Reconceptualizing Digital Objects around Cultural Articulations

在全球范围内，大量的工作是利用能够通过信息网络数字化和传播知识的技术使馆藏易于获取。图书馆、档案馆、博物馆和其他传统的知识和信息机构处于这些倡议的前沿。通过数字化的过程将不同的馆藏联系起来，对这一挑战的压倒性回应是标准化分类和描述系统。这些标准化过程的动机是需要对不断增长的数字馆藏进行编目，以使用户能够更有效地访问它们并发现对象之间的联系。然而，一个关键的问题出现了：博物馆等在这些知识对象周围放置的表征是否源于对它们所涉及的对象的背景、文化用途和意义的深入了解？研究标准化的学者们自己也承认，为了实现快速检索的目标，可能会相应地牺牲对象的意义和描述。在实践中，已经出现的是公共机构效率驱动的优先事项与产生这些知识对象的不同背景之间的不连续性。从这个意义上说，在本地化和文化特定环境中发展和传播的知识被脱离语境，进入一个信息系统，该系统维持着缺乏语境意义的外部强加的临时标准。这个提议是Ramesh Srinivasan博士和剑桥大学人类学与考古博物馆（通过高级人员和助理主任Robin夸特博士）合作提出的，目的是：(1)开始分析和阐明临时外部标准与本地化文化语境知识表达之间的差异；(2)设计、部署、并评估一个信息系统，该系统可以容纳对象的多个局部解释，而不会牺牲系统内数据的互操作性。它涉及与两个全球土著社区的三年合作，这两个社区已经在以前的合作伙伴关系的基础上向PI/博物馆敞开了合作的大门。这些是：美国新墨西哥州祖尼普韦布洛的祖尼社区，以及另一个正在确定中的社区。目前正在讨论几种可能性，并将在今后三个月内最后确定。因此，这项研究扩展了在标准制定、数字图书馆和科学社会研究方面开展的重要工作，特别关注文化和话语差异化的本体论和分类。本提案的贡献和更广泛的影响将是：(a)详细和系统地调查当地土著社区所持有的数字物品的不同表现/本体论，以及它们在现有数字博物馆标准系统中的表现；(b)了解数字物品及其再流通对其原始社区的影响。这些影响将通过定性和定量方法的结合来理解和描述，包括调查管理的社会网络分析、实地记录、参与者观察和访谈。(c)了解数字馆藏如何在保持可互操作的同时保持上下文真实性。(d)制定一种新的方法，使公共机构能够以与来源社区以及其他不同的知识社区协商的方式维护数字馆藏。(e)将这项研究纳入研究生和本科生的新研究机会。

A vast amount of work globally is going into making collections accessible utilizing technologies that can digitize, and circulate knowledge via informational networks. Libraries, Archives, Museums, and other traditional institutions of knowledge and information are at the forefront of these initiatives. The overwhelming response to the challenge of linking disparate collections via the process of digitization has been to standardize systems of classification and description. These processes of standardization are motivated by the need to catalogue ever-growing digital collections to enable users to access them more efficiently and uncover connections between objects. However, a key question has emerged: Are the representations placed around these knowledge objects by museums, etc. created from a deep knowledge of the context, cultural use, and meaning of the objects to which they refer? Scholars of standardization themselves acknowledge that with the goal of rapid retrieval, the meaning and description of the object may in turn be sacrificed. In practice, what has emerged has been a discontinuity between the efficiency-driven priorities of the public institution and the diverse contexts from which these objects of knowledge were produced. In this sense, knowledge that is developed and circulated within a localized and culturally-specific environment is decontextualized into an information system that maintains ad-hoc externally-imposed standards devoid of contextual meaning. This proposal, a collaboration between Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan and the University of Cambridge's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (via senior personnel and Assistant Director, Dr. Robin Boast, is (1) to begin to analyze and articulate the differences between ad-hoc external standards versus localized culturally contextualized articulations of knowledge, and (2) the design, deployment, and evaluation of an information system that can accommodate multiple local interpretations of objects without sacrificing the interoperability of data within the system. It involves a 3 year effort with two global indigenous communities that have already opened their doors to collaboration with the PI/Museum that build on previous partnerships. These are: The Zuni Community of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico (USA), and another community in the process of being determined. Several possibilities are being discussed and will be finalized within the next three months. This research therefore extends significant work conducted in standards development, digital libraries, and social studies of science, particularly focused on ontologies and classifications that are culturally and discursively differentiated. The contributions and broader impacts of this proposal will be: (a) The detailed and methodical inquiry into the differing representations/ontologies of digital objects held within local, indigenous communities relative to their representation in existing digital museum standard-systems, (b) An understanding of the impact digital objects and their re-circulation hold on their originating communities. These impacts will be understood and described via a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods that include survey-administered social network analyses, field notes, participant observation, and interviews. (c) An understanding of how digital collections can maintain contextual authenticity while remaining interoperable. (d) Develop a new methodology by which public institutions can maintain digital collections in a manner that consults source communities, as well as other diverse knowledge communities. (e) An integration of this research into new research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.