Humanities InformaticsHumanities Informatics
“The application of information technology to the understanding of
the human record” Steering Committee for Computer Science and Humanities, 1998
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
ChallengeChallengeInformation technology and
networking are revolutionizing traditional scholarly practice
Fundamentally challenging our notions of research and teaching in the humanities
ChallengeChallengeImperative that we prepare our
students for the new forms of scholarship
Expanding research opportunitiesExpanding interdisciplinary course
offerings
Importance NationallyImportance Nationally
Steering Committee for Computer Science and the Humanities (August 1998)– National Academy of Sciences– National Academy of Engineering– Computer Science and Telecommunications
Board (NRC)– Coalition for Networked Information– American Council of Learned Societies– National Initiative for a Networked Cultural
Heritage– American Historical Association
Importance NationallyImportance Nationally
Steering committee goals– Foster the establishment of a scalable
and extensible humanities informatics (HI)
– Ongoing storage and retrieval of the human record
–Means to create new knowledge upon a stable base
Importance NationallyImportance Nationally
Steering committee goals– Establish HI as an academically
recognized, integral component of, and bridge between, CS and Humanities
– Encourage research and development of mutual benefit
– Advance understanding of knowledge representation and information preservation in the digital era
Importance LocallyImportance Locally
Vision 2020– Texas A&M University’s long range
planning document– Identifies key areas for improvement– Goal: to be recognized as one of the ten
best public universities
Importance LocallyImportance Locally
Critical areas for enhancement– Strengthening graduate programs in the
Humanities–Maintaining and enhancing our
leadership role in information technology research and application
Humanities Informatics InitiativeHumanities Informatics Initiative
Responds to the national and local needs
Consortium to catalyze the discipline of Humanities Informatics at Texas A&M
Goal: excellence in research and education
Humanities Informatics InitiativeHumanities Informatics Initiative
Internationally recognized scholarsEstablished external funding recordsAreas: human-centered systems,
digital libraries and bibliographical, textual, and archival studies
Builds on strong base of interdisciplinary collaboration and established scholarly projects
Humanities Informatics InitiativeHumanities Informatics Initiative
Create new knowledge through cutting-edge, externally funded research
Prepare next generation of humanities scholars
Develop innovative computing tools, digital library collections, and hypertextual archives
Broadly significant academic and educational value to the humanities
Humanities Informatics InitiativeHumanities Informatics Initiative
Build a culture of excellence in graduate research and education
Host a series of invited workshopsLay the groundwork for developing a
graduate degree in Humanities Informatics
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
Existing WorkExisting Work
Digital collection developmentInformation technology research
Existing WorkExisting Work
Digital collection development– Cervantes Project–World Shakespeare Bibliography– Science Fiction and Fantasy Research
Database
Cervantes ProjectCervantes Project
Comprehensive web-accessible reference and research site on life and works
Comprised of:– International Bibliography Online– Digital Library– Digital Archive of Images
Current focus: – Electronic variorum edition of Don Quixote de
la Mancha
Cervantes ProjectCervantes Project
– Started in 1995– Three year NSF ITR grant in 2000– Drs. Richard Furuta and Eduardo Urbina– Dr. Urbina
• Nominated to receive National Humanities Center’s Richard W. Lyman award (in recognition of outstanding achievement in humanities through innovative use of information technology)
• Named permanent visiting professor and holder of the Cervantes Chair at University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
– http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/
World Shakespeare BibliographyWorld Shakespeare Bibliography
Records and annotates all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, audio-visual resources, and other popular and scholarly materials
Published in cooperation with The Arden Shakespeare (London) and The Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington)
Recognized as one of the preeminent serial bibliographies in the humanities
World Shakespeare BibliographyWorld Shakespeare Bibliography
Edited with the assistance of more than 100 Shakespeare scholars around the world
WSB Online awarded the Besterman Medal by The Library Association (London) in 1997 and 2001 (in recognition of its pioneering use of information technology)
Dr. James L. Harner, Editor www.worldshakesbib.com
Science Fiction and Fantasy Science Fiction and Fantasy Research DatabaseResearch Database More than 50,000 history and criticism
titles Based upon previously published
reference books titled The Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index
Received the Pilgrim Award of the Science Fiction Research Association (in recognition of lifetime achievement in science fiction and fantasy scholarship)
Science Fiction and Fantasy Science Fiction and Fantasy Research DatabaseResearch DatabaseEarlier versions won Choice
magazine’s outstanding reference books (1988) and the J. Lloyd Eaton Memorial Award (1991)
Hal W. Hall, Editorhttp://library.tamu.edu/cushing/sffrd/
Existing WorkExisting Work
Information technology research–Metadocuments– Distributed Digital Libraries– Evaluation Protocols
MetadocumentsMetadocuments
Metadocuments as Communicative Artifacts to Enable Use of a Research Digital Library in Undergraduate SMET Education
Funded by NSF/NSDL program Explores the applications of paths as an
organizing mechanism in support of undergraduate education
Drs. Richard Furuta and Frank Shipman http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/walden/
Controls Annotation
Original Web page
Distributed Digital LibrariesDistributed Digital Libraries
Design and Evaluation of Maintenance Tools for Distributed Digital Libraries
Funded by NSF/NSDL program Explores tools that recognize problems
with referenced resources in distributed digital libraries
Drs. Richard Furuta and Frank Shipman
Guided pathsGuided paths
WWW Host
Web Page
Internet BackboneA Path
Guided path - An ordering of
existing materials
independent of underlying structure.
Evaluation ProtocolsEvaluation Protocols
National Science Digital Library Evaluation Protocol
Funded by NSF/NSDL program Goals:
– Define dimensions of DL service quality from user perspective
– Develop a tool for measuring user perceptions and expectations of DL service quality across NSDL DL contexts
– Identify DL best practices that permit generalization across operations and platforms
Evaluation ProtocolsEvaluation Protocols
Goals (continued):– Enhance student learning by effectively
managing user perceptions and expectations of DL services
– Establish a DL service quality assessment program as an integral part of the library service quality assessment program (LibQUAL+) at the Association of Research Libraries
Drs. Colleen Cook and Fred Heath www.arl.org/libqual/
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
ParticipantsParticipants
College of Liberal Arts– Center for Humanities Research– Cervantes Project– World Shakespeare Bibliography Online
College of Engineering– Center for the Study of Digital Libraries– Human Centered Systems group (Computer Science)
Texas A&M University Libraries– Digital Library Evaluation Project– Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database
ParticipantsParticipants
– College of Liberal Arts• Content and scholarly processes
– College of Engineering• Information technology and pedagogy
– Texas A&M University Libraries• Information infrastructure and evaluation
methodologies
ParticipantsParticipants
– Center for Humanities Research• Fosters research on humanities scholarship• Dr. James Rosenheim• www.tamu.edu/chr/
– Center for the Study of Digital Libraries• Fosters research on theory and application of DLs• Drs. Richard Furuta and John Leggett• http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/
– Texas A&M University Libraries• Ranks in top 40 of Association of Research Libraries• Acquiring resources globally and ensuring enduring
access to scholarly research• http://library.tamu.edu/
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
Specific ObjectivesSpecific Objectives
Four areas– Collections development– Digital library evaluation– Transferring research collections to
production– Environment building
Six Objectives
Specific Objective OneSpecific Objective One
Increase national relevance of existing award-winning collections– Number of artifacts– Breadth of coverage– Quality of expression– Educational and scientific reach
Develop IT for ingesting, digesting and presenting content
Specific Objective TwoSpecific Objective Two
Incubate new and diverse collections– Funding seed efforts– Offering workshops–Maintaining a clearinghouse for IT tools
and processes– Partnering on research proposals
Specific Objective ThreeSpecific Objective Three
Integrate evaluation across activities and research products– Artifact acquisition– Accession– Indexing/organizing– Preservation– Use
Specific Objective FourSpecific Objective Four
Bridge divide between research and production collections– Migrating CSDL research collections to Texas
A&M Libraries– Institutional commitment
“Few, if any, DL research projects at universities are actually working with their libraries on sustainable economic models for their collections”
Mike Lesk
Specific Objective FiveSpecific Objective Five
Building a culture of excellence– Focus on graduate student research– Externally-funded research projects– Creation of new knowledge– National impact
Specific Objective SixSpecific Objective Six
Lay foundation for future graduate degree in Humanities Informatics– Cutting-edge research– Promoting interdisciplinary research
committees– Building research community– Identify graduate education needs
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
ManagementManagement
Center for Humanities Research– Institutional umbrella for HI projects– Clearinghouse for HI information– Outreach through lecture series,
stipendiary fellowships, travel grants, seed funding
Governed by board of PI’s
EvaluationEvaluation
Formative and summative evaluations
E-Metrics guidelines (ARL)– Collection growth and usage
Modified LibQUAL+– End user satisfaction with quality of
service
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
National ExcellenceNational Excellence
Potential is based upon:– High quality of collections– Broad applicability of IT tools– Stability of infrastructure– Efforts to develop a community of active
scholars
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
Selected Existing Programs and Selected Existing Programs and Collections in the HumanitiesCollections in the Humanities Exemplary university HI efforts Notable digital collections NSF/DLI2 Projects
Exemplary University HI EffortsExemplary University HI Efforts
IATH: The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (Virginia)
MITH: The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (Maryland)
STG: Scholarly Technology Group (Brown) CCARH: Center for Computer Assisted
Research in the Humanities (Stanford)
Notable Digital CollectionsNotable Digital Collections
Rossetti Archive (University of Virginia)– http://www.iath.virginia.edu/rossetti/
Shakespeare Electronic Archive (MIT)– http://shea.mit.edu/
Canterbury Tales Project (De Montfort University)– http://www.cta.dmu.ac.uk/projects/ctp/
LOC’s American Memory Project– http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
NSF/DLI2 ProjectsNSF/DLI2 Projects
– DL of Folk Literature (UC Davis)• http://flsj.ucdavis.edu/home/
– Digital Music Library (Indiana University)• http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/
– Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford)• http://plato.stanford.edu/
– Digital Atheneum (University of Kentucky)• http://www.digitalatheneum.org/
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
Educational AspectsEducational Aspects
Existing courses– Human Centered Systems (9)– Humanities (2)– Library Science (1)
New courses– Effects of IT on society and scholarly practice
in CS (2) – Application of IT to scholarly practice in the
Humanities (2)– Information delivery/assessment (2)
Humanities Informatics: Excellence Humanities Informatics: Excellence in Research and Educationin Research and Education Challenge and Importance Existing Work Participants Specific Objectives Management and Evaluation National Excellence Existing Programs and Collections Educational Aspects Accomplishments
Accomplishments (6 months)Accomplishments (6 months)
ResearchOutreachSeed Grant ProgramProposalsPublications
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
Development of textual iconography for Don Quijote (Cervantes Project)
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
Establishment of Shakespeare website repository (World Shakespeare Bibliography)
http://www.worldshakesbib.org/
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
IT Infrastructure– Image manager– Timeline editor/viewer– Bibliography management/presentation
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
IT Infrastructure– Image manager
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
IT Infrastructure– Timeline editor/viewer
Depicts variants along their offset in the text
Depicts several editions at once
Provides overview
Provides more detail
Analyzing copies of the same edition
Identifying false variants
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
IT Infrastructure– Bibliography management/presentation
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
Algorithms and Environments– Storytelling engines– Social construction of metadata– Collection understanding via streaming
collage
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
Algorithms and Environments– Storytelling engines
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
Algorithms and Environments– Social construction of metadata
Accomplishments – ResearchAccomplishments – Research
Algorithms and Environments– Collection understanding via streaming
collage
Accomplishments – OutreachAccomplishments – Outreach
HI website established– www.tamu.edu/hi/
HI technology open house HI lecture series– Andrew Dillon, Cliff Lynch, Greg Crane
HI working group
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
Texas A&M Genre Evolution Project A Semantic Associative Model for
Streaming Collage Browsing On-Line Picasso Project Hum Dekhenge: A Digital Archive of
Resources By and About South Asian Women
The Virtual Texas Art Museum Texas Images: An On-Line Repository of
Pre-1900 Prints
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
Texas A&M Genre Evolution Project– Testing the hypothesis that culture and
cultural materials co-evolve much as do biological organisms, that is, as complex adaptive systems
– Areas: literary criticism, text coding, statistical analysis
– L. Brett Cooke, Modern and Classical Languages and Halbert W. Hall, Cushing Library
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
A Semantic Associative Model for Streaming Collage Browsing– An ambient visualization mechanism that
affords dynamic knowledge building by sifting through focused subsets of the web space
– Areas: term-based information retrieval and natural language processing added to the existing Collage Machine
– Andruid Kerne, Computer Science and Center for the Study of Digital Libraries
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
On-Line Picasso Project– Digital library of artworks, biographical data
and critical analysis of Pablo Picasso– Areas: Information presentation/organization,
personalization, culturally situated knowledge– Enrique Mallen, Modern and Classical
Languages
Visualizing and Exploring Picasso’s WorldVisualizing and Exploring Picasso’s World
Visualizing and Exploring Picasso’s WorldVisualizing and Exploring Picasso’s World
Overview
1st level of detail
2nd level of detail
3rd level of detail
Analyzing Picasso’s WorldAnalyzing Picasso’s WorldWhat kind of artworks did he create during any given period of time? Was there any trend in which he painted in two different decades? What kind of techniques did he use the most in any given year or season? Was he more productive during a particular season: summer, fall, spring, or winter? Discovering correlations of Picasso’s series in different periods.
Discovering Patterns in PicassoDiscovering Patterns in Picasso
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
Hum Dekhenge: A Digital Archive of Resources By and About South Asian Women– Digital library documenting the efforts and
writings of individual women scholars, artists, and activists from South Asia
– Areas: Acquisition and digitization of texts, bibliography, information organization/presentation
– Jyotsna Vaid, Sociology
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
The Virtual Texas Art Museum– Digital library of artworks, biographical
data and bibliography of Texas arts and artists
– Areas: Acquisition of images, bibliography, information organization/presentation, copyright
– James Baker, Architecture– http://archone.tamu.edu/texmus
Accomplishments – Seed GrantsAccomplishments – Seed Grants
Texas Images: An On-Line Repository of Pre-1900 Prints– Digital library documenting the culture, history
and people of Texas prior to 1900 through the printed visual record
– Areas: Acquisition of images of first edition illustrations, bibliography, information organization/presentation
– Steve Smith, Cushing Library– http://library.tamu.edu/cushing/txi/index.htm
Accomplishments – ProposalsAccomplishments – Proposals
NSF/ITR– Exploring the Design Space for
Interactive Scholarly Communication– Enhancing Interactive Information
Organization and Presentation for a Heterogeneous Display Environment
– Visualizing a recombinant knowledge space for the purpose of augmenting creative process
Accomplishments – ProposalsAccomplishments – Proposals
NEH Preservation and Access Program– Editorial History and Textual
Iconography of Don Quixote (1605-2005)Institute of Museum and Library
Services– Texas Images Project
Accomplishments – PublicationsAccomplishments – Publications
E. Urbina, R. Furuta, et al. “Texto, contextos e hipertexto: La crítica textual en la era digital y la edición electrónica variorum del Quijote.” Quaderni di letterature iberiche e iberoamericane (Milan) 27 (1999-2000) [2002]: 21-49.
Accomplishments – PublicationsAccomplishments – Publications
Ong, T. and Leggett, J., “Design of the HEFTI Storytelling Engine,” Proceedings of the TIDSE 2003 Conference, Darmstadt, Germany, March 2003, forthcoming.
Ong, T., and Leggett, J., “A New Approach to the Design of Interactive Storytelling Engines with Applications in the Educational Setting,” Proceedings of the Ed-Media 2002 Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 2003, forthcoming.
Accomplishments – PublicationsAccomplishments – Publications
Monroy, C., Furuta, R. and Mallen, E., “Visualizing and Exploring Picasso’s World,” Proceedings of the JCDL 2003 Conference, Houston, Texas, May 2003, forthcoming.
ConclusionConclusion
“Humanities Informatics is a very important research area that is fundamental to all institutions that claim scholarship as their primary activity”
John Leggett