20111031 - Online Jewish content in a broader context
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Transcript of 20111031 - Online Jewish content in a broader context
Internet resources for historical research: Jewish content in a broader context
Judaica Europeana Digital Humani<es Workshop31 October 2011 -‐ Bri0sh Library
Gerben ZaagsmaHuygens Ins*tute for the History of the Netherlands
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences1
Introduc)on
Source: h@p://ec.europa.eu/informa0on_society/ac0vi0es/digital_libraries/index_en.htm.
Digital Agenda for Europe: Digital Libraries Initiative
Europe's cultural and scientific riches at a click of a mouse
In ancient times, the library of Alexandria was said to contain up to 70% of all human knowledge. The challenge for the digital age is to do even better than
that – and make the result last longer.
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Introduc)on
Source: Study Report Numeric-‐ Sta0s0cs on digi0sa0on of cultural materials in Europe (2009):h=p://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/telearn-‐digicult/numeric-‐study_en.pdf.
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Introduc)on
Digital sources avalanche...
➡ increasing amount of digital content in Jewish Studies
... but do we ask enough ques<ons?
• selec5on: what do we get and why?
• implica5ons for historical research?
➡ digital source cri5cism: using digital resources
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Outline
1. overview of digital sources for Jewish historical research
2. using digital sources
3. concluding remarks
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
tekst
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
tekst
8h=p://sammlungen.ub.uni-‐frankfurt.de/judaica
Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
10h=p://dlibra.psnc.pl/index.php?lang=en.
Jewish digital sources: an overview
CBN Polona: h=p://www.polona.pl/dlibra/. 11
Jewish digital sources: an overview
PIONIER Network Digital Libraries Federa*on: h=p://Uc.pionier.net.pl/owoc/main12
Jewish digital sources: an overview
ePaveldas: h=p://www.epaveldas.lt/. 13
Jewish digital sources: an overview
h=p://www.jpress.org.il/view-‐english.asp. 14
Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
15h=p://digital.cjh.org/.
Jewish digital sources: an overview
h=p://legacy.www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/yizkorbooks_intro.cfm
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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Jewish digital sources: an overview
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h=p://www.judaica-‐europeana.eu/.
Jewish digital sources: an overview
Judaica Europeana is different:
• systema5c publica5on & integra5on of digital collec5ons rela5ng to (urban) Jewish history all over Europe
• Europeana built for the seman5c web: Linked Open Data
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using digital sources
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Life cycle of historical informa)on
Boonstra, Onno, Leen Breure and Peter Doorn, Past, present and future of historical informa0on science (Amsterdam, 2004), p17. 20
Life cycle of historical informa)on
Boonstra, Onno, Leen Breure and Peter Doorn, Past, present and future of historical informa0on science (Amsterdam, 2004), p17.
crea4on
retrieval
analysis
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Crea)on
• crea5on is preceded by selec<on
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Crea)on
quan0ty can obscure the awareness that selec0on takes place 22
Crea)on
quan0ty can obscure the awareness that selec0on takes place 22
Crea)on
• crea5on is preceded by selec5on
• selec5on reflects: -‐ preserva5on concerns
-‐ academic research agendas
-‐ public discourses on the past, processes of memorialisa5on, na5onal interests
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Crea)on
• crea5on is preceded by selec5on
• selec5on reflects: -‐ preserva5on concerns
-‐ academic research agendas
-‐ public discourses on the past, processes of memorialisa5on, na5onal interests
• selec5on is interlinked with funding
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Crea)on
Roy Rosenzweig:
“If na5onal archives were part of the projects of state-‐building and na5onalism, then why should states support post-‐na5onal digital archives?”
Roy Rosenzweig, ‘Scarcity or Abundance? Preserving the Past in a Digital Era’, The American Historical Review 108 (2003) 735-‐762, 752.
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Crea)on
• Germany: systema5c effort to save the printed Jewish past for the digital future
• former East bloc: a sense of na5onal pride and of newly found independence in the post-‐communist era
• framing the European project: crea5ng a sense of European heritage
... oRen the na0on or suprana0on looms in the background, either in terms of an agenda or in terms of funding or both
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Crea)on
What about “marginal” and non-‐na<onal topics?
Example = Yiddish :
Yiddish does not belonging to one par0cular na0on: who takes responsibility for saving “transna0onal” heritage?
the digital paradox: marginality reinforced?
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Crea)on
from philanthropy... 28
Crea)on
... to supra-‐na0onal ins0tu0ons coming to the rescue: Judaica Europeana as an online, digital con0nua0on of Council of Europe ac0vi0es 29
Crea)on
• why do we get it: selec5on & funding
• what do we get: type of sources
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Crea)on
Pathfinder Survey Result. Summary analysis of a survey to test defini0ons, terms and ways of measuring digi0sa0on ac0vi0es in cultural ins0tu0ons in Europe (Numeric report 2007):h=p://www.numeric.ws/uploaded_files/Report_of_Pathfinder_Survey_0712056122007175432.pdf. 31
Retrieval
“normal” search engines32
Retrieval
metadata search engines like OAIster and BASE (OAI-‐PMH):h=p://oaister.worldcat.org/; h=p://www.base-‐search.net/. 33
Retrieval
EHPS: h=p://primary-‐sources.eui.eu/.
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Retrieval
• querying digital resources
• full-‐text search: OCR versus non-‐OCR
• RTL languages> how the state of technology can create uneven possibili5es
• metadata
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Analysis
• what happens to context?
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Analysis
Historical Jewish Press:Bulle0n de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle: full-‐text search = socialistes 37
Analysis
Historical Jewish Press:Bulle0n de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle: full-‐text search = socialistes 37
Analysis
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Concluding remarks
• digital sources for Jewish history and the place of Judaica Europeana
• crea5on: selec5on and funding
• retrieval: loca5ng and querying resources
• analysis: context, context, context...
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Concluding remarks
The future: historical research in a u<litarian age> from offline to online?
if so we have a responsibility to ensure that what is offered online represents the broadest possible spectrum of sources related to the subject we are interested in.
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