On this page you will find a series of videos from our Atlas workshops, which took place in August 2020, as well introductory videos that provide insight onto the creation of the Atlas, the data contained within the ten initial digitised collections described by the project and how to contribute to the expansion of the Atlas in the future. Each link will take you to the video and a transcript.
Researching the Atlas of Digitised Newspapers and Metadata
This video provides overview of the project, as well as our conclusions on the current structure and documentation of digitised newspapers collections across the world.
The Structure of the Atlas of Digitised Newspapers and Metadata
This video includes a detailed discussion of the creation of the Atlas, and a section-by-section guide to its contents.
Workshop Introduction
In this introductory session, we invited participants to consider what interaction with digitised newspapers might look like in 2030, and how we might get there. The workshop participants then broke into groups to discuss a series of challenges.
Challenge Feedback
Historical / Literary Scholarship Challenge: These groups considered the issues facing historical and literary researchers working with collections, and how input from these researchers might help shape collections. For example, what would your workflow be if you were trying to analyse newspaper layout changes in response to cheaper newspapers/lower taxation/wider readerships (demographically)? What metadata fields might you be interested in? Based on your research and experience, what kinds of things should a person inputting metadata for digitised newspapers know (e.g. what level of detail/types of categories/sources for determining)?
Librarian and Archival Science Challenge: These groups brought together the experience of librarians and archivists from different kinds of collections to consider what useful contributions from academics/independent users would look like in terms of metadata, archive structures, and access. What format should such contributions take? We also invited the group to identify particular challenges facing their collections (or future collections). What is needed to solve these problems? What input from collaborators would be helpful?
Data, Information and Computer Science Challenge: These groups considered the more technical questions and what the next technological steps might be. How can metadata include provenance information in a sensible way (i.e. without lots of string fields)? What methods and approaches might be used in enabling researchers to work across fields in collections, with all the messiness and inconsistencies?
You can also find summary blog posts of these discussions, starting 15 September 2020, in our news section.
Closing Discussion
In the final section of the workshop, we answered questions that arose during the event and broadened the discussion to consider collections not present in the Atlas, and the main lessons learned from participants’ work with digitised newspaper collections.