A digital humanities methodology for teaching knowledge organization and LAM

Abstract

The lack of a definition of what it means to teach Digital Humanities (DH) that is unanimously agreed upon allows us to reflect on educational objectives and methodologies with the aim of shaping the identity of the digital humanist. The opening of the international Master’s degree program in Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge (DHDK) at the University of Bologna aims to contribute to the discussion by developing a possible DH teaching model.

Setting out from the experience developed through this project, the Knowledge Organization and Cultural Heritage (KO and CH) course, one of the first year’s compulsory modules, has been designed following a specific principle. While teaching how to move from data to knowledge and how to manage this process as an iterative workflow, this course emphasises the role of DH theories, methodologies and techniques.

This paper aims to introduce the scope and content of the KO and CH course. In particular, it focuses on the guidelines required to create a project in the domain of Linked open data, by working on data, models and methods coming from libraries, archives and museums (LODLAM). Linked open data (LOD) is considered to be the primary methodology for managing KO issues in the context of LAM. For what concerns the interpretation of cultural heritage memories, the implementation of DH theories and methodologies is the added value to the project’s design, modelling and implementation.