Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage: Networking Open-Access Image Repositories of Ancient and Medieval Content

Growing numbers of digital archive projects are engaging with cultural heritage issues, from digitising historic photos of archaeological sites in regions in conflict, to recording data on sites under threat from climate change. However, often these projects do not communicate with each other as best they could, leading to a duplication of efforts. Additionally, projects have been focused so far on academic audiences rather than on other groups of users, even though they are useful and important resources for museum and cultural heritage professionals, students, and other groups. The 'Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage' research network aims to address both of these issues by promoting collaboration between open-access (i.e. freely accessible) digital projects based in the UK and in Ireland that focus on ancient and medieval cultural heritage, including art, architecture, and archaeology. The network is run by the Manar al-Athar ('Guide to Archaeology') photo-archive of images of archaeological sites, buildings, and objects in the Middle East and North Africa. Over the course of the next year, the network will host three workshops, two at University College Dublin and one at the University of Oxford, allowing members of participating digital projects to gather and discuss issues related to project missions, operating processes, sustainability, usability and accessibility for different audiences, and outreach to younger audiences, particularly secondary school students. Through knowledge exchange and collaboration, the projects will aim to coordinate their activities, including linking resources when appropriate. Several research projects will emerge from the workshops, targeted at various groups. First, the network will produce two articles, intended especially for museum and cultural heritage professionals, on collaborative practices between digital heritage projects and on the use of digital projects for research. Second, the network will draft a model curriculum for the teaching of cultural heritage issues in secondary schools, with the aim of promoting heritage education in schools through the use of digital projects. Finally, these research projects will be made freely available on the network website that will serve as a home for information and further research activities. By producing opportunities for collaboration, the 'Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage' network will deliver meaningful results for museum and cultural heritage professionals, secondary school students, academic researchers, and other audiences.

The Digital Humanities Research Network 'Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage', coordinated by the Manar al-Athar open-access photo-archive based in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford, draws together existing digital archive projects focused on premodern cultural heritage based in the UK and Ireland. Participant projects include Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA), Historic Environment Image Resource (HEIR), and the Heritage Gazetteer of Libya in the UK; and the Chester Beatty Library, Monastic Ireland, Gothic Past, and the Archaeological Survey of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland. The research network will enable the participant digital archives to explore shared issues and challenges of usability, accessibility, and outreach, and to facilitate greater coordination between them.

This research network is designed to engage with multiple audiences, including those working in the museum and heritage sectors in the UK/Republic of Ireland and internationally; members of the British public and tourists interested in cultural heritage; and school students and teachers in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The impact related to this research network falls into four categories:

First, the research network will increase coordination and collaboration between existing digital archive projects focused on premodern cultural heritage. This will facilitate the reduction of content duplication, as well as the coordination of data across projects. This coordination will not only aid the projects themselves, but will improve usability for all user groups, especially for non-specialists: for example, the embedding of links from one project to another at the resource/page level will allow users to click through to related resources.

Second, the research network will increase awareness and usage of the participant digital archive projects by museum and cultural heritage professionals. While each participant project is used and valued by a sub-set of researchers, cultural heritage professionals, and members of the public interested in cultural heritage, the establishment of the research network provides the opportunity to target a combined audience of users. To this end, the network will launch a joint website that will serve as a portal for information about the importance of digital preservation of premodern cultural heritage, and the individual participant projects, and promote this resource to museum and heritage professionals.

Third, the research network will stimulate, and participate in, the development of the future role of digital archives, particularly in the cultural heritage context. While a significant number of digital archive projects have developed in the wake of destruction of cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq, the role of these archives as a means of documenting cultural heritage and their use as a resource for preservation and conservation has seen little evaluation. Through the publication of two articles - the first considering the challenges and opportunities of collaboration between digital archive projects and the second examining ways in which digital archives are used by museum and cultural heritage professionals - the research network will prompt discussion, and potentially shape, critical approaches to digital archives.

Finally, the research network will increase the use of digital archives by secondary school students and their teachers. To date, digital archive projects have been primarily directed towards academic audiences, and have been structured accordingly. This research network will explore means to improve usability for, and increase use by, secondary school teachers and students. Through the production of a model curriculum on heritage for secondary school/second stage students, the research network will introduce digital archives related to cultural heritage to an important new audience, that of secondary school students and their teachers.