Event: Using digital heritage for research

Europeana and the National Library of the Netherlands are hosting an (invite only) event on ‘Using digital heritage for research’ at the National Library in The Hague on the 25th and 26th of April. At this event policy makers, research institutions, and heritage institutions will come together to review the research recommendations made in July 2014 during the Greek Presidency, highlighting European best-practices, Europeana Research, and the Netherlands state-of-play. Two years on, this event will revisit the recommendations, look at their successes, and make new recommendations for the next phase of digital heritage in research. The event will also be the first time that representatives from all the main players in the Dutch digital humanities scene will come together to discuss digital cultural heritage in the Netherlands.

In addition to introductions from Lily Knibbeler (Director General of the National Library of the Netherlands), Lorna Hughes (Chair of the Europeana Research Advisory Board), Jill Cousins (Executive Director of the Europeana Foundation) and Victoria Tsoukala (National Documentation Centre, Greece), the first day includes both a look at the future of digital humanities research needs from Seamus Ross (CorrFRSE, Professor Faculty of Information at University of Toronto, Europeana Research Advisory Board) and presentations on practical use cases. Researchers from King’s College London, University of Amsterdam, and Utrecht University will be looking at the use of digital heritage material in the study of antiquity, newspapers, and audiovisual material. Following that, Europeana Research will be the subject of an interactive session, moderated by the management team, Nienke van Schaverbeke and Agiatis Benardou (Digital Curation Unit, ATHENA RC), and featuring four members of the Advisory Board, Leif Isaksen, Costis Dallas, Toma Tasovac, and Milena Žic-Fuchs.

On the second day, the opening event will be a session on the Dutch perspective and situation with digital humanities and digital heritage research. Moderated by Lorna Hughes, the session will bring together figures from research policy makers, ministry representation & research organisations to discuss the Dutch situation. The meeting will conclude with a breakout session moderated by Jill Cousins, to reflect on what has been done since the 2014 recommendations and identify new ones for the next phase. The new recommendations will include priorities and policy actions in the next phase, as well as implementation and communication proposals.

The full programme is available here.