MBIB4890 Digital cultural heritage Emneplan

This course is about making digital cultural heritage visible through interaction with digital texts and images, primarily from archives and libraries. Visibility here means that aspects of these texts, which are not accessible through traditional methods like close reading, are made visible using digital and statistical methods such as "distant reading" of large corpora. Such aspects may include less-read or referenced texts (also known as "the great unread"), occurrences of pregnant words and themes among different authors and through different eras, identification of patterns in images etc. The course addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with the quantity and diversity of digital material. Through examples drawn from literature and archives, students experience firsthand how digital methods can generate new knowledge.

The course language is English.

None.

The student should have the following learning outcomes upon successful completion of the course:

Knowledge

The student has

• advanced knowledge of methods for distant reading of large text corpora.
• in-depth knowledge of how metadata can be used for analysis, visualization, and dissemination of digital library and archival materials.
• a solid understanding of the history and implications of digitization.

Skills

The student can

• independently use methods for corpus creation.
• use text corpora for analytical purposes.
• conduct independent analyses of digitized material.

General competence

The student can

• participate in public discourse on the digitization and dissemination of cultural heritage.
• apply relevant theory to new subject areas.

Lectures, seminars, self-study, discussions, and guidance on a weekly basis at campus. The students receive feedback and supervision during dialog-based teaching and joint supervision in class.

The following coursework requirements must have been approved for the student to take the exam:

• Coursework 1: A group of 2-4 students creates a poster on one of the course topics. The poster describes a research project in progress and must be accompanied by a note (4 pages) that provides a detailed description of the poster.
• Coursework 2: Plenary presentation (10-15 minutes) of the poster with all group members participating. Before the presentation, each group is assigned a poster and notes from another group to provide a thorough commentary. Like the poster, the commentary should include both a written note (2 pages) and an oral discussion with all group members participating.

The purpose of the requirements is to contribute to achieving learning outcomes, especially the skill requirements. Requirements must be completed and approved by the specified deadline for students to take the exam. In the case of absence or non-compliance, the student/group must submit a text on an assigned topic by a set date and present it to the instructors. If a requirement is not approved, there is an opportunity to submit a revised version once.

The exam in the course is a supervised exam of four hours.

No aids are permitted.

Grading scale A-F.

All exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.