Dear friends,
Many on this list may find the following announcement of interest.
Best,
Lynn

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The North American consortium Digital Scriptorium<https://digital-scriptorium.org/> beta launched the new DS Catalog<https://search.digital-scriptorium.org/> in July 2022. Designed to reduce barriers to participation and ensure sustainability, the DS Catalog aggregates member data within a linked open data platform built on Wikibase. With the primary goal of becoming an online union catalog of premodern manuscripts in North America, the DS Catalog also serves an online data repository for members, a semantic portal, and a knowledge base allowing users to explore and query heterogeneous data contained in manuscript records from multiple sources in a single interface powered by linked open data.

To learn more about the how the new platform works and its possibilities for deeper LOD research, the Digital Scriptorium team at the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries cordially invites you to join our 2023 LEADING Fellows, Mace Jones and Jade Snelling, as they present their work exploring the new DS Catalog and its Linked Open Dataset.  As part of the 2023 LIS Education and Data Integrated Network Group (LEADING) Fellowship program coordinated by the Metadata Research Center at Drexel University, Mace and Jade participated in a six-month fellowship developing and implementing research projects related to DS Catalog data. Fellows will present their work during a DS-sponsored online event on March 9, 2024, from 12 - 1 pm EST.

To attend, register using this form: https://forms.gle/avPvfSLwAmMj3jEr7<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/digital-scriptorium.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=37f9ae95023508f0bd6901850&id=7c0b3492eb&e=048a8ca7fa__;!!IBzWLUs!R8qK6aS5cNNZULm-A1GG9bwK5nVIAe_voK-IKJW9vK6s5Fl6ySDoEhEJHlFWHgVh_I7EjXZGeiJcJ2R-3Xk$>. A zoom link will be provided the week of the presentations.

The program will consist of the following two presentations and last approximately one hour in duration:


  *   "Data Incognita: Digital Scriptorium in a Semantic Web Context" presented by Jade Snelling (Virginia Tech University Libraries)
     *   Where does Digital Scriptorium fit into the linked data-verse? How does the reimagined union catalog support new kinds of research? This talk will focus on the advantages of modeling manuscript catalog descriptions as linked data in terms of added research value and findability. In addition to a brief explanation of relevant semantic web principles and technologies, Snelling will demonstrate and share observations on how mapping Digital Scriptorium's schema to other known linked data models can put its data in conversation with other cultural heritage data, supporting greater data aggregation and integration.
  *   "Visualizing and Annotating the Digital Scriptorium" presented by Mace Jones (College of Information Studies, University of Maryland),
     *   The promise of Linked Open Data (LOD) and its impact on archival and broader cultural heritage practice has been to improve data quality and empower more diverse and comparative forms of digital search. This talk will focus on using SPARQL queries within the DS collection, visualizing DS SPARQL data, and the further potential for digital humanities (DH) work to build on the DS data model and collections data. By examining a process from data extraction to visualization to eventual reuse, this project highlights those potentials for Linked Open Data within the context of the revised DS data model. This project presents the viability of SPARQL query and Wikibase for collections research and DH applications.

Digital Scriptorium<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/digital-scriptorium.org/__;!!IBzWLUs!Q9aryCv37T7c1kmm45X7Nru73N4AgKFy-bfWYJubTxgDniqBxpNExvDcRGKEU3xEVAQ26dEBjxcUx86rcOtJ$> (DS) is a growing consortium of North American institutions with collections of global premodern manuscripts, dedicated to building an online union catalog of manuscripts in member collections. To learn more about DS, visit the Digital Scriptorium website<https://digital-scriptorium.org/> or subscribe to the DS newsletter<http://eepurl.com/hKznqL>.