Paper presented at British HCI Conference (BHCI2022), Keele, UK. 11-13 July 2022. https://www.alandix.com/academic/papers/BHCI2022-community/ This paper explores ways in which scholarly skill and expertise might be embodied in tools and sustainable practices that enable communities to create and manage their own digital archives. We focus particularly on tools and practices related to the recording and annotation of digitised materials. The paper is based on co-production practice in two very different kinds of community. Although the communities are different we find that tools designed specifically for one are valuable for others, thus offering the promise of general tools to support community-centred digitisation and potentially also traditional archival practice.

1. Tools and technology to support
rich community heritage
Alan Dix
Computational Foundry
Swansea University
Rachel Cowgill
Department of Music
University of York
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/BHCI2022-community/
Troedrhiwfuwch Team
InterMusE Team

2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_from_NE_2.JPG
https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/the-kings-library
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colosseo_2020.jpg
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/isis-destruction-of-palmyra-syria-heart-been-ripped-out-of-the-city

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_history#/media/File:03_sendia.jpg
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/lifestyle/13601040.memories-west-george-street-in-1940/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Ridgway_Knight_-_Coffee_in_the_garden.jpg

4. Troedrhiwfuwch
tales of a lost land

5. Troedrhiwfuwch … on the ground

6. a living community

7. envisionments

8. prototypes

9. existing digital archive

10. lessons
expertise of the community
… but fragility and precarity
community history
intimately connected to family history
personal stories are often universal stories
filing systems stuck in the 1970s
need better ways to annotate and connect
people, places and artefacts
elicit knowledge and stories

11. prototype
TalkOver
capturing stories about photographs

12. rich
stories

13. TalkOver

15. InterMusE team
Illinois Rachel Cowgill
Alan Dix
Simon McVeigh
Rupert Ridgwell
Charlotte Armstrong
Maureen Reagan
J. Stephen Downie
Christina Bashford
Mike Twidale
York, BL
Swansea
USA
UK

16. communities and archives
connecting to community:
Krannert, Illinois
Borthwick, York
from community:
British Musical Societies
Huddersfield, York, Belfast

17. democratise digitisation capture

18. open and scholarly
● scalable
● incremental
● auditable
● updateable
● connected
● accessible
high volume
community scan
low volume
high quality
professional scan
if needed
obtain hi-res
community
use
scholarly
use

19. challenge
reconcile
community
empowerment
scholarly
authority

20. lessons
many similar:
community expertise, fragility and precarity
community history & family history
universality of the local
better ways to annotate and connect
in addition:
digitise raw material
catalogue semi-structured information

21. prototype
OcrMarkup
from text to meaning

22. HUDD~RSFIELD MUSIC CLUB
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HIGHFIELD HAll .. NEW NORTH ROAD
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18TH, 1926 AT 7,4.5
FLONZALEY
STRING QUARTET
LeadinR Violin
Violin
Viola
'Cello
PROGRAMME
ADOLFO BETTI
ALFRED POCHON
NICOLAS MOLDAVAN
IVAN D'ARCHAMBEAU
PRICE SIXPENCE
H ..... Muie.1 Di • ..,.o •. A. I!AGLI!FII!LO HULL, M" •. I)oe. (
1100 ~'H"Y. AL8ERT LUNN. 8 .... m.' Clo ... !!d,.,,_. l-I"dd .. .,
H ..... TI"N ........ F. W. CADS8Y. Nui ..... J P .... l.d.J U ... k. L,d.

24. OcrMarkup

25. human-intensive intervention
needed for
meaningful semantics

26. Discovering
Shared Value
… and swopsies!

27. annotation
& narrative
stages …
collection
curation &
organisation
communication
& sharing

28. Troedrhiwfuwch

29. community co-production
⇒ bespoke design
⇒ general solutions

30. Try them for yourself!
https://alandix.com/labs/
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/BHCI2022-community/