Conclusion

This study examines the role of website-based digital history writing in advancing the decolonization of history education within the Primary Teacher Education Program (PGSD). Grounded in a qualitative descriptive approach, the research involved 40 second-year PGSD students participating in a semester-long digital history project that emphasized local historical inquiry, archival research, and digital storytelling. Data were collected through participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and analysis of student-produced website content and reflective journals. The findings indicate that digital history projects facilitate the validation of local knowledge by enabling students to critically juxtapose colonial archives with oral and community-based sources. This process contributed to a significant transformation in students’ historical consciousness, shifting from traditional and exemplary orientations toward critical and genetic levels. Moreover, the integration of website media fostered digital literacy, ethical awareness, and reflective historical thinking, positioning students as active producers rather than passive consumers of historical narratives. Despite challenges related to digital inequality and ethical representation, the study demonstrates that digitalization, when aligned with decolonial pedagogy, offers a powerful framework for developing inclusive and contextually grounded history education. The findings underscore the potential of digital platforms to support epistemic justice and to prepare future elementary teachers to implement decolonized history learning in schools.

This paper reports on the user centered, formative evaluation of tools and the validation of models for the analysis of historical textbooks in the context of the digital history project Children and their World . The goal of the project is to create methods for computer‐supported, interactive analysis that can be applied to a large corpus of historical textbooks on history and geography (∼5000 volumes). A first version of a tool for text analysis has been created based on a user centered design process, including a contextual study on current work practices of historians, participative design workshops, and the prioritization of requirements with the project stakeholders. In addition, several generations of text models used in these tools have been iteratively evaluated by the historians in the project. In the context of a cooperative validation study, researchers have used these tools to examine existing hypotheses from the field. The method enables the validation of text models regarding established knowledge, provides additional insights into the requirements for tools and visualizations, and helps to strengthen the expert users' trust in the tools. Based on the findings, this paper proposes four principles for the analysis of a corpus of historical texts. Moreover, the methods presented are discussed regarding the application of user centered design in the context of digital humanities projects.

4 - Information architecture and hypertextuality: Concerns for digital curation

The sustainability of digital humanities research projects is a pressing issue for humanities computing. Currently, even well-established large digital projects like the Linguistic Atlas Project (LAP) are at future risk because funding and other resources are contingent on grant funding or faculty status of the director, neither of which will necessarily be available to maintain the project over time. The mission of the university library, however, includes archiving and dissemination, now increasingly of digital materials as well as traditional paper. Collaboration with the university library is the only realistic option for long-term sustainability of digital humanities projects in the current environment. Unlike paper collections, which only require secure storage, digital projects also require the means of adaptation to new electronic media and operating environments. Even data storage requires that materials from digital projects be included in library media refresh cycles, which will include transfer of old data to new media as technology develops. Projects like LAP should provide resources to assist the library in starting the project archive, including staff time, and funding for equipment. Project metadata must be provided and, to the extent possible, integrated with library systems and finding aids. Project staff will also need to maintain a Web presence and tools developed for the project. Such cooperation leads toward the development of a digital institutional repository, in which research results and tools may be maintained in the library, not just for the humanities but across many disciplines.

This paper describes the development of the Digital Library Promotion Project (DLPP) at the National Library of China and the ways in which it has enhanced the access to cultural heritage. In May 2011, China launched the DLPP as one of a series of digital library initiatives which have been developed in recent years. By building an interconnected and distributed digital library platform and resource clusters, and providing digital cultural services in a variety of media, the DLPP enhances public library services in China. The authors found that digital projects such as the DLPP enrich social discourse and increase access to China’s cultural heritage.

Purpose of Article. The study aims to analyse and summarize existing experience and technologies of the implementation strategies of library (international and national) digital projects. Methodology. The research methodology is a systematic approach to identifying and specifying technological basic requirements to create and organize library digital resources in accordance with international requirements and standards. Scientific Novelty. The scientific novelty is to create united technical and technological approaches to digitization of library collections, providing access to online digital library, digital resources integration to the international digital library projects. Conclusions. The large-scale digital library projects are implemented based on corporate involvement institutions of national memory in addition to libraries. The realization of such projects requires coordination and resolve a number of technical issues and developing common standards. The legal issues of access to digital library resources are recommended to decide on the basis of a reasonable balance between copyright creators of documents and the rights of users to access digital resources.

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce a methodology for strategic analysis which can used in digital library development. This methodology can be used as a precursor process that assists in developing successful business cases to implement the strategies of a digital library development plan.Design/methodology/approachUsing theory and practice from information technology in both profit and non‐profit organizations, the paper relates the use of strategic analysis to the development of a successful business case for digital library development.FindingsOne of the major tasks a digital library project manager faces is getting the project approved and in the queue for development. By exploiting the full potential of the planning phase of the systems development lifecycle (SDLC), a digital project manager can develop a compelling business case for the proposed project. By using SWOT analysis as well as additional considerations, the project manager should identify how the project will address critical organizational (business) issues and success factors as well as provide a compelling case for action. In particular, the most successful business cases develop compelling cases for action by carefully crafting solid arguments for why the digital project being proposed is the most important project an organization should undertake out of all the potential projects that might exist.Originality/valueThis paper fills a gap in the digital project management literature by providing a step‐by‐step process for using strategic analysis in digital library development planning.

This paper describes a digital library developed within the “Towards a Digital Dante Encyclopaedia” project, a three years Italian National Research Project that aims at building services supporting scholars in creating, evolving and consulting a digital encyclopaedia of Dante Alighieri’s works. The digital library is based on a knowledge base storing knowledge on the primary sources that Dante refers to in his works, i.e. the works of other authors Dante refers to in his texts. At present, this information is scattered on many paper books, making it difficult to systematically overview the cultural background of Dante and to obtain a well-founded perception of how this background was gradually set up in time. The same applies also to other authors, therefore the applicability of our work extends well beyond the specific author we are considering in our project. The digital library that we are building is based on an ontology for representing the knowledge on one author’s works and on the primary sources embedded in the commentaries to these works. Following this approach, a semantic network of Dante’s works and of references to primary sources of these works was created. Furthermore, a web application allowing users to explore the semantic network in various ways and to visualize statistical information about the references as charts and tables was developed.

Introduction Since the 1990s much interest has been generated in digital libraries. This has led to several digital libraries conferences and journals, such as the International Conference of Asian Digital Libraries, the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries and the International Journal on Digital Libraries . Other than researchers, library practitioners have also shown much enthusiasm in digital libraries, with various initiatives by libraries to make digital libraries widely accessible, digitization projects and the development of document management systems. Over the years, digital libraries have broadened in their conceptualization and offer different connotations for both practitioners and researchers, although these meanings may not always be mutually exclusive. Such a broad conceptualization of digital libraries is not accidental, according to Borgman (1999). She offered the explanation that research on digital libraries had attracted a large number of scholars from various disciplines, such as information retrieval, library studies, archives and computer science. This community, consisting of practitioners and researchers, has worked at different stages of the life cycle of digital libraries, in both theoretical and applied aspects. This has further led to the emergence of several definitions of digital libraries, as shown in Table 6.1. In Borgman's (1999) paper, more sources discussing each definition can be found, but for the purposes of this chapter only those that are the most encompassing of the core elements of each definition are selected. In addition to the definitions provided by communities of both researchers and practitioners, Borgman (1999) also pointed out that none of these definitions recognizes the many digital databases that exist on the world wide web, CD-ROMs and the hidden web such as LexisNexis. Some of these databases may be viewed as ‘incomplete’ content collections, given that they may not be organized around the information needs of specific communities, and lack standards and cataloguing. Moreover, the world wide web is not an institution and therefore would not fit in with the definition of library practitioners. However, since Borgman's paper, various institutions have initiated projects to carry out large-scale digitization and made the results available on the world wide web.

Objective – The authors sought to identify link language that is user-friendly and sufficiently disambiguates between a digital collection and digital exhibit platform for users from a R1 institution, or a university with high research activity and doctoral programs as classified in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Methods – The authors distributed two online surveys using a modified open card sort and reverse-category test via university electronic mailing lists to undergraduate and graduate students to learn what language they would use to identify groups of items and to test their understanding of link labels that point to digitized cultural heritage items. Results – Our study uncovered that the link terms utilized by cultural heritage institutions are not uniformly understood by our users. Terms that are frequently used interchangeably (i.e., Digital Collections, Digital Project, and Digital Exhibit) can be too generic to be meaningful for different user groups. Conclusion – Because the link terms utilized by cultural heritage institutions were not uniformly understood by our users, the most user-friendly way to link to these resources is to use the term we—librarians, curators, and archivists—think is most accurate as the link text based on our professional knowledge and provide a brief description of what each site contains in order to provide necessary context.

In Bangladesh, Shariatpur is one of the lowest performing districts in primary education, standing near the bottom at 62 out of 64 districts based on dropout rates (BBS, 2012). It is also one of the most flood affected areas and has a high number of extreme poor. Concern Worldwide (Irish-based International Humanitarian Organization) has implemented a 3-year project from January 2013 to December 2015 namely “Digital School Library for Extreme Poor Children” with 10 schools in 2 Upazillas reached approximately 1000 children and developed a knowledge base society working with CBOs (Community-Based Organizations). The main aim of the project was to attract the extreme poor children to school and improve their education in a sustainable way through training and learning by the innovative approach of a digital school library. The author was appointed as a library consultant of that project. It was an amazing experience of the author that he had to face many challenges to get the attention because the extreme poor children were not interested at all to learn anything. They were very much fond of watching TV (television), moving here and there unnecessarily, playing in a group at riverside and jumping over the river for nothing. To attract them towards school, author in association with the research team made and presented some educational short videos namely, “Mina Cartoon (2015)” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dahl8UII3n4l (b) Increased enrolment rate; (c) Increased retention rates; (d) Increased involvement of the SMCs and PTAs in development and implementation of School Level Improvement Plans; and (e) The poorest children and their parents got a good idea on Equality, Right Based Approach (RBA), HIV and AIDS and on their Rights and Entitlements. Thus school based small digital libraries have turned into integral part in their lives. The basic aim of the paper is to share the author’s experience on how the digital school library project demonstrated access to primary school for the poorest and out-of-school children. Some interesting case studies will also be discussed in this paper. Key words: Digital libraries, school libraries, libraries for extreme poor, knowledge base society.

Network-enabled digitized collection at the Central library, IIT Delhi

In 2022, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew began the mass digitisation of 8.25 million herbarium and fungarium specimens and, at the same time, introduced a new integrated collections management system designed to manage specimen data from all the collections at Kew. For the herbarium curation team, this posed a challenge to adapt and update procedures. The herbarium curation team is responsible for the management and care of the herbarium collections, which includes recurating specimens according to new publications. Prior to mass digitisation, this would involve the physical rearrangement of collections and updates of the few specimens that had been digitised already, such as type specimens. Recurating specimens according to new publications is a complicated curation task. Pre-digitisation, curators would use publications to guide the curation task, looking for the name changes and specimens that are cited as being at Kew. Specimens would be pulled from the collections, new determinations would be added to cited specimens, species and genus covers would be updated with the name changes and specimens would be rearranged. Any specimens already barcoded from previous digitisation projects would be updated in the Kew Herbarium Catalogue, but only around 13% of the collection was digitised prior to this mass digitisation effort. The new Integrated Collections Management System (ICMS) database is bringing all of Kew’s collections data together into one place, linking related specimens in other collections at Kew. For example, a related herbarium specimen, spirit collection and seed collection can be linked together. It has been a steep learning curve for the curation team, learning how to update specimen data in this new database. The mass digitisation project has created a large digital herbarium collection for curators to manage. They must ensure that the physical and digital specimen data remain linked together, by avoiding specimen updates being made to one and not the other. As the herbarium is digitised, the data are added to ICMS. The curators need to reduce the risk that the physical and digital collections will diverge if not updated in parallel, and one of these collections would be missing data essential for keeping the specimens up to date to facilitate easy access both in person and online. An extra complication is that updates to the data impact linked specimens in other collections. Additionally, digitised specimen data are available via Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the Global Plants database, and will soon be available online via the new data portal that Kew is developing. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that these data aggregators hold the correct information linking to the physical collections at Kew. When considering a recuration, it is important to complete the task fully to ensure that specimens are not misplaced, which causes confusion and wastes time for future users. Last year, curators needed to manage a large physical recuration of a plant family, whilst also updating these collections in the new database. A 12-month curation intern was recruited to dedicate time and focus on a recuration project post-digitisation. The case study aim was to work out the considerations and a procedure for any such large recuration post-digitisation. The Cyperaceae plant family was chosen, as this collection had been digitised. With the data available on ICMS and with an expert at Kew to help navigate the publications to determine the latest taxonomy, this ensured that there was someone to ask about any taxonomic issues that might arise. As the project progressed, many queries arose that involved consulting with experts in curation and digitisation, as well as cyperologists. It has been an incredibly useful project, as a procedure for recurations is being developed to guide curators in the future. We present here the considerations, insights, and a workflow for recurating physical and digital herbarium collections simultaneously, whilst also highlighting issues and how these were resolved.

Thousands of special collections departments and libraries throughout the world are currently involved in digital library projects that focus on their holdings. The purposes of these projects are varied: some are to provide broader access to the unique materials within the special collections; others showcase the outstanding images and rare treasures held by libraries; while many provide only intriguing highlights; and a number of digital library projects are extensive enough to include all these purposes. Special collections digital projects can be stand‐alone or cooperative. Such ventures provide case studies in innovation and examples of how others can create digital projects. At the LSU libraries’ special collections department, cooperation and innovation in all digital library projects are emphasized even though the work concentrates on reformatting unique and rare materials. This article is a case study of the special collections department’s work in the digital realm at the LSU Libraries since 1990.

Women's History and Digital Media: Uniting Scholarship and Pedagogy Shelley E. Rose (bio) Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar. "Black Women Suffragists."Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600–2000. Alexander Street Press. ISSN 2164-537X (Basic Edition); ISSN 2164-5361 (Scholar's Edition). http://wass.alexanderstreet.com. P. Gabrielle Foreman. Colored Conventions Project. http://coloredconven-tions.org/. "History of Women's Struggle in South Africa."South African History Online. http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-womens-struggle-south-africa. In the twenty-fifth anniversary issue of the Journal of Women's History( JWH), historian Claire Bond Potter asks, "Has the Internet made a difference to the practice of women'shistory? If so, what difference has it made?" 1Potter emphasizes the potential and challenges of a range of digital resources for women's and gender history, focusing on matters of access, creation of community, and the role of such "traditional" academic arenas as print journals and the standard of sole authored works in the process. This digital media review essay marks the beginning of a new JWHinitiative, connecting the traditional and digital realms of publishing while enhancing a sense of community among scholars of women's and gender history from diverse backgrounds and career paths. The Journal of Women's Historyjoins such peer-reviewed journals as the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, Western Historical Quarterly, and Bulletin of the History of Medicinein vetting digital media. In a timely intervention, the historian Cameron Blevins calls for historians to seize and shape the current wave of reviews. He observes that peer-review of digital projects ranges from informal Twitter dialogues and blog posts to print journals and, in his analysis, falls into three general categories: pedagogy and public engagement, academic scholarship, and data and design criticism. 2Limiting a digital media review to only one or two of these categories, however, potentially obscures a major contribution of digital projects. 3This review therefore focuses on the primary strength [End Page 157]of digital media projects: the ability to bridge the gap between scholarship and pedagogy. Currently, many digital media reviews reinforce a false dichotomy between scholarship and pedagogy. The Journal of American History( JAH), for example, sponsored by the Organization of American Historians, began publishing "web site reviews" as early as June 2009 in collaboration with the educator resources site History Mattersjointly sponsored by American Social History Project and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. The JAHeditors explicitly name educators as their primary review audience. 4The American Historical Association (AHA) creates a similar separation between digital media scholarship and pedagogy. In 2016, the AHA Todayblog launched the excellent "Teaching with #DigHist" series, edited by historian and high school teacher John Rosinbum, which discusses the use of a range of digital projects in the secondary and university-level classroom. In terms of scholarship, Alex Lichtenstein's 2016 introduction to American Historical Review's "AHR Exchange: Reviewing Digital History," characterizes the AHR'sstrategy of pairing digital media reviews with responses from digital editors as an "opportunity to defend their approach and to clarify how the digital medium made it possible for them to push scholarship in new interpretive directions." 5This distinct focus on scholarly contributions in the traditional journal aligns with the AHA "Guidelines for the Professional Evaluation of Digital Scholarship by Historians," released in June 2015, where the terms "teaching" and "pedagogy" do not appear in the main section "Forms and Functions of Digital Scholarship." 6On the AHA website, however, these scholarship guidelines are found under the site heading "Teaching and Learning," which indicates the need for more focused discussions in the historical profession on the role of digital media projects in scholarship and teaching. Digital media consumers represent a broad audience, including academics who identify strongly with both scholar and educator communities. Early adopters of digital media, furthermore, are cognizant of statistics that reveal significant numbers of K-12 educators utilizing primary and secondary sources made available through large scale projects like German History in Documents and Images( GHDI) and the Library of Congress's American Memory. 7Data from...