Hello world!

Welcome to my blog. This is a home for my thoughts, mistakes, frustrations, and (hopefully) solutions, as I work on my AHRC-RLUK Professional Practice Fellowship.

I work as an Archivist at Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives, but for the next ten months, funding from AHRC-RLUK will allow me to focus solely on a practice-based research question:

How can the library develop and deliver a new infrastructure and service to support the sustainable creation and use of digital archives, and encourage its adoption through accessible training materials?

I plan to develop and deliver a new library service to support Cardiff University researchers in publishing digital archives to a new repository and IIIF-enabled viewer. Beyond the university, I’ll develop a range of open access learning resources, designed to build confidence in creating digital exhibitions using free tools, and ignite broader interest in the digital humanities, opening new avenues of research.

In my time at Special Collections and Archives, I’ve had the privilege to hold and examine unique and irreplaceable manuscripts by famous writers, musicians, and journalists. The whole time, thinking: everyone should be able to see this. Digital repositories hosted by galleries, libraries, archives, and museums break down barriers – whether practical or attitudinal – and allow access to inspiring and remarkable collections anywhere in the world.

For several years, I’ve been involved in developing digital projects and providing training in digital skills, while largely lacking funding or infrastructure. I’ve discovered that plenty can be achieved despite minimal resources. I’m passionate about helping researchers and cultural heritage organisations to get started on their digital journey with the help of free, web-based tools, and interoperable technical frameworks such as IIIF.

By starting small, but thinking big, individuals and organisations can inspire stakeholders and funders to invest in their future. With this in mind, all my learning resources will be free, open access, based on minimal computing, and non-reliant on proprietary learning environments, allowing re-use and adaptation by anyone, anywhere, to support self-development, teaching, research, and creativity.

Project workstreams

1. ALMA DIGITAL. Interrogate the capacity of Alma Digital to support the construction of digital archives and online exhibitions. What can it do? What can’t it do? What tools will it integrate with? Develop training material for library staff and researchers. Identify limitations and pursue fixes with Ex Libris. Audience = internal, and potential adopters of Alma Digital (e.g., WHELF).

2. ONLINE EXHIBITIONS. Research and evaluate free platforms for online exhibitions, suitable for those without access to Alma Digital. Both ‘flat’ images and IIIF compatible, review of pros and cons. Audience = external.

3. DIGITAL HUMANITIES TOOLKIT. Research and develop an introductory toolkit for digital humanities activity, to include data mining, text analysis, data visualisation, network analysis, crowdsourcing, computer vision, IIIF. Audience = external.

Ongoing activity

• INTERNAL COLLABORATION. Work internally to gather requirements, sample content to create proof of concept models, advocate to integrate digital humanities training into research methods offer. How can the library help?

• EXTERNAL COLLABORATION. Work with wider IIIF and Universal Viewer communities to keep abreast of developments and seek advice on technical issues. Explore potential platforms to disseminate training materials, such as Programming Historian, Carpentries Incubator, GitHub Skills. Disseminate via blog posts, publications, conference papers.

• DOCUMENTATION. Using a blog to ensure an ongoing process of recording activity and personal growth, reflecting on progress: what have I learned, what have I done, what is going well, where are the areas of concern, what do I need to do next, what are my questions, what don’t I know, where do I need to look for help or information? Use this content to generate an end-of-project report to summarise activity, progress, challenges, and identify next steps.