Evolving Hands: Building Workflows and Scalable Practices for Handwriting Recognition and Text Encoding in Cultural Institutions

进化之手：在文化机构中构建手写识别和文本编码的工作流程和可扩展实践

• 批准号: AH/W005360/1
• 负责人: James Cummings
• 金额: $ 5.51万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW005360%2F1
• 关键词: Evolving; Hands; Building; Workflows; Scalable

Transcription has evolved dramatically in the twenty-first century. Historically this has been volunteer-driven to provide 'added-value'. However this results in a flat and undemocratic user experience - requiring a pre-existing understanding of the terms, subjects, people, places, and their spellings within the digitized collection. Two tools changing this model within digital curation are Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR). OCR is ubiquitous in mass digitisation but has substantial limitations, while HTR is still unfamiliar in cultural institutions. This project undertakes 3 case studies ranging across document forms to demonstrate how these digital tools can be iteratively incorporated into curation. These range from: 19th-20th century handwritten letters and diaries from the UNESCO Gertrude Bell Archive, 16th century scribal hand in Spanish and Nahuatl, 18th century German, 20th century French correspondence, and a range of printed materials from the 19th century onward in English and French. A joint case study converts legacy printed material of the Records of Early English Drama (REED) project. By covering a wide variety of periods and document forms the project has a real opportunity here to foster responsible and responsive support for cultural institutions. This project seeks to establish more effective workflows that fill the gap between digitization, semantic-oriented encoding, and data discoverability.Newcastle University Case Study -- The Gertrude Bell Archive: This case study uses Newcastle Special Collection's UNESCO Gertrude Bell Archive (http://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/), which document the activities of the explorer, archaeologist, and political agent who was instrumental in establishing the Kingdom of Iraq in 1921. Bell is the subject of plays, documentaries, a feature film, and recently was nominated as a BBC 20th Century Icon. A separate centenary project is digitizing and cataloguing her archive of diaries, letters, and photographs. Piggybacking on that we will select the richest materials to train HTR base models of Bell's hand and use up-converted transcriptions for the production of training materials. Bucknell University Case Study -- Scholarly Production at Scale: The Bucknell case study centers on processes used across multiple discrete projects by staff with a range of digital experience. These projects represent different models for testing the HTR to TEI conversion process. Their sources are drawn from Bucknell's Special Collections and research of faculty working with archives in the US, UK, Europe, and Asia. They include scribal hands, life papers, correspondence, and semi-legible typed government files from 1500-1970 and are in English, French, German, Latin, Nahuatl (an indigenous Mexican language), Spanish, and Vietnamese. This case study will directly benefit multiple projects at the university, and is optimized for sharing with smaller cultural institutions around the world.Joint Newcastle/Bucknell Case Study -- Transforming REED Print Collections: Cummings (AHRC PI) and Jakacki (NEH PI) will collaborate on a case study converting collections produced by the Records of Early English Drama (http://reed.utoronto.ca) project that has published since 1979 edited documentary records of pre-1642 performance in pre-modern England, Scotland and Wales. However, the semantic information provided in the print collections, through the use of special symbols and formatting, is lost in OCR. Previous tests using HTR by Jakacki and Cummings have demonstrated that these distinctions can be transformed with HTR to TEI. The project will document shared workflows for consistent up-conversion into viable materials ready to enter the REED project's digital publication workflow. This has the potential to be of use for all the other REED legacy print volumes (well over 20,000 pages of rich scholarly material).

转录在二十一世纪发生了巨大的发展。从历史上看，这是由志愿者驱动的，以提供“附加值”。然而，这会导致扁平且不民主的用户体验——需要对数字化馆藏中的术语、主题、人物、地点及其拼写有预先存在的理解。在数字管理中改变这种模式的两种工具是光学字符识别 (OCR) 和手写文本识别 (HTR)。 OCR 在大规模数字化中无处不在，但有很大的局限性，而 HTR 在文化机构中仍然不熟悉。该项目进行了 3 个跨文档形式的案例研究，以展示如何将这些数字工具迭代地纳入策展中。其中包括：来自联合国教科文组织格特鲁德·贝尔档案馆的 19 至 20 世纪手写信件和日记、16 世纪西班牙语和纳瓦特尔语抄写员手稿、18 世纪德语、20 世纪法语信件以及 19 世纪以来的一系列英语印刷材料和法语。联合案例研究转换了早期英语戏剧记录 (REED) 项目的遗留印刷材料。通过涵盖各种时期和文件形式，该项目有一个真正的机会来促进对文化机构负责任和反应灵敏的支持。该项目旨在建立更有效的工作流程，以填补数字化、面向语义的编码和数据可发现性之间的差距。纽卡斯尔大学案例研究——格特鲁德·贝尔档案：该案例研究使用纽卡斯尔特别收藏的联合国教科文组织格特鲁德·贝尔档案（http：/ /gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/），记录了这位探险家、考古学家和政治代理人的活动，他们在 1921 年建立伊拉克王国中发挥了重要作用。贝尔是戏剧的主题，纪录片、故事片，最近被提名为 BBC 20 世纪偶像。一个单独的百年项目正在对她的日记、信件和照片档案进行数字化和编目。在此基础上，我们将选择最丰富的材料来训练贝尔手部的 HTR 基础模型，并使用上转换的转录来制作训练材料。巴克内尔大学案例研究——大规模学术生产：巴克内尔大学案例研究的重点是具有一系列数字经验的员工在多个离散项目中使用的流程。这些项目代表了用于测试 HTR 到 TEI 转换过程的不同模型。它们的资料来源来自巴克内尔的特别收藏以及美国、英国、欧洲和亚洲档案馆工作人员的研究。其中包括 1500 年至 1970 年的抄写手稿、生活文件、信件和半清晰打印的政府档案，内容包括英语、法语、德语、拉丁语、纳瓦特尔语（墨西哥本土语言）、西班牙语和越南语。该案例研究将直接使该大学的多个项目受益，并针对与世界各地小型文化机构的共享进行了优化。纽卡斯尔/巴克内尔联合案例研究——改造 REED 印刷品收藏：Cummings (AHRC PI) 和 Jakacki (NEH PI) 将合作开展一项案例研究，对早期英国戏剧记录 (http://reed.utoronto.ca) 项目制作的收藏进行转换，该项目自 1979 年以来一直出版编辑过的纪录片记录1642 年之前在前现代英格兰、苏格兰和威尔士的表演。然而，印刷馆藏中通过使用特殊符号和格式提供的语义信息在 OCR 中会丢失。 Jakacki 和 Cummings 之前使用 HTR 进行的测试表明，这些区别可以通过 HTR 转化为 TEI。该项目将记录共享工作流程，以一致地向上转换为可行的材料，准备进入 REED 项目的数字出版工作流程。这有可能对所有其他 REED 传统印刷卷（超过 20,000 页的丰富学术材料）有用。

项目成果

Documenting Workflows for HTR to TEI Conversions for Cultural Institutions: The Evolving Hands Project (abstract)

记录文化机构 HTR 到 TEI 转换的工作流程：进化之手项目（摘要）

• DOI: http://dx.10.5281/zenodo.10974827
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Cummings J

Building Workflows for HTR to TEI Up-Conversion and Enhancement:The Evolving Hands Project

构建 HTR 到 TEI 上转换和增强的工作流程：Evolving Hands 项目

• DOI: http://dx.10.5281/zenodo.8320919
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Cummings J

Documenting Workflows for HTR to TEI Conversions for Cultural Institutions: The Evolving Hands Project

记录文化机构 HTR 到 TEI 转换的工作流程：进化之手项目

• DOI: http://dx.10.5281/zenodo.8135691
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Cummings J