PICTURES, COMPUTERS AND STORAGE SPACE
In this article the author discusses some of the possibilities and
limitations for storing and using digitized black-and-white
pictures. It is necessary to establish precisely how one plans to
make use of such a picture base, since digitized images demand
large storing capacity. When a picture is scanned into the
computer, it is converted into a number of points, each of which
is given a specific grey tone value. This information is stored as
a number, and if the scanner distinguishes between 16 different
tones of grey, we need 4 bits of storage capacity to store the
information about each point.
However, 16 grey tones would still make a rather crude image,
with sharp distinctions, very unlike the even gradations we are
accustomed to in photographs. Twice the storage capacity, 8 bits
of information per point, would give us 256 grey tones, which is
sufficient for all practical purposes. The size of each point - or
the number of points per square inch - is also of importance. A
good standard computer screen today contains about 70 points
per inch. This means that one picture of 8 by 11 inches with 256
grey tones demand a storage capacity of 3,449,600 bits or
431,200 bytes. That sounds like a lot, but if we double the
number of points per sqare inch, we quadruple the digitized
information. This picture would then demand more than 1.6
megabytes of storage space.
The practical problems of storage capacity demand a thorough
analysis of how the picture base is to be used - now and in the
future. If the pictures are to be used as a catalog and viewed on
the computer screen, a solution of 70 points per inch will do
nicely. If the pictures are to be printed, or enlarged after
scanning, one may want a higher resolution. For
analogous/digital conversion the author also applies Nyquist's
theorem of sampling, which predicts that for the best results you
should scan the picture at twice the solution that you plan to use.
To print the picture with 70 points, scan it with 150 points per
square inch. The results are shown in the photo illustrations that
accompany the article.
The author also shows how the digitized picture can be
manipulated. Making rather unsophisticated use of available
software, he has increased the contrasts of the photograph by
making use of a higher number of grey tones than the picture
originally contained (Fig. 2), or by taking out parts of the picture
and putting in a different face. A nice piece of forgery, which the
author says took 30 seconds to accomplish. What if he really
wanted to falsify the photograph? He concludes that the new
possibilities may discredit the photograph as evidence material.
FOTOMAC IN A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION.
Fotomac is a picture storing program for Macintosh, developed
largely by the author. A prototype of the program has earlier
been described in HD. An early version of Fotomac has been
tested at Oslo University Library for storing and cataloging a
large collection of pictures taken by or showing Fridtjof Nansen.
In the test period the library built up a catalog of some 400
pictures. On the basis of the test results, the 4,000 finest pictures,
about one half of the Nansen collection, will be digitized and
stored together with relevant information. This work is carried
out in cooperation between Oslo University Library and NCCH.
In this article the author presents Fotomac, version 1.0,
developed in Hypercard 2.0, which is considerably improved
over earlier versions:
| - | Catalog cards may be of any size, up to 1280 by 1280 points.
|
| - | The system for displaying grey tones is incorporated in
Hypercard and is more robust than the system previously used.
|
| - | Fotomac employs pre-defined print-out forms.
|
| - | The new version has improved menu control. |
Fotomac v. 1.0 separates the data base completely from the user
screen. The search panel was separated from the data base in the
earlier versions, too, but now there is a separate form for data
input and alterations. This provides improved safety for the
stored data, and means that data need not even be stored in
Hypercard: the data base may reside in a Unix server, while the
user would be presented with the same Hypercard data/picture
cards as today. It will also be possible to use logical operators
and linked searches. Fotomac will enable searches for standard
operators linked by and, not and or. Larger/smaller than searches
will also be implemented, which will be useful when the date of
a picture is of importance.
DOCUMENTATION PROJECT AT THE FACULTY OF THE
ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF OSLO
The Faculty of the Arts at the University of Oslo, has recently
decided to carry out the first year of a six-year project of
documentation. The goal is to collect all the material of the
various archives and collections within the faculty in one data
base. The archives will be transferred to modern electronic
media, and will be made available to all users.
The project has been in the pipeline for some years, and in April
1990 the author was given the task of surveying all the archives
and collections within the Arts Faculty, establishing the
character, physical condition and size of the various archives in
preparation for a comprehensive plan for the project. In February
1991 the decision was made to go ahead with the project.
The project is large: The goal is to register and make
electronically available the information today registered in some
14 million documents and catalog cards. Registering the data is
alone estimated to take several hundred man years. Also in
professional terms it is a demanding undertaking. The material
includes for instance the collections of the University Museum
of National Antiquities, folk music collections and the archives
of the lexicographic departments.
The article describes the various archives and collections, and
presents examples of the types of cards and documents involved.
They contain various kinds of information collected by both
professionals and laymen over several decades, and to do the
material justice will be an exacting task. The archives of the
Department of Dialectology, for instance, contain voice
recordings together with phonetic transcriptions, which may now
be entered in a combined sound/text data base, enabling
researchers not only to study the dialects but also to compare
recordings and transcriptions.
Another large archive is the collection of some 30,000
photographs at the Department of History. These may now be
digitized and combined with textual information, creating a
valuable resource for research and education.
The author also discusses various technical solutions. The
standard set-up is to store all data in one central computer unit
which serves the users and runs all searches. This is a tested and
practicable solution, but may easily become a bottleneck at peak
user periods, since not just data but also displays have to be
generated by the central unit. Local computer power is only used
to gain access to the central base.
The author suggests that a better alternative would be to install
a common communications program both in the central unit and
in the user computers. Searches and administration would still be
carried out by the central unit, but displaying and organizing the
data would be done by the local unit. Such a distribution of
labour will radically diminish the network traffic. It is further
possible to distribute the various data bases - the actual discs -
to a number of physical locations, while the whole base could
still be organized as one logical unit, and be experienced as such
by the user, even though one single search might be drawing on
data stored in several locations. With this kind of network, a
breakdown in one part would leave the rest of the network intact.
The purpose of the project is, ultimately, to make all of the
material more easily accessible to the users. At the present stage
the main objective is to register the information faithfully in
order to preserve the desired information of the original material.
For years to come the material will be of interest to researchers,
teachers and students, and will be accessible both in Norway and
in other parts of the world via international electronic networks.
THE MULTIMEDIA LABORATORY AT THE FACULTY OF
ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF TRONDHEIM.
In January 1990 one of the three language laboratories at the
Faculty of Arts of The University of Trondheim was replaced by
a multimedia laboratory. The equipment consists of 9 IBM PS/2,
model 55SX X61, 1 IBM PS/2, model 70 121, and 1 IBM AT
with a frame grabber for interactive video. There are also 5
Macintosh computers: 1 Mac II, 1 Mac IIcx, 1 Mac SE/30, 1
Mac II fx 4/160 and 1 Mac II fx/80.
The two largest Macintosh machines have video frame grabbers
and are connected to a scanner and to CD-ROM and video disc
players. Four of the IBM machines have MIC-4000 frame
grabbers for real time digital video and are connected to Sony
Laservision LDP 3600D video disc players. In addition one of
the IBM machines is connected to a Pioneer LD4100 video disc
player. All computers have ethernet cards and are connected to
the University's Vax machine via the local network.
The laboratory also has a CD-player for video and sound,
assorted sound equipment, a VHS video player for digital picture,
and satellite receiver and dish in order to take in international
television transmissions. The laboratory has been selected as an
Apple Multimedia Centre.
The multimedia laboratory is used for educational purposes by
several departments at the Arts Faculty, but it is primarily
intended as a research laboratory for staff and post-graduates at
the Arts Faculty. The laboratory is intended to "stimulate,
initiate, coordinate and assist the use of multimedia in education
and research" in the humanities.
Hence, the lab is today used for projects, courses and seminars
for staff, graduate and post-graduate students. It is important to
raise the level of competence in all of these groups. The author
includes the course plan for the spring of 1991, to indicate the
variety of courses possible in the new surroundings.
ELECTRONIC INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION FROM THE
NORWEGIAN COMPUTING CENTRE FOR THE
HUMANITIES (NCCH)
The Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities runs
several electronic network services. The host machine for these
electronic services is a Sun 3/60 called NORA, or in full,
NORA.NAVF-EDB-H.UIB.NO, with IP address 129.177.24.42.
There is also a HELMER: a Sun 386i, with IP address
129.177.24.41. Helmer:NAVF-edb-h is an Apple Share file server
in the EtherMac zone at the University of Bergen. This service
is only accessible via Macintosh nets connected to the broadband
network at the University of Bergen. There are two volumes that
are open to everybody: GjesterLes and GjesterSkriv
(GuestsRead/GuestsWrite). Helmer informs about the services
available on Les Meg (Read Me) in GjesterLes.
NCCH also makes use of NOBERGEN.BITNET which is the
IBM 4381 at the Bergen University. Here NCCH has installed
the file server FAFSRV@NOBERGEN.BITNET in order to
service people who are interested in machine readable English
texts from ICAME (International Computer Archive of Modern
English). This information is also found on NORA, which will
gradually replace FAFSRV.
HUMEDB is an electronic mail address which contains a
number of other addresses. All incoming mail goes out to all the
addresses on the list (about 80 by March 1991). HUMEDB is
dedicated to the topic of computing in the humanities, and
anybody may be entered in the mailing list, manually, by the
administrator. The full name of the mailing list is
HUMEDB@NAVF-EDB-H.UIB.NO, and the address of the
administrator is HUMEDB-ADM@NAVF-EDB-H.UIB.NO.
NCCH will inform about its own activities on HUMEDB, and
also send out other information. The participants are encouraged
to make use of this e-mail service for opinions, queries and
answers.
Those who wish to make use of this service need an electronic
address in a host computer connected to Uninett, Internet, Bitnet,
Janet, etc. In many institutions it is possible to read and write
electronic mail on your own PC or Mac, using an "invisible"
Unix machine as mailbox. This service is free of charge.
File servers on NORA contain general information about and
from NCCH, articles, information from other sources and
software. There are two ways to gain access to the NORA files:
The first one is through the file transfer program FTP. The
machine permits "anonymous FTP".
Access: FTP NORA.NAVF-EDB-H.UIB.NO
User: Anonymous
Password: Your name
Commands:
| CD PUB | To go to main catalog
|
| DIR | To see file list
|
CD or CD .. | To change directory
| GET | To fetch a file
| | BINARY | To set binary file conversion | | |
Those who wish to make use of this service need access to a
machine which has a so-called TCP/IP connection. This may be
a Macintosh or a PC with NCSA Telnet/FTP, HyperFTP or a
similar program installed. Or it may be a host machine accessed
via serial or modem connection. The files have then first to be
transferred to the host machines via FTP and then on to the local
PC or Mac via Kermit or a similar program.
The second manner of access is mail based file transfer.
NAVFSERV@NORA.NAVF-EDB-H.UIB.NO is a mail based
file server on NORA. Some of our readers will be familiar with
INFO@UNINETT.NO, which uses the same commands as
NAVFSERV. Parts of the information available through FTP will
be available through NAVFSERV, but binary files cannot be
taken in directly through NAVFSERV. For more information,
send e-mail, Subject: HELP.
The file servers today contain the following main catalogs:
| ICAME | Information related to International Computer Archive
of Modern English
|
| INFO | Information on texts, projects, bibliographies
|
| KONFERANSER | Updated list of conferences
|
| MAC | Macintosh software
|
| NAVF-EDB-H | General information about and from NCCH (in
Norwegian)
|
| HUMEDB | Backlog from HUMEDB (in Norwegian)
|
| OLUFF | the periodical OLUFF (in Norwegian)
|
| HD | Articles from Humanistiske Data (in Norwegian)
|
| NCCH | Information on NCCH in English
|
| NETTINFO | Information about network services
|
| PC | Software for PC
|
| UNIX | Software for Unix computers
|
Coordinator for the electronic services:
Knut Hofland, KNUT@NAVF-EDB-H.UIB.NO, AND
FAFKH@NOBERGEN.EARN
NAVFs edb-senter for humanistisk forskning
Postboks 53 Universitetet
N-5027 Bergen
Telephone + 47 (0)5 21 29 54/55/56
Telefax + 47 (0)5 32 26 56.
MOZART AND BEETHOVEN IN HYPERCARD
CDs may be controlled by a computer in the same way as a
video disc. Warner New Media and The Voyager Company have
published a number of products combining CD-sound, HyperCard
computer displays and Macintosh sound. NCCH has aquired the
first of these products from each publishers: Mozart's The Magic
Flute and Beethoven's 9th Symphony. The products naturally
share a good many features in common, but there are also
differences in the way the material is presented.
The Magic Flute comes on three CD-ROMs and a diskette. The
CDs contain the installation program and HyperCard stacks, and
extra sound tracks used for musical examples for the running
commentary that accompanies the opera. Besides there are the
MIDI-data for those who have CD-players with MIDI output,
and there are graphics for CD+G-players. The graphics can be
shown on a television screen connected to the CD player, but to
date the author has not seen a CD+G-player and has no idea of
how this works. The HyperCard stacks (both those on the CDs
and the separate one from the diskette, also have built-in control
codes for a video disc player, which may be used for connection
to the video disc version of Bergman's filmed Magic Flute.
The installation and use of this product appears an unnecessary
cumbersome operation: You need to copy about 15 MB of
HyperCard stacks from the CD's on to your hard disc - less if
you don't wish to play the whole opera at once. If you have the
storage space, fine, so far. However, you also have to use a
specific home stack which contains the necessary drivers for the
CD-player. The directions suggest that you give your original
home stack a new name and call the one that comes with The
Magic Flute "Home". A better solution is to copy the HyperCard
program into the folder where the rest of The Magic Flute stacks
are and use it with the dedicated home stack there. However, if
you have several copies of HyperCard on the disc, you have to
be careful in opening stacks by double-clicking on them. You
have no guarantee which version of HyperCard will be started....
The author finds that even this is a problem he can live with, but
he does wish HyperCard 2.0 had existed when The Magic Flute
stacks were written, so that there would be no need for a
dedicated home stack.
Once the program is started, you may choose between four
different sets of running commentary: English or German
libretto, description of the action or music commentary. The
options are available while the opera is playing, too. While the
CD is playing, buttons appear indicating hypertextual links to
more background information. Since the CDs are specially made,
commentary and other music examples are added, including the
dubious pleasure of Florence Foster Jenkins attempting the
dramatic heights of the aria of the Queen of the Night, a
recording from a 1940's concert in Carnegie Hall.
Beethoven's 9th symphony: this product consists of one ordinary
CD and two HyperCard stacks. In this case there is no need for
a special home stack, but the author reports certain problems
with the fonts and in playing the recorded digitized sound, when
he tried to convert the HyperCard stacks to version 2. He found
it better to keep a version 1.2.5. on his hard disc.
In The Magic Flute the material is presented such that you are
supposed to listen to the music in proper sequential order, and
then make use of the hypertextual links when there are
interesting new routes to follow. This is only one of the options
in Beethoven's 9th Symphony - the option "A close reading",
which incidentally has a user interface that functions very much
like that of Mozart's Magic Flute. The other options are reading
an essay on Beethoven's life and music, or another essay on
music theory and an analysis of the 9th Symphony.
The program surrounding Beethoven's 9th Symphony is largely
created by one man alone - musicologist Robert Winter, UCLA.
The author finds that this presentation is simpler, more direct and
more effective than The Magic Flute, which is created by a team.
Now, how useful are these for musical education? The author
admits to being an amateur, a music-lover who has enjoyed both
products, and feels certain that his music teachers in Upper
Secondary school would have found these programs excellent
teaching aids.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE HUMANITIES:
TRENDS AND NEEDS. SEMINAR IN BERGEN 5 OCTOBER
This seminar was part of the ongoing evaluation of the
Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities (NCCH).
Director Hauge welcomed the ca thirty participants and expressed
the hope that the seminar would lead to a clearer understanding
of the situation for computing in the humanities in Norway as
well as of the needs for services from NCCH. The participants
came from the computer sections and various departments of the
arts faculties of the four Norwegian universities, and had very
different ways of understanding the situation of computing in the
humanities.
Computing in the humanities may be in its infancy: there is still
a certain inertia among teachers and reseachers when it comes to
making use of computer methods, but as the equipment becomes
faster and more powerful, as well as cheaper, smaller and lighter,
more and more people have started using computers for other
jobs than just word processing. Cost is still an obstacle, since
these milieus traditionally have demanded little in the way of
equipment. However, one of the participants was convinced that
the various departments and subjects would soon demand modern
laboratories for research and teaching, and that the need for
equipment would increase rapidly.
A number of general questions relating to computing in the
humanities were raised: How far can humanists influence the
development of machinery and software? Traditionally the
complaints have concerned the lack of funding: now it appears
to be a larger problem that humanists have no say in the
development or definition of standards. The development is
driven by commercial interests, and teachers and researchers in
the humanities have to adapt the available equipment to their
needs, rather than participate in developing humanist systems.
The universities and the NCCH were challenged to address this
problem.
Another problem is recruiting. It was considered important that
NCCH make its existence more strongly felt, for instance by
demonstrating machinery and software to stimulate interest for
making use of the technology in research and education. But
both students and staff need "crash courses" in computing. There
are students who are interested in using computer methods for
their theses, and professors who are reluctant to accept new
methods simply because they don't know enough about them.
The average staff member at the universities has a computer
which he uses for word processing and very little beyond that.
He makes his transparencies by hand and knows no program for
computer assisted teaching in his field. This person needs to be
made aware of the possibilities of computing. Another speaker
felt that the students were overrated: many were complete
illiterates in computing. They would need education and training
in computer use, too, and NCCH was in a position to do
something for both groups.
Several of the participants felt that NCCH ought to become a
national competence center within multimedia (including
hypertext/hypermedia/interactive video) and picture processing.
It was also suggested that NCCH do more within the field of
sound and speech processing. On the other hand, pedagogy might
not be a primary field for NCCH work.
There was general agreement about the role of NCCH in
information dissemination. Several participants were interested to
learn that NCCH has started a more active use of electronic
information services. More people now have the necessary
equipment and are in the position to make use of these services,
which will make it possible to mail queries and answers to
"public" electronic mailing lists.
It was also suggested that scholars should be given the
opportunity to work at NCCH for a period, to learn about
computing and bring the competence back to their work places.
Some people felt NCCH should do more to develop products and
services, such as digital maps, data bases, bibliographic bases
and Norwegian computer texts.
In the years to come, the humanities will develop a need for
machinery and equipment comparable to that of the natural
sciences. The students must also be included in this development:
they will need education and access to equipment. One
participant wanted development work done on a "history work
station", where the researcher could work with different types of
data and different types of software - better software than what
is currently on the market. Hypermedia programs might do part
of the job for the historian, provided the software for material
analysis is improved. There should be systems that will tolerate
a high degree of deviation: today's systems are not sufficiently
tolerant for historical material.
Language teaching is a field where it is possible to foresee
fundamental changes due to the new computer technology. One
of the participants believed that within a ten-year period working
methods and evaluation forms will have changed radically, and
liberated teachers from many routine tasks. Perhaps it will be
possible for students simply to hand in their exam "papers" on
diskettes and for the teacher to have the machine suggest a
preliminary evaluation.
The old-fashioned language laboratories are another problem: a
student may well spend a lesson drilling the wrong
pronunciation, because the teacher still only has minutes to spend
on each student. Software is available that will check and correct
the pronunciation of the student in comparison with the voice of
the teacher or a native speaker, and there are also systems that
will give students who are hard of hearing or deaf a visible
indication of whether vowels are pronounced correctly.
One person felt that a "good NCCH" would be a type of
interface where competence in computing met with competence
in the humanities. Today, NCCH is too heavy on computing and
too light on competence in the humanities.
Several people wanted to define the role of NCCH as that of the
"locomotive" which would develop expert competence within a
field and then pass the competence on to others, such as the
computing sections at the arts faculties of the universities, and
move on to other fields.
In conclusion, director Hauge said it might well be necessary for
NCCH to reduce the number of current tasks, in order to
strengthen the best parts of the activity.
SEMINAR ON HISTORICAL RECORD LINKAGE
This seminar was arranged at the National Archives in Oslo 29-
31 October 1990, for 16 invited participants.
Nominative, historical data are source data, such as censes,
church registers and emigration protocols where individuals may
be identified by name. Linking means to combine information
from different sources in order to reconstruct the life of an
individual or to find out what happened to a group of people.
The seminar took its starting point in work done in Norway, but
the main purpose was to give the paricipants new impulses and
information about the work that is done abroad. Special guests
were Hans Christian Johansen, Dept. of History, Odense
University and G‚rard Bouchard, director of SOREP, Centre
Universitaire de Recherches sur les Populations, Universit‚ du
Qu‚bec … Chicoutimi. SOREP has developed advanced
techniques for automatic linkage.
One of the problems involved in linking information from
various sources, such as a church register and a census, is the
unexpectedly high degree of error in these records: The name of
one person may be given differently in the various records, or in
different entries in the same record. One of the seminar
participants gave examples from her own work: The name
"Hansdatter" was entered as "Monsdatter", a girls's name,
"Johanne", had been entered instead of "Johannes", the boy's
actual name; the wrong person was registered as buried; ages
were given wrongly; individuals or even whole families were
entered twice in the same census.
Linkage may be carried out manually, and historians have long
been doing that. Linking by the use of computers is a more
recent option, with two possible strategies: interactive linkage in
which the computer analyses the material and suggests links,
while the operator makes the decisions about which links are to
be established. Interactive linkage is therefore more akin to
manual linkage, sharing most of its strengths and weaknesses.
Automatic linkage means that the computer makes the links on
the basis of a set of criteria.
Errors are likely to occur both in automatic and manual linkage.
In general there are two types of errors. Overlinking means to
establish more links than the material contains: information about
several people may be put together as relating to one and the
same person, creating inauthentic lives. Underlinking means that
links that should have been established are left out, and the
representational value of the material is not fully appreciated.
Linkage as a method has become more interesting in recent
years, because historians now take more interest in the
individual. The alternative to linkage is to analyze the source
material at a higher level of abstraction, which is still a common
research method. But linkage is also a source of information in
other fields of study: epidemiologists and geneticists are also
concerned with the lives of individuals and families.
In automatic linkage one establishes a set of criteria for the
linkage process and lets the computer carry out the work: a
number of fields may be selected, as name, age and sex, and the
program will compare and evaluate the similarity between record
entries. The result is given as a score - a high score most likely
indicating that the entries in fact refer to the same individual. It
is important to establish a common cutoff-point, a standard for
what is deemed a legitimate link between record entries.
In order not to have to compare all possible connections between
two sources, the material may be organized in advance, say by
grouping name variations into standardized forms. The article
gives examples of such standardization: names as different as
Ambret, Engebreth, Ingebret and Ingebrigt may be grouped as
one name, because studies have shown that the actual variations
in entries of the same name are at least this extreme.
Bouchard recommended material of a certain size, in order to
optimize linkage projects. It was best to work with entire
populations, counties or regions. Smaller areas, like parishes, can
provide a suitable basis, but people who move will create
problems for such limited investigations, so that he suggested
that one at least worked on several parishes in order to improve
the value of the linkage project.
The advantage of automatic over manual linkage is the fact that
the criteria will not change in the course of the project. With
manual linking it is not always possible to work with uniform
consistency over a long period of time - the criteria for similarity
may change.
For a check on the results of the automatic linkage, it may be
advisable to reserve certain fields of information, such as age at
marriage and death, for use aginst the findings. Bringing in too
many criteria in the original linking will probably result in
underlinking, i.e. reducing the representative value of the
material.
The seminar showed that it is possible to develop computer
systems that will make good use of historical material, but
building a good, practicable system, like the Canadian one at
SOREP is expensive. The best way is to bring in other fields of
research as early as possible - epidemiology and genetics, in
order to secure funds.
ONLINE 90, LONDON, 11-13 DECEMBER 1990
The 14th International Online Information Meeting was
arranged by Learned Information in London, 11-13 December
1990. The conference drew some 2,400 participants, and the
exhibition was seen by almost 8,000 people. The conference
itself was divided into parallel sessions for English, French,
German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish language users.
One of the main points of the conference was the relationship of
online data bases to optical storage media: D. Raitt opened the
conference by stating that online is no longer what it once was -
because so many of the online data bases now are available on
CD-ROM. One speaker discussed the practical features of the
ideal CD-ROM work station of the 1990's.
Another part of the online data base industry's relationship to the
market is a new demand for quality. There is now more criticism
and an increasing demand for a dialogue between users and
producers, as an indication also of the importance of the online
industry.
One speaker criticized the user interface, and suggested that a
few thought-out changes might make the data bases far more
accessible to the users. His conclusion was that the online tool
has not been good enough.
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON RESEARCH
DOCUMENTATION
This seminar in Bergen 7-9 February 1991 was arranged by the
Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities and the
Committee for Reseach Documentation under the Joint Board
of the Norwegian Research Councils.
Research documentation is becoming increasingly more
important, also as a field of international cooperation. At the
seminar in Bergen speakers from 11 European countries
presented the various national approaches to the problem of
reseach documentation - which varied from absolute minimum
solutions to some very advanced and sophisticated systems.
The conference speakers discussed a wide range of topics: the
purpose of research documentation; the function of such a service
for the various user groups; targeting and defining the user
groups; standards for documentation information; copyrights; user
support.
One of the most interesting novelties presented at the conference
was the CERIF manual developed by the EEC as a suggestion
for a common European format for research documentation. The
work leading up to the production of the manual was presented
by I.R. Perry from the Directorate General for Science, Research
and Development under the Commission of the European
Communities.
The point of such a manual is to standardize data bases so that
it will be possible to make all European research documentation
available throughout Europe. There are problems that must be
solved before such international use of the data bases is possible,
but many people are interested in establishing such international
connections. For that reason many of the participants spoke
warmly for a follow-up seminar in the not too distant future.
CENTRE FOR INFORMATION ON RESEARCH PROJECTS
In 1990 the Committee for Reseach Documentation under the
Joint Board of the Norwegian Research Councils decided to start
a pilot project to transfer information on all research projects to
one common data base. The entry of the data was completed in
the autumn of 1990.
The administration of the data base is located at the Norwegian
Computing Centre for the Humanities in Bergen, and the data
base makes use of an IBM 4381 computer belonging to the
University of Bergen. The base employes a search system for
free text and is available 24 hours a day via DATEL, DATAPAK
and UNINETT. Limited assistance is available between 8 a.m.
and 10 p.m., and full assistance including search assistance is
available between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. In addition there is a
detailed manual, so the availability is very good. All services are
provided free of charge.
Data are transferred from all the Norwegian research councils,
and even though there are differences in quality and the amount
of information in the documents, there is still a common core of
information.
By 1 January 1991 the data base contained information on a total
of 25,278 projects. These projects cover research on virginity
rituals in the South Pacific, choral singing, astral physics and
protection of the environment. It is therefore possible to carry out
interdisciplinary searches, and find areas of common interest to
many fields of research. E.g., a search for environment, algae
and radiation showed that these topics were represented in a
number of research projects. This search, which took a couple of
minutes, came up with 1,380 documents on environmental
research. It would probably have been impossible to find all this
information in any other way than through an electronic data
base.
COMMITTEE REPORT: NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BE
IMPLEMENTED AT THE FACULTY OF ARTS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN
A committee established by the Council for The Faculty of Arts
at the University of Bergen presented its report in December
1990. The committee was to propose a plan for the future use of
computers in the Arts Faculty and the organisation and function
of the Faculty's Computing Section.
The committee's main proposals are,
| 1. | Computing in the Arts Faculty should not be limited to a
separate section.
|
| 2. | The faculty needs computer expertise separated from the
individual departments.
|
| 3. | The Computing Section should remain as a service and
training section and should at all times relate its activities
directly to he demands of the users.
|
| 4. | The Computing Section of the Arts Faculty should not develop
competance available outside of the institution.
|
The committee also suggests that the Computing Section should
continue to give courses in computing in the humanities, and that
it should take over responsibility for the faculty's language
laboratories.
There is also a discussion of the responsibilities of the
Computing Section in relation to the Norwegian Computing
Centre for the Humanities. The committee sees possibilities for
a division of labour between the two institutions. The Computing
Section seek should to cooperate with NCCH in fields where
NCCH has expertise, such as in multimedia.
DISCUSSION OF INTERACTIVE VIDEO IN LANGUAGE
TEACHING
On Friday 14 December 1990 Reseacher/NAVF Signe Marie
Sanne held a discussion seminar on the use of interactive video
in language teaching at H›yteknologisenteret in Bergen. About
twenty college and upper secondary school teachers participated.
The starting point for the discussion was a presentation of
Sanne's project in interactive video for Italian language teaching.
This project has created an integrated work station where the
student is primarily intended to work on his own. A fellow
pedagogue, Ingrid Hatlestad, was specially invited to present her
computer program which enables the teacher to check what use
the student makes of the system.
The discussion was concerned with the pedagogical uses of this
teaching system, whether the teacher should concentrate on the
practical use of the language or move on to extralinguistic
factors, cultural elements, etc.
Another question was concerned with the possibility for working
out exercises to be used in connection with the material on the
video record, multiple choice exercises, etc. Basically it is only
the teacher's imagination that limits the number of possible
computer assisted learning tricks that may be appended to this
material.
Then there was the question of whether the program should
record the student's voice for comparison with a model
pronunciation. Technically this presents no problem at all.
The participants in the seminar saw the advantages of giving the
students easy access to a great deal of material. They felt it was
more likely that a student would look up a word in the dictionary
on the screen than on the desk.
READER SURVEY ON HUMANISTISKE DATA
Last autumn we asked our 474 personal subscribers how they felt
about Humanistiske Data. Unfortunately only 114 completed
forms were returned, and that percentage is a little too low to
make the answers fully representative. However, there are also
other reasons why it is problematic to draw any substantial
conclusions from the answers. The answers indicate that the
readers represent a wide variety of subjects and interests, and
that they would like to see more material in Humanistiske Data
from their field.
One of the questions was:
Which topics and types of material are you most interested in?
Choices:
| No of answers
| Percentage of answers
|
| Computing in the Humanities in Scandinavia | 69 | 63%
|
| Theoretical articles about computing in the humanities | 65 | 60%
|
| Presentations of projects | 62 | 57%
|
| Reviews of software | 59 | 54%
|
| Computing in the Humanities in the rest of the world | 50 | 46%
|
| Computing in education | 46 | 42%
|
| New products | 45 | 41%
|
| Computing in cultural and research dissemination | 38 | 35%
|
| Book reviews | 35 | 32%
|
| Optical storage media | 33 | 30%
|
| Multimedia | 33 | 30%
|
| Work at NCCH | 30 | 28%
|
| Technical articles | 21 | 19%
|
| Computing in library work | 11 | 10%
|
We interpret the answers thus that we should continue to report
on a wide variety of subjects. We will continue to present
reviews of machines and software, and reports of projects and
arrangements. We will try to bring material on the subjects on
the "wanted" list.
BUT THEN THERE WAS THE FORM in which we should
report. Obviously, the readers' evaluation of Humanistiske Data
is mixed. Some say the periodical is good, some say its boring,
with old-fashioned lay-out and the wrong typography. Many ask
for debates, and want the editorial board to evaluate programs
and systems instead of just presenting the novelties uncritically.
Some people write that technical descriptions are too detailed and
inaccessible beyond the initiates.
However, many of our readers characterize Humanistiske Data
as an outstanding periodical - in Scandinavia. We have few
readers outside of Norway, but a high percentage of these have
taken the opportunity to express the view that Humanistiske Data
provides information which is not available through any other
channel.
Obviously, we cannot satisfy everyone. However, we've heard it
said that the biggest room in the world is the room for
improvement, and we will start by changing the layout of the
magazine. We also aim to publish four issues of Humanistiske
Data per year. As far as debates go, it's very much up to our
readers to use the periodical for debating purposes.
We wish to thank all of those who took the time to answer the
questionnaire.
