Fiona Moorhead was awarded a bursary to attend the Digital Humanities Oxford Summer School in 2024. To join the mailing list and learn about the next summer school sign up here. Read about Fiona's experience at the summer school here:
In August 2024 I took part in the ‘Humanities Data’ strand of the Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School course.
I have been working with museum collections data for most of my career, with much of my learning taking place through practical experience working with museum databases, sharing collections information online, and doing hands-on work with collection objects. In my current role at Historic Environment Scotland, I work with colleagues on projects to improve the information we hold about our heritage objects. So much of this work is focussed on tangible and direct work: physical inventories, data cleaning, and sharing object information online. This necessary work enables the possibilities for innovative or enhanced use of this information, but at times it can be difficult to find the space to look towards this horizon, develop new ideas, or test out tools or new approaches.
Receiving this bursary made my attendance at this summer school course possible. As a GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) worker, I was curious to take part in an opportunity to step back into an academic context, and during this week-long course I hoped to touch on some of the tools, techniques and possibilities for working with humanities data, building on my existing skills and knowledge. I also had a personal goal to identify potential projects I could complete to demonstrate the possibilities of using our collections information in new ways, and to share this knowledge in order to help colleagues to learn more and get excited about some of these possibilities.
This introductory course was developed to bridge a gap for people wanting to take part in the summer school course, but who might not be quite ready for the deep dive into working with some of the tools and techniques offered on some of the other strands. The course included a number of sessions in lecture format, interspersed with shorter sessions with tools or techniques such as working with IIIF image manifests, working with databases, using GIS for humanities data, using OpenRefine for cleaning data, data visualisation tips, using TEI for encoding and extracting data and so on.
For me, the experience came to life during discussions, presentations and knowledge-sharing with other attendees. The group had a huge range of experiences and expertise, and had come to this summer course in Oxford from across the world. This helped me to understand Oxford’s place as a node in the global network of ideas and information, and I particularly enjoyed the global perspective offered in the discussions. The course offered me opportunities to extend my existing skills and knowledge, and learn more about tools and techniques that were new to me. I ended up with a list of prospective projects to work on that were a direct result of the ideas, tools and projects shared during the course.
On my last day in Oxford, I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum, which gave me further opportunity to reflect that the digital tools and techniques discussed during the course are just one iteration of a long history of efforts to ascribe meaning and interpretation to humanities data and heritage objects. It is helpful to consider our digital skills as essential knowledge required to carry forward humanities research and information ahead to future generations.
