Category Archives: oa.glam

4Science

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“4Science was established in 2015 to support universities, research and cultural institutes all around the world in managing and realizing digital projects.

We guarantee full compliance with methodological and scientific international standards and we strongly support open source, open standards and interoperability protocols.

The 4Science team of experts has gained decades of domain expertise and experience resulting from numerous collaborations with universities and research institutes.

Visit our pages through the links below to know more about our contributions to free software communities, our clients, our certifications and our partnerships with the major players of the Open Science world.”

GLAM Wiki 2023/Program/Towards a Recommendation on Open Culture – What, When, How? – Meta

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“Creative Commons’ Towards a Recommendation on Open Culture (TAROC) is a community initiative aiming to develop an international policy framework to recognize the importance of and support global open sharing of culture. As we build this initiative, we are seeking community engagement from GLAM professionals.

In September last year, UNESCO declared culture a global public good at Mondiacult 2022. With the successes of the 2019 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources and 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, the world looks to UNESCO’s leadership to create the necessary international framework that would unlock the possibilities of equitable, ethical, and respectful sharing of cultural heritage in the digital age: a UNESCO Recommendation on Open Culture.

In this session, we will present our work around the initiative thus far and what we plan next. We will also hold space to hear from participants in Latin America about how open culture experiences in the region could help inform this international initiative….”

Nigeria: the best copyright law in the world? | EIFL

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“In March 2023, the President of Nigeria signed the Copyright Act, 2022 into law. EIFL’s analysis of the new law shows it to be one of the most progressive in the world with respect to libraries and library activities. Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, highlights the benefits to libraries of the new law and how it can inspire librarians and policymakers in other countries in Africa, and around the world.”

Culture Heritage and Structured Data: How DPLA became the biggest institution to contribute to Structured Data on Commons – Diff

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“What would become of Wikipedia and its sister projects without images from museums, libraries, and archives? Pictures from these institutions are able to illustrate a range of different articles, in diverse fields and areas. However, in order to really accomplish that, images should not only be available, but also enriched with data that can make them more findable on the projects. 

And so, for the past few years, the Culture and Heritage team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been involved with Structured Data-related initiatives in order to engage heritage materials on the Wikimedia projects. Our objective, together with the Structured Data Across Wikimedia (SDAW) team, was to support and increase image usage across the projects, as well as to structure Wikimedia to help it reach communities globally.

One of the main projects we worked on together was the initiative with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). This institution became one of the biggest Wikimedia Commons contributors, with 3.7 million images available on the project, by not only being the main institution in the United States directly uploading files to the platform, but also because of its structured data activities. Since 2020, DPLA has worked on adding and modeling structured data and engaging in discussions around the topic, precisely to make its files (the files from the 300 institutions that contribute to the DPLA’s Wikimedia pipeline) more findable and used on Commons, on Wikipedia, and elsewhere. Currently, DPLA presents around 15 million edits to 50-100 million structured data on Commons statements….”

Now in its sixth year of existence, the Open GLAM survey has just undergone a significant overhaul. Here’s what has changed. | Open GLAM

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“Since Dr Andrea Wallace and I began the Open GLAM survey in 2018, it has tracked galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) making open access content available for re-use. It’s become the go-to reference for researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in copyright and digital cultural heritage collections. Today, it lists over 1600 institutions from 56 countries that have published open access data.

The survey has grown steadily in size and complexity. Housed in a publicly accessible Google Sheet, the survey has an extensive range of data points including institution type, geographic location, rights statements, APIs, terms of use and much more. To keep this information legible, whilst incorporating new data points and expanding the granularity of the data, Andrea and I have steadily optimised the survey’s structure. This summer we’re releasing a significant new version — here are the key changes….”

The Alexandria Archive Institute

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“The Alexandria Archive Institute will lead a network of cultural heritage stakeholders to investigate, develop, demonstrate, and promote more equitable cultural heritage data curation practices. Specifically, the project aims to reconcile the apparent social and technical contradictions between two highly regarded data management principles: CARE (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, and ethics) and FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reuse). The participation network includes representatives from libraries; museums; data repositories; public, commercial, and non-profit institutions; as well as Indigenous heritage representatives. Participants will meet twice in-person and more frequently in virtual meetings of three thematic working groups to explore alignment of cultural heritage data management practices with indigenous and other descendant community needs. This project will advance the capacity of cultural heritage institutions to curate data documenting the histories, landscapes, and cultures of diverse communities in an ethically responsible manner.”

WorldFAIR Project (D13.2) Cultural Heritage Image Sharing Recommendations Report | Zenodo

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Abstract:  Deliverable 13.2 for the WorldFAIR Project’s Cultural Heritage Work Package (WP13). Although the cultural heritage sector has only recently begun to think of traditional gallery, library, archival and museum (‘GLAM’) collections as data, long established practices guiding the management and sharing of information resources has aligned the domain well with the FAIR principles for research data, evidenced in complementary workflows and standards that support discovery, access, reuse, and persistence. As explored in the previous report by Work Package 13 for the WorldFAIR Project, D13.1 Practices and policies supporting cultural heritage image sharing platforms, memory institutions are in an important position to influence cross-domain data sharing practices and raise critical questions about why and how those practices are implemented.

Deliverable 13.2 aims to build on our understanding of what it means to support FAIR in the sharing of image data derived from GLAM collections. This report looks at previous efforts by the sector towards FAIR alignment and presents 5 recommendations designed to be implemented and tested at the DRI that are also broadly applicable to the work of the GLAMs. The recommendations are ultimately a roadmap for the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) to follow in improving repository services, as well as a call for continued dialogue around ‘what is FAIR?’ within the cultural heritage research data landscape.

WorldFAIR Project (D13.2) Cultural Heritage Image Sharing Recommendations Report –

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“Deliverable 13.2 for the WorldFAIR Project’s Cultural Heritage Work Package (WP13). Although the cultural heritage sector has only recently begun to think of traditional gallery, library, archival and museum (‘GLAM’) collections as data, long established practices guiding the management and sharing of information resources has aligned the domain well with the FAIR principles for research data, evidenced in complementary workflows and standards that support discovery, access, reuse, and persistence. As explored in the previous report by Work Package 13 for the WorldFAIR Project, D13.1 Practices and policies supporting cultural heritage image sharing platforms, memory institutions are in an important position to influence cross-domain data sharing practices and raise critical questions about why and how those practices are implemented.

Deliverable 13.2 aims to build on our understanding of what it means to support FAIR in the sharing of image data derived from GLAM collections. This report looks at previous efforts by the sector towards FAIR alignment and presents 5 recommendations designed to be implemented and tested at the DRI that are also broadly applicable to the work of the GLAMs. The recommendations are ultimately a roadmap for the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) to follow in improving repository services, as well as a call for continued dialogue around ‘what is FAIR?’ within the cultural heritage research data landscape.

The report is available on Zenodo.”

Three Questions for Tracy Bergstrom – Ithaka S+R

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“Earlier this month, Tracy Bergstrom joined Ithaka S+R as a program manager focused on collections and infrastructure….

[From Tracy:] Libraries, archives, and museums exist for the enrichment of the communities they serve, and free and open access to knowledge is a critical component of establishing a more equitable society. While this underlying mission remains constant, the tools we need to administer this vision are evolving rapidly….”

SAOA Surpasses 1 Million Pages of Open Access Content | CRL

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“The South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) achieved a major milestone last month, surpassing one million pages in its online collection of free, open access digital content. 

For the past several years, members of the South Asia Open Archives initiative have been working collaboratively to build a robust collection of primary sources for researching, teaching, and learning about South Asia. Following its public launch in October 2019(link is external), SAOA has added hundreds of thousands of pages of newly digitized material from across the region. Now totaling over one-million pages of open-access primary source material, SAOA’s collection includes more than thirty-thousand items in twenty-seven different languages….”

NEH grant to transform UChicago’s creation and delivery of digital collections and research data – The University of Chicago Library News – The University of Chicago Library

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“The National Endowment for the Humanities is awarding the University of Chicago nearly $1 million to transform UChicago’s creation, stewardship, and delivery of digital collections and research data. Working together, the University of Chicago Library and Division of the Humanities will use the grant to build a new digital structure, UChicagoNode—the core of what will eventually be a network extending and enhancing the practice of digital research at UChicago and around the world. The University is committed to raising an additional $4 million to fulfill the vision for this project.

Treasure troves of more than 200 digital collections exist across the University, but they are found in a wide range of unconnected systems, including several hundred terabytes of digital content held at the Library. UChicagoNode will give researchers a single place to go to discover available digital collections through a unified, open access platform. It will provide a long-term home for content created as part of research and teaching at UChicago, contributed by partners from outside the University, and digitized by the Library. Future scholars will also benefit from UChicagoNode because it will provide an established infrastructure for a diverse range of digital collections and will break down barriers between traditionally siloed datasets. The collections will exist as datasets that can be used with machine analysis, natural language processing, spatial mapping, and other AI-based explorations….”

The Smithsonian Puts 4.5 Million High-Res Images Online and Into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Use | Open Culture

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“More items are being added to Smithsonian Open Access all the time, each with its own story to tell — and all accessible not just to Americans, but internet users the world over. In that sense it feels a bit like the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, better known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, with its mission of revealing America’s scientific, technological, and artistic genius to the whole of human civilization. You can see a great many photos and other artifacts of this landmark event at Smithsonian Open Access, or, if you prefer, you can click the “just browsing” link and behold all the historical, cultural, and formal variety available in the Smithsonian’s digital collections, where the spirit of Columbia lives on.”

A Checklist to Publish Collections as Data in GLAM Institutions

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Abstract:  Large-scale digitization in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) created the conditions for providing access to collections as data. It opened new opportunities to explore, use and reuse digital collections. Strong proponents of collections as data are the Innovation Labs which provided numerous examples of publishing datasets under open licenses in order to reuse digital content in novel and creative ways. Within the current transition to the emerging data spaces, clouds for cultural heritage and open science, the need to identify practices which support more GLAM institutions to offer datasets becomes a priority, especially within the smaller and medium-sized institutions.

This paper answers the need to support GLAM institutions in facilitating the transition into publishing their digital content and to introduce collections as data services; this will also help their future efficient contribution to data spaces and cultural heritage clouds. It offers a checklist that can be used for both creating and evaluating digital collections suitable for computational use. The main contributions of this paper are i) a methodology for devising a checklist to create and assess digital collections for computational use; ii) a checklist to create and assess digital collections suitable for use with computational methods; iii) the assessment of the checklist against the practice of institutions innovating in the Collections as data field; and iv) the results obtained after the application and recommendations for the use of the checklist in GLAM institutions.

Europeana Translate Event – How machine translation & multilingual access impacts cultural heritage | Europeana Pro

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“This online event will present the Europeana Translate project outcomes, describe the methodology followed, the results obtained, and the impact of machine translation on improving user experience in the cultural heritage sector. Speakers will also reflect on machine translation and multilinguality in the cultural heritage domain and discuss this from a broader perspective with external insights.

You can expect presentations about the OCCAM (OCR, ClassificAtion & Machine Translation) project by Tom Vanallemeersch; information about the results of the EnrichEuropeana+ project by Sergiu Gordea and Henk Vanstappen, who will explore the automated translations of heritage data in the Bruges’ project Grenzeloos. This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A where the speakers, joined by some of the Europeana Translate partners, will discuss the theme of machine translation and multilinguality further. Participants will be invited to share questions and perspective on automated translations in the cultural heritage domain and possible challenges for the future….”