Last month we welcomed a new Working Group in DARIAH on Bibliographical Data (BiblioData WG). Chaired by Vojtěch Malínek (Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences) and Dr. Tomasz Umerle (Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences), the Working Group aims to foster cooperation between all the parties involved in the bibliographical data life cycle (especially data producers, managers/curators, researchers, and theorists of documentation and bibliography), leading to a greater and more diverse research use of bibliographical data in the humanities.
We asked and they answered
In order to better understand the aims and activities of this new Working Group, we asked Vojtěch and Tomasz to briefly introduce the topic, their planned activities and next steps. Here is what they had to say:
Can you describe the topic of the Bibliographical Data Working Group?
Although bibliographical data is central to the humanities, and comprises of numerous services, tools, resources, interested researchers, there are no comprehensive initiatives aimed at addressing the issues of bibliographical data from the perspective of digital humanities and data-driven research. The BiblioData WG is a bottom-up attempt to bring together those different parties in order to build a larger framework for bibliographical data research, and address the main issues that the community is facing.
The Working Group’s main deliverables will be publications (conceived mostly as working papers disseminating the WG findings to stakeholder communities), supported by regular meetings and workshops.
How did you decide to create a Working Group on this topic in the context of DARIAH?
We believe there is a need to introduce bibliographical data in the contemporary discussions around research infrastructure in Europe. We consider DARIAH ERIC as the right environment for such an initiative, given its focus on extending its target groups and network (as expressed in its strategic documents such as the DARIAH Strategic Plan for 2019-2026), and on sharpening its external communication, and cooperation. Bibliographical data community is diverse: it includes not only researchers, and tool-providers, but also GLAM institutions, and scientific publishing companies. Integration of this community is a task that demands support from consortiums like DARIAH ERIC.
We also acknowledge the importance of establishing and populating the forthcoming Social Sciences and Humanities Open Marketplace, the development of which is led by DARIAH. The Working Group will contribute to this by making bibliographical data issues more visible for research community needs. In the long run, we do expect that our work, focused on analyzing existing research and infrastructure, should facilitate the introduction of various existing bibliographical resources/services/tools into the Marketplace, to help addressing DARIAH’s strategic goals.
What are your next plans as co-chairs of the Working Group?
Our first meetings were held in May 2019 in Warsaw (at the DARIAH Annual Event 2019), and in July 2019 in Utrecht (at the DH2019 Conference).
Together with all our members, we have decided to work on a joint report mapping European bibliographical landscape as a first project of our WG. This publication will analyse current approaches in research, curation, and collaboration in the field of bibliographical data in the humanities, and provide some recommendations for the future.
We plan to present some of our findings during the DARIAH Annual Event in 2020, and provide the report to DARIAH community in the second part of the year. Although the timeline depends on pending funding applications.
We warmly welcome the BiblioData Working Group in DARIAH and look forward to fruitful collaborations!
If you would like to get in touch visit their page or follow their twitter account.
