collecting data

how to publish data

Veerle Vanden Daelen (cegesoma)

Tim Veken (niod-knaw)

outline

• introduction

• identification & investigation

• integration

Introduction on EHRI

• October 2010 – March 2015 (54 months)

• Supported by the 7th Framework Programme of the European

Union

• 20 partners (research institutions, libraries, archives,

museums and memorial sites)

• 3 disciplines: history, archival science and digital humanities

• Coordinator: NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide

Studies, dr. Conny Kristel

• www.ehri-project.eu

The main objective of EHRI is to

support the Holocaust research

community by

1. integrating information on key

archival collections and

institutions into an online portal

2. encouraging collaborative

Holocaust research and

investigating new methodologies

EHRI Aims

Fragmentation and dispersal of archival sources

Geographical scope Holocaust

Attempts to destroy the evidence

Migration of Holocaust survivors

Multiplicity documentation projects after the war

Why EHRI?

EHRI’s activities

Fellowship Programme for Holocaust researchers

Online courses

Research guides

Summer schools

EHRI Portal with description of Holocaust-relevant sources and

possibility to register and contact other researchers

Identify countries and write country reports

Identify institutions that hold Holocaust-related material

and describe these

Identify Holocaust-related collections within these

institutions – take over existing archival descriptions or

compose new ones

Make all descriptions available in the EHRI portal

Identification and investigation: overview

EHRI’s Data Identification and Investigation work

EHRI’s Data Identification and Investigation

work:

• Integration of existing descriptions (via IT and/or

manually)

• EHRI-authored descriptions

EHRI’s thesaurus, standards and guidelines

EHRI’s Data Identification and Investigation work

EHRI’s Data Identification and

Investigation work

Via the EHRI Consortium and cooperating partners

Via subcontractors, local experts, in Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic,

Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,

Ukraine.

Via workshops and meetings with historians and archivists (for example for

Greece, Poland and Ukraine)

Greece workshop (Athens) December 2012Ukraine workshop (Munich) July 2012

integration

• DANS-KNAW

• Göttingen State and University Library

• NIOD-KNAW

• Yad Vashem

import module

Created by Linda Reijnhoudt (dans-knaw)

model import

Created by Linda Reijnhoudt (dans-knaw)

considerations

how to handle multiple descriptions for the same archive

same source: in multiple languages

multiple sources

how to support annotations / linking

how to deal with subsequent updates of the metadata

computers are not human

uniquely identifiable objects

correct usage of exchange formats

semantically correct data

uniquely identifiable

objects

to support updates

to prevent collisions

call numbers on item level

however, intermediate levels need identifiers too

unique within organisation

the physical object =/= description

valid exchange formats

software is build around explicitly written specifications

it is either compliant or not-compliant, there is no third option

• if the next step is done by a computer

computer has limitations,

it won’t ask for clearification

e.g. MS excel with colours

lot of effort, useful information,

but not in a useful format

semantically correct data

• although semantically correct, a computer won’t

understand

language: N or F in belgian descriptions

for a human this is clear: dutch or french

for a computer: there is no language N or F in the used standards

dates: spring 1936

gives a human (seemingly) enough information

computers force more specific data

(especially winter ’44 : is that januari or december of 1944?)

adding preprocess

Created by Linda Reijnhoudt (dans-knaw)

preprocess steps

Created by Linda Reijnhoudt (dans-knaw)

Heterogeneity,

subjectivity and context

“And archives are not [like] a library. In a library

you have a title, you have an author or an editor ...

but an archive is a rubbish heap … and only we

have the map [to navigate it].”

(EHRI user requirement interview with archivists)

Heterogeneity of archival descriptions

Parallel descriptions in EHRI: for example Ukraine

NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and

Genocide Studies (NL)

CEGES-SOMA Centre for Historical Research

and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (BE)

Jewish Museum in Prague (CZ)

Institute of Contemporary History Munich – Berlin (DE)

YAD VASHEM The Holocaust Martyrs’ and

Heroes’ Remembrance Authority (IL)

The Wiener Library – Institute of Contemporary History (UK)

Holocaust Memorial Center (HU)

HL-senteret Center for Studies of Holocaust

and Religious Minorities (NO)

NAF National Archives of Finland (FI)

The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute (PL)

King’s College London (UK)

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen – Göttingen

State and University Library (DE)

Athena RC/IMIS (GR)

DANS Data Archiving and Networked Services (NL)

Shoah Memorial, Museum, Center for Contemporary

Jewish Documentation (FR)

ITS International Tracing Service (DE)

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (DE)

Terezín Memorial (CZ)

Beit Theresienstadt (IL)

VWI Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for

Holocaust Studies (AT)

CONNECTING KNOWLEDGE