Admission requirements
Directly accessible for students of the MA Book & Digital Media Studies who have successfully completed the elective ‘The Library: Knowledge Centre of Past, Present and Future’. All others should contact the course coordinator.
Description
Creating digital access to collections of cultural heritage is central to a strong web presence for cultural heritage institutions. Mass-digitization has become the norm for heritage institutions, yet many technological challenges and policy issues lie ahead before digitized collections can become universally accessible. This course deals with the variety of challenges for making cultural heritage collections and knowledge domains accessible in a digital form. Scanning (or imaging) is only the first step in a complex sequence of activities to be undertaken to make physical collections accessible and searchable via the Internet. Topics include: digitization policies in the Netherlands and abroad; institutional frameworks for (digital) cultural heritage; Digital Humanities research; materials selection, preparation, and processing; long-term digital preservation; and legal aspects.
Course objectives
Students:
gain a broad understanding of digitisation concepts;
become familiar with current digitisation practice within the broader cultural heritage field;
gain an understanding of the current state of Digital Humanities research;
gain experience with developing a proposal for a research project using digitized cultural heritage;
gain knowledge of methods and standards for providing access to digital documents as well as knowledge of file formats, techniques, long-term preservation, usability and copyright issues;
are equipped to think about future developments and effects of digitisation on (humanities) research, society, and cultural heritage organisations;
know how and where to find knowledge and examples of good practice.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Weekly three-hour seminars.
Assessment method
Assessment
Midterm paper
Final paper
Weighing
The final grade is determined by the grade for the mid-term paper (40%) and the final essay (60%).
Resit
In case of an insufficient result, the resit consists of the same parts as the first opportunity; students therefore only take the resits for those parts that were insufficient.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Will be specified during the course. All materials will be accessible online.
Registration
Enrollment trough uSis is mandatory. If you have any questions, please contact the departmental office, email: osz-oa-arsenaal@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Participation in all sessions of this course is compulsory. Upon prior consultation, the lecturer can permit absence at one session for compelling reasons. Students who are absent twice in this half-semester course (7 weeks) can be excluded from further participation and will have to re-take the course.