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Welcome to EVA/Minerva 2014, Jerusalem

 

   

During  our  first  decade  of  EVA/Minerva  Jerusalem  conferences  we  marked  many  milestones,  but  perhaps   one   of   the  more   impressive  milestones   is   the   2014   launch   of   Israel  Museums  National  Portal.    This  year,  the  conference  is  proud  to  recognize  this  accomplishment,  and  celebrates  their  success  with  the  Ministry  of  Culture  team,  supported  by  Moreshet  Project  at  the  Prime  Minister's  Office   and   looks   forward   to   watching   this   impressive   national   project   grow   from   strength   to  strength.   We   will   have   an   opportunity   to   learn   more   about   this   with   Reuven   Pinsky,  Head   of  Culture   Governance   Moreshet   Project   at   the   Prime   Minister's   Office   and   more   on   the   main  features  of  the  Museum  National  Portal  with  Ram  Shimoni  and  Ben  Kalifi  in  our  morning  plenary,  chaired  by  Max  Kaiser,  RTD  Director,  National  Austrian  Library.  

 For   the   sixth   year   running  we   are   delighted   to   be   able   to   hold   our   conference   at   the   Van   Leer,  Jerusalem   Institute   and   would   like   to   thank   Prof.   Gabriel   Motzkin,   Director   of   the   Institute   for  hosting  us  here  yet  again.  We  would  also   like   to  thank  Shulamit  Laron,  Director  of  Public  Events,  and  Limor  Sagi  whose  personal  support  and  assistance  by  all  their  professional  staff  have  made  this  conference  so  successful,  again  this  year.    For  many  years  running  year  we  are  delighted  to  be  able  to  hosted  a  special  museum  track;   supported  by,   the  Ministry  of  Culture  Directorate   for  Culture,  Department  for  Museums  and  Visual  Arts  and  the  Public  Libraries.    We  would  like  to  thank  Maria  Yariv,  Director,  Department  of  Museums  and  Visual  Arts  and  Shlomit  Nemlich,  and  Ram  Shimoni  who  have  been  instrumental  again  this  year  in  making  the  museum  track  so  engaging.    We  would  also   like   to   thank  Dorit  Wolenitz,   ICOM   Israel,   Chair   and  Aliza  Polger  Galili   for   their   behind-­‐the-­‐scenes  support  to  make  this  conference  available  to  the  Museum  community.    We  would   also   like   to   thank  Dr.   Yaacov   Deutsch,  World   Congress   of   Jewish   Studies   (WUJS)   and  World  Union  of  Jewish  Studies  for  his  support  of  our  program  and  their  academic  contributions  to  the   Digital   Humanities   track.    We   have   been   following   the   blossoming   of   the   digital   humanities  activities  in  our  community  over  recent  years,  and  are  wondering  when  this  sector  will  becomes  so  ubiquities  that  we  can  simply  drop  the  term  ‘digital’   in  the  understanding  that  these  two  terms  –  digital,   and   humanities   are   inseparable   and   that   the   notion   of   digital   becomes   redundant;  subsumed   in   the   latter   term.     We   would   also   like   to   recognize   the   contribution   of   our   partner  ExLibris   and   their   contribution   to   the   conference   this   year.     Although   not   new  members   of   our  sector  by  any  means,  ExLibris  is  now  becoming  even  more  visible  in  the  digital  heritage  community,  as  well  as  taking  on  a  more  prominent  role  in  digital  humanities  activities.  

 We  look  forward  to  hearing  from  Nicolas  Crofts,  Chair,  ICOM  CIDOC,  our  Keynote  speaker  this  year  who   will   present   ‘Practitioners   and   experts:   the   role   of   CIDOC   in   establishing   effective  communication’.     He   will   discuss   the   way   in   which   technical   experts   working   with   innovative  technologies   often   fail   to   communicate   effectively   with   professional   practitioners   working   in  heritage  institutions   (museums,   libraries,   archives)   and   will   explain   what   is  CIDOC  doing   to   help  bridge  the  gap.    These  kinds  of  insights  will  be  useful  not  only  to  the  museum  community  but  also  to  the  broader  digital  heritage  community  and  those  of  use  working  in  libraries  and  archives.  

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     This  years’  conference  is  proud  to  be  able  to  introduce  many  old  friends  as  well  as  new  ones  with  the  many  leading  Europeana  projects  who  are  joining  us  here  this  year:  Europeana  Eagle,  Fashion,  Judaica,  AthenatPlus  and  look  forward  to  hearing  about  Europeana  Creative  from  Max  Kaiser  and  to  Pavel  Katz,  Chief  Technology  Officer  Europeana  who  will  introduce  us  to  the  Europeana  Cloud.      The   Europeana   workshops   will   be   showcasing   not   only   best   practice   in   their   specific   fields   but  many   useful   lessons   from   their   practice   in   their   open  workshops.    Dr.   Pietro  Maria   Luizzo   from  EAGLE,   The   Europeana   network   of   Ancient  Greek   and   Latin   Epigraphy   is   a   best-­‐practice   network  providing  a  single  user-­‐friendly  portal  to  the  inscriptions  of  the  Ancient  World,  a  massive  resource  for  both  the  curious  and  for  the  scholarly.    He  will  be  presenting  The  EAGLE  BPN:  Aggregating  and  Linking  Structured  Data,  A  Presentation  of  the  Europeana  Best  Practice  Network  for  Ancient  Greek  and  Latin  Epigraphy,   its   tasks,   tools  and  objectives.     In  addition  we  will  be   introduced   to  EAGLE’s  Mediawiki   where   participants   are   invited   to   take   part   in   the   workshop   and   enter   Hebrew  translations  of   inscriptions   in  the  EAGLE  Mediawiki.  Dr.  Maria  Luizzo  assures  us  that   this   is  a  very  easy  and  self-­‐explanatory  process  and  usually  people  find  it  rewarding  as  they  can  see  immediately  the  result  of  their  contribution.    Maria  Teresa  Natale  will  run  a  dedicated  Digital  Storytelling  workshop  focusing  in  the  latest  release  of  the  MOVIO  suite  of  tools  developed  in  the  Athena  Plus  Network.      Marco   Rendino   will   present  Europeana   Fashion  Network   including   the   leading   European   institutions  and   collections   in   the  fashion   domain   and   will   showcase   the   outstanding   and   rich  material   of   the   history  of   European  fashion.     We   are   delighted   to   introduce   a   new   approach   to   Enhancement   in   Preservation   of  Tangible  Heritage  with   Anna   Lobovikov-­‐Katz,   Head,  ELAICH   Project,  EuroMed   Heritage   4  Programme,   Head,   Technion   research   team,  EU-­‐CHIC   Project,   Faculty   of   Architecture   and   Town  Planning,  Technion  -­‐   Israel  Institute  of  Technology.    Her  panelists  will  be  bringing  new  approaches  and  their  best  practice  in  this  innovative  session.    The   Judaica   Europeana   panel,   chaired   by   Prof.   Martin   Golumbic,   Director,  Caesarea   Rothschild  Institute  for  Interdisciplinary  Applications  of  Computer  Science  (CRI),  University  of  Haifa  introduces  a  varied  program  on  working  with  libraries,  archives  and  museums  to  provide  integrated  access  to  the  world’s  most  important  collections  that  document  the  Jewish  presence  in  Europe.    This  includes  sessions   including   Gesher   L'Europa   –   a   bridge   to   Europe,   with   Caron   Sethill,   Programme  Coordinator  –  Europe,  Towards  a  crowd  sourcing  conceptualization  of  preserving  Jewish  Heritage,  with  Jack  Gottlieb,  Founder,  World  Jewish  Heritage,  DM2E  and  the  Jewish  Studies  knowledge  grid  in   the   Linked   Open   Data   Cloud:   the   latest   Judaica   Europeana   developments,   with   Dov   Winer,  Judaica  Europeana  Scientific  Manager.      Organised  by  the  World  Union  of  Jewish  Studies,  Best  Practice  in  Digital  Humanities  sessions  bring  a  rich   variety   of   presentations   to   discuss   scholarly   approaches   to   digitized   contents,   services,   and  new  technologies.    Chaired  by  Dr.  Yaacov  Deutsch,  World  Congress  of  Jewish  Studies  (WUJS),  World  Union  of  Jewish  Studies  session  include:  Kabbalah  Research:  Toward  New  Digital  Perspectives  with  Yoed   Kadari,   Ben  Gurion  University;   Creating   a   Corpus   of   Early   Christian   Law:   The  Hidden   -­‐   Law  Database,   Dr.   Yifat   Monnickendam,   The   Hebrew   University   of   Jerusalem,   Digital   tools   for  Improving   the   Editions   of   Cryptic   Scrolls   from  Qumran  with  Dr.   Jonathan  Ben-­‐Dov,   University   of  Haifa.  Dr.  Nahum  Dershowitz,  Tel  Aviv  University  will  lead  the  following  discussion.  

 Directly  following  on  we  will  hear  about  Open  Hebrew  for  the  Digital  Humanities  and  "How  to  open  a  digital   text"  without   the  subtitle  with  Sinai  Rusinek,  Polonsky  Academy  &  DHIsrael;  The  Sefaria  Project:   An   Online   and   Open-­‐Source   Library   for   the   Jewish   Canon   with   Lev   Israel   &   Ephraim  Damboritz,  Sefaria;  How  can  Open  Data  contribute  to  digital  heritage?  “Open  Press”  as  a  case  study  With  Noam  Castel  &  Ido  Ivri  ,    from  the  Public  Knowledge  Workshop.  

 Supporting   these   kinds   of   digital   humanities   projects   we   will   learn   from   Kristin   Dill   from   the  Austrian   National   Library   in   the   PUNDIT   hands-­‐on   Workshop.     This   is   an   ideal   opportunity   to  experiment   with   the   DM2E   scholarly   environment   and   hear   about   the   building   the   tools   and  communities  that  enable  humanities  researchers  to  work  with  manuscripts  in  the  Linked  Open    

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     Web.    The  two  tools  at  the  heart  of  the  DM2E  scholarly  environment  are  Pundit  and  Ask.  Pundit  is  a  semantic  annotation  tool  that  enables  researchers  to  create  annotations  in  Linked  Open  Data.      Don’t  miss   the   Judaica  Harvard   International   session  organized  by  Violet  Radnofsky,   the   Littauer  Hebraica  Technical  and  Research  Services   Librarian  of   the   Judaica  Division  at   the  Harvard  Library,  University   Cambridge   MA   USA.     The   various   projects   presented   include:   The   Israeli   Cartoon  Museum,   Holon   with   Galit   Gaon   Chief   Curator  and   Hila   Zahavi   Collections   Curator;   and   Yoram  Shamir,  Independent  Curator  from  Tel  Aviv  Dantec  Ltd.  Jerusalem      Rounding   out   the   day   is   the   session   on   Digital   Libraries:   Linked   Open   Data   (LOD).    What   comes  next?  With  Ora  Zehavi,  The  Younes  and  Soraya  Nazarian  Library  at   the  University  of  Haifa  setting  the  tone  with  her  opening  remarks  on  the  Transformation  of  Digital  Library  in  Libraries.    This  will  be  followed   by   a   presentation   on   Israeli   bibliographic   data   and   the   international   scene   with   Prof.  Elhanan   Adler,  National   Library   of   Israel  and   David   Yellin   College   and   a   final   paper   on   Discovery  Tools   in   Academic   Libraries:    why,   what   and   how?   With   Edith   Falk,  Chief   Librarian,   Hebrew  University  of  Jerusalem,  Hebrew  University  Libraries  Authority.    The   combined   strengths   of   EVA/MINERVA   Jerusalem   aims   to   bring   best   practice   in   advanced  technologies   to   its  dedicated   community  of   cultural   content  holders,  managers   and  publishers   in  Israel  and  Europe  in  order  to  augment  the  preservation,  access  and  the  re-­‐use  of  Cultural  Heritage  through   advanced   education   and   training   in   Information   and   Communication   Technologies   (ICT).  The   conference   also   endeavours   to   stimulate   cultural   diversity   in   Europe;   and   to   increase   the  technological,  educational,  cultural,  economic  relations  between  the  European  Union  and  Israel.    

EVA/MINERVA   2014   yet   again   welcomes   participants   to   Jerusalem   for   what   we   hope   will   be  another  exciting  and   informative  event,  and  the  perfect  opportunity   to  catch  up  with   friends  and  colleagues  in  the  EVA/Minerva  tradition.  

                         ________________________________________________________________________      The   Jerusalem   Conference   on   Digitization   on   Science   and   Cultural   Heritage   was   first   convened   in  2004  and  forged  the  Jerusalem  Declaration.    From  this  first  step  the  Jerusalem  Declaration  was  later  presented   to   the  Knesset   Internet  Committee,   a  benchmark  moment   that   continues   to  direct,   and  inform  our  activities.    

Jerusalem,  October  12,  2004  http://www.digital-­‐heritage.org.il/jerusalemdeclaration.html  

 We  look  forward  to  hosting  everyone  again  next  year  in  Jerusalem.  

 Dr.  Susan  Hazan  and  Dov  Winer  

Co-­‐chairs;  EVA/MINERVA  Jerusalem  2012    

Millie  Hazan  Conference  Producer