, download PDF)

17:05 – 17:10 SCAPE and SUCCEED: last achievements and next steps (Hildelies Balk, National Library of the Nedherlands, download PDF SCAPE/OPF, download PDF SUCCEED/IMPACT CoC)

17:10 – 17:15 APARSEN and SCIDIP-ES: last achievements and next steps (David Giaretta, Alliance for Permanent Access)

17:15 – 17:20 CHAIN-REDS: last achievements and next steps (Federico Ruggeri, INFN / GARR, download PDF)

17:20 – 17:35 Discussion. Towards a Virtual Research Community for the Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage: topics and ways of cooperation (use cases, MoUs, etc.), target users, features and services to be provided, interoperability issues

 

Objectives

To bring together projects and initiatives working world-wide in the domain of DCH, digital arts, digital performances, digital humanities and digital preservation to find synergies and discuss opportunities for cooperation, in particular around the theme of using e-infrastructures for the preservation of DCH.
The Session will be realized with the contribution and participation of representatives from several EU projects, among which:

  • DCH-RP: Digital Cultural Heritage Roadmap for Preservation
  • SCIDIPES: SCIence Data Infrastructure for Preservation – Earth Science
  • APARSEN: Alliance Permanent Access to the Record of Science in Europe network
  • EUDAT: Towards a European Collaborative Data Infrastructure
  • CHAIN REDS: Coordination and Harmonization of Advanced e-Infrastructures for Research and Education Data Sharing
  • DARIAH: Digital Research Infrastructure for Arts and Humanities
  • DASISH: Data Service Infrastructure for the Social Science and Humanities
  • CLARIN: Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure
  • SCAPE: SCAlable Preservation Environments
  • SUCCEED: Support Action Centre of Competence in Digitisation
  • PREFORMA: a new joint Pre-Commercial Procurement project – which is now under negotiation – whose main objective is the development of an open source software licensed reference implementation for different format standards as a tool to be used by memory institutions to check conformance with standard specifications

Targeted user communities and stakeholders

  • Cultural Heritage institutions (libraries, museums, archives, other National institutions)
  • Institutions that design policies at National and International levels (Ministerial policy makers, National authorities)
  • Ministries and state agencies responsible for e-Infrastructures (Ministries of Science, and/or Education, ICT agencies)
  • Cultural Heritage International Agency and Organizations (e.g., NEMO, EMF, ICOM, EBLIDA, CENL)
  • Policy-making bodies (e.g. Map out, ESFRI)
  • Public and private academic and research institutions which own digital content and carry out research activities
  • Private sector (Publishers; Bip, RRO organizations)
  • e-Infrastructures providers (NRENs, Grid & Clouds platform providers)
  • R&D projects and e-Infrastructure initiatives in digital preservation
  • Other National and International Projects and Initiatives related to the use of e-Infrastructures for the preservation of DCH

Expected outcomes

To continue the discussion and consolidate the network born during the EGI Community Forum in Manchester. It encompasses projects that are building data and research infrastructures applicable or dedicated to the CH and the humanities.
To identify common goals, strategies and synergies between the projects and set up a common plan identifying opportunities and threats in the light of establishing a Virtual Research Community to be acknowledged at European level by the world of e-infrastructure. The plan will chart an approach for targeting the opportunities offered by Horizon2020. This is as part of a more general vision towards an Open Science Infrastructure for DCH in 2020 that will be formed as a federation of existing infrastructures: national infrastructures (NRENs, NGIs), joint European initiatives (e.g. EGI), European data infrastructures (e.g. APARSEN, EUDAT, SCIDIP-ES), research infrastructures (e.g. DARIAH, CLARIN, DASISH), by also involving the commercial sector.

Contact details

Name: Claudio Prandoni

Affiliation: Promoter Srl

Email: prandoni@promoter.it


Europeana Photography new partner from Kiev

EUPH official logoEuropeanaPhotography consortium is happy and proud to announce that the group is growing! It was just signed an agreement for the provision of amazing new content with a new content provider from Ukraine.

So welcome to company SC BALI and to Ms. Olga Barkova and her colleagues.

SC BALI is a company based in Kiev that already has experience with EU projects;  the general activity is the international business and one of the directions is ICT in the cultural, science and education sectors, including the distribution and developing of software.

Ms. Olga Barkova

Ms. Olga Barkova in her studio

SC BALI has been an official contributor of the Linked Heritage Project and already has got experience in delivering content to Europeana.  For EuropeanaPhotography, it will be a collector for photographic collections belonging to Ukrainian libraries and archives, helping them with metadata preparation and content providing.

SC BALI

The technicians of SC BALI are already at work testing the EuropeanaPhotography MINT tool to provide a first batch of photographs. Thanks to this collaboration, Ukrainian and Russian languages will also be added to the EuropeanaPhotography Vocabulary!

And, at the end of November, SC BALI is organizing a very interesting workshop in Kiev, also focused on EuropeanaPhotography.


Preservation and use of digital collections of photographic documents

header - kiev

First International Scientific and Practical Seminar

 DIGITIZED HERITAGE: PRESERVATION, ACCESS, REPRESENTATION

Preservation and use of digital collections of photographic documents

November 25-26, 2013

State Polytechnic Museum (NTUU “KPI”) held a scientific and practical seminar, the first in a series of informational and training events on the subject of digitizing of historical, cultural and scientific heritage stored in archives, museums, libraries and private collections.

kiev 2The objective was to familiarize professionals with advanced international practices, digitizing technologies, development and integration of digital collections, access and use methods. The event was composed of lectures, presentations, trainings, workshops, and professional meetings to foster discussions and find appropriate technological solutions.

Moderators and speakers were highly experienced local and foreign experts on digitizing and related areas of information and communication technologies: heads of archives, museums, libraries, publishers, owners of private collections, scientists, and a notable audience of about 140 participants.

Speakers:

Nataliia Pysarevska, Director of State Polytechnic Museum (NTUU “KPI”), Museology expert (Kiev, Ukraine)

Andrea de Polo, BFA, holds a Museum Studies Certificate from George Eastman House Museum. Project manager for R&D projects at Fratelli Alinari Photo Archive. Independent consultant to museums and the cultural heritage sector specializing in digital strategy for institutions of all sizes. Expert in strategic planning, business sourcing and procurement, budgeting and forecasting, DRMS, electronic publishing, online digital resources and publications, open access policies and issues. (Florence, Italy)

Hilary Roberts, Head Curator of photography at Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive, archivist, specialist in the history of war photography, expert consultant to curators, archivists and librarians on matters pertaining to photography around the world. (London, United Kingdom)

Olga Barkova, PhD, Deputy director on IT development at BALI Specialized Center,  Deputy head of Technical Committee TK-144 “Information and Documentation”, expert in digital libraries and collections, digitizing technologies (Kiev, Ukraine)

Seminar program:

Presentations:  

  • State Polytechnic Museum: the collection of photographs (Natalia Pisarevskaya),
  • The Fratelli Alinari Photo Archive and Museum: history, funds, activities (Andrea De Polo, presentation available here),
  • The Photograph Archive of the Imperial War Museum (UK): storage, digitizing, the use of film and photographs, digital designs to the anniversaries of the events (Hilary Roberts)
  • Ukrainian in Europeana: the initiative and the experience of connecting the Ukrainian digitized documentary heritage to EUROPEANA, the integrated European catalog (Barkova Olga)

Lecture:

  • Digitizing of photographic documents: best practice of safety and access (Andrea De Polo)
  • Software technologies for the integration of digitized photocontent into digital collections and electronic encyclopedic resources (Olga Barkova)

Master class: 

  • Digitizing of photographic documents: the organization of the process, licensing and protection of digital content (Andrea De Polo)
  • Preparing of the content for Europeana: requirements to the digital copies of the photographic documents, metadata (format LIDO) (Olga Barkova, Andrea de Polo)

Professional meeting  – Cooperation with EuropeanaPhotography

  • The Perspectives of Ukrainian organizations participation in the EU programs
  • Commercial use of the photographic documents: the experience and proposals  of Societа Fratelli Alinari IDEA S.p.A.
  • The possibility of cooperation with European partners, projects and various forms of public access to public, licensed and private digitized photocontent.

 

Working languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English.

 

Location: Kyiv, 37 Peremohy ave. 37, Building 6

State Polytechnic museum NTUU “KPI”

Administrative Council Hall (1 floor)

Map: http://museum.kpi.ua/location/

Schedule

November 25

 

9:30

Registration

10:00-17:00

Presentations, lectures session, master class

 11:00, 15:30

Coffee break

13:00-14:00

Lunch break

November 26

 

10:00-15:30

Professional meeting

11:30

Coffee break

Excursion at the museum

 

Details for participation in the official announce (PDF, 270 Kb)


EAGLE plenary meeting in Pisa

On the 24th and 25th October 2013, in Pisa, it was held the second plenary meeting of EAGLE project, that was joined with a training workshop for the partners.

Actually, the training workshop was held on day 1, and after the welcome by Vittore Casarosa of CNR-ISTI, the hosting partner, it started with a very interesting introduction to epigraphy for non-epigraphers by the project coordinator Silvia Orlandi, Sapienza University of Rome. Silvia Orlandi

The presentation was very useful to those non-specialist partners that learned the main concepts of epigraphy;  during the presentation it was also mentioned an interesting paper by prof. Panciera: “What Is An Inscription? Problems Of Definition And Identity Of An Historical Source.”.

The rest of the workshop was focused on resources, metadata and harvesting protocols, the EAGLE metadata model & schema (presentation by Eydel Rivero Ruíz, University of Alcalà), and a wide training about the mapping process to allow ingestion of the metadata to Europeana, by Andrea Mannocci, CNR-ISTI.

Also requirements for the mobile application, to be presented on day 2, were tackled.

On Friday 25th,  Philippe Martineau of EUREVA opened the session presenting the EAGLE Mobile Application, designed for enabling tourists to understand inscriptions they find on location by scanning them with a smartphone.

eagle mobile appThen, the plenary meeting started with discussions by all the WP leaders about project progress and objectives for the next period. Particularly useful for the partners were the summary of the training workshop and planning of the ingestion phase, by Valentina Vassallo, The Cyprus Institute, the discussion on networking methodologies and next steps in the Working Groups by Pietro Liuzzo, University of Heidelberg,  Christian Uhlir and Andreas Sanders, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg and the discussion about the requirements for the implementation of the end-user dedicated services, among which the storytelling application, by Francesco Mambrini, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut.

Raffaella Santucci, Sapienza University of Rome, the Dissemination Leader, presented the challenges and future strategie for the dissemination and outreach of the project in collaboration with all the partners.

During the session, a wide presentation of the EAGLE website and the EAGLE showcase hosted by digitalmeetsculture was also delivered by our technical director, and technical coordinator of the project, Claudio Prandoni.

Next appointment for the EAGLE project will be on the 19-20 February 2014, in Ljubljana, with the first EAGLE workshop “Current Practices and New Directions in Digital Epigraphy“. Still to be confirmed as for dates and venues, the first EAGLE International Conference will also take place in early autumn 2014.


Digital heritage international congress 2013

marseille congressOver 13 Conferences, Symposia, Workshops and Exhibitions under one roof

In the 2013 European Capital of Culture, Marseille, this fall will have place the world’s largest gathering ever focused on Digital Heritage. A federated event of the leading scientific meetings in information technology for heritage, the Congress will for the first time bring: VSMM, Eurographics GCHUNESCO’s Memory of the WorldArquaeologica2.0ArcheovirtualDigital Art Week and special events from CAACIPASpace2PlaceICOMOS IPCH, and multiple others together in one venue with a prestigious joint proceedings.

A ground-breaking public display of cutting edge digital heritage projects will grace the conference venue at the new museum complex on the Marseille waterfront. Organized by CNRS-MAP, in collaboration with other local research organisms (Aix-Marseille University, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, CICRP, INRIA), the venue will be Marseille’s architecturally stunning new waterfront museums, MuCEM and La Villa Mediterranée.

The Congress covers heritage in all its forms, focusing around 5 heritage themes:

  • Built Heritage (sites to cities, towns and cultural landscapes, ie World Heritage)
  • Culture & Traditions (folklife to languages, song, dance, craft… ie Intangible Heritage),
  • Museums & Collections (movable objects and their museums, ie Movable Heritage)
  • Libraries & Archives (books to maps, manuscripts, …, ie Documentary Heritage)
  • Art & Creativity (digital / new media art to creative digital and online culture)

The Congress’ International Scientific Committee is seeking for:

  • Technical & Application Papers
  • Posters & Short Works
  • Panel, Workshop & Tutorial Proposals
  • Videos for a public screening
  • Functional Exhibits for a public exhibition of digital heritage works

Download the Call for Participation (PDF, 994 Kb)

For further information please visit the official website: http://www.digitalheritage2013.org/


Europeana Photography in Marseille

Sofie Taes of KU Leuven gave a presentation of EuropeanaPhotography during the panel session of EU projects at Digital Heritage 2013.

sofie taes at marseille event

The workshop took place on the 29th October and included representatives of several EU projects, who delivered interesting speeches.

It was an occasion to discuss and present the project to colleagues, experts and professionals in the cultural heritage, to foster reciprocal awareness and cooperation.

Download the presentation (PDF, 3.82 Mb)


Parallel Semantic Search Across Multiple Repositories

Thanks to the collaboration between DCH-RP and CHAIN-REDS projects, a Parallel Semantic Search Engine has been integrated in the e-Culture Science Gateway.

This is a standard-based web 2.0 demonstrative platform that enables search in parallel in different online repositories of linked data. The users now can search across the tens of millions of resources contained in the CHAIN-REDS Knowledge Base as well as in the Europeana, Cultura Italia and Isidore repositories.

semantic search

Data accessible through the eCSG are stored on the European Grid Infrastructure and are accessible through the pan-European GEANT network and the National Research & Education Networks. The service is available both in a web-based version and with a mobile app.

The eCSG was developed to show the Proofs of Concepts (PoCs) identified by the DCH-RP project and how they fit with the requirements defined in the Roadmap.

semantic search results

Please access here the Semantic Search service: http://ecsg.dch-rp.eu/semantic-search


An African e-Infrastructure for Virtual Research Communities and their Applications

A joint CHAIN-REDS and eI4Africa Workshop was organised under the aegis of the European Commission and in co-location with big event UbuntuNet Connect 2013.

The CHAIN-REDS and eI4Africa EU/FP7 projects have a common interest in promoting the adoption of consolidated standards, both in the e-Infrastructure and certification authorities and Federated Identity services domains, with the ultimate aim of widening the number of potential users of e-Infrastructures in Africa.

chain logo

CHAIN-REDS aims at promoting and supporting technological and scientific collaboration across different e-Infrastructures established and operated in various continents, in order to define a path towards a global e-Infrastructure ecosystem.

eI4Africa aims at boosting the Research, Technological Development and Innovation eI4africa_logo(RTDI) potential of African e-Infrastructures and to support policy dialogues and Euro-African cooperation in the framework of the joint Africa-EU Strategic Partnership on ‘trade, regional integration and infrastructures’ (JAES Partnership 3) as well as the Joint Africa-EU Strategic Partnership on ‘science, information society and space’ (JAES Partnership 8).

In the light of this common interest, the two projects in partnerships organised a highly interactive joint event to present a set of activities implemented to date, including the deployment of Science Gateways and federated services (Certification  Authorities and Identity Providers), a Knowledge Database, an e-Infrastructure application survey, as well as a large number of live demos in life science, healthcare and environmental sectors, among others.

The main objectives of this workshop were to:

  • Enhance collaboration among African and European scientists
  • Raise awareness of the regional research and education networks and their potential
  • Propose alternative means of conducting research and delivering services
  • Demonstrate the relevance of e-Infrastructures and advanced networks
  • Provide a forum for discussions and debates on recent developments and perspectives in the field.

africagridscinecegateway

 

During the workshop, representatives from INFN, Italian National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics in Italy, presented some applications integrated in the Africa Grid Science Gateway, which has been built with the same framework used for the eCulture Science Gateway, that is also in use in the EU project about e-infrastructures DCH-RP.

One of the applications that were showcased is the “De Roberto Digital Repository”, which was presented as an example of repository for digital cultural heritage.

This thematic workshop took place on November 13, 2013, in Kigali, co-located with the UbuntuNet-Connect 2013 (Nov. 14-15, 2013) and it was organised by KIST and the UbuntuNet Alliance with the support of Sigma Orionis and all eI4Africa and CHAIN-REDS project partners.


Open e-IRG Workshop to discuss Infrastructures and e-Infrastructures

eu2013 ltThe e-IRG Workshop under the Lithuanian EU Presidency of the European Union was held in Vilnius, Lithuania from Monday 4 November till Tuesday 5 November.

The main topics of discussions during this workshop were: “Infrastructures in the Digital Age: the Data Challenge” and “e-Infrastructure commons“.

The venue was the old Vilnius University campus, Universiteto 3.

 logo e-irg

The main themes of the workshop were discussed in two tracks: “Implementation of the e-Infrastructure commons” and “Infrastructures in the Digital Age: the Data Challenge”.

The workshop included speeches by very important and international experts such as Sverker Holmgren (e-IRG Chair), Arjen van Rijn,  Bob Jones, Antonella Fresa (for DCH-RP; presentation), Kostas Glinos (introducing Horizon2020), Alf Game, Bjorn Henrichsen, Damien Lecarpentier (for EUDAT), Herman Stehouwer (RDA) and others.

Images and videoes of the meeting will be published soon.

e-irg workshop

 

Download the presentation “Digital Cultural Heritage moving toward an e-Infrastructure based approach to digital preservation” by A. Fresa here