Exploring British Design: developing research competencies by connecting archive content

该项目通过将不同档案馆中与设计相关的内容联系起来，将改变英国设计史的探索。这是研究人员、信息专业人士、技术专家、策展人和历史学家之间的合作，目的是建立一个门户网站，让研究人员可以自由探索英国设计档案中保存的细节的深度。该项目作为研究人员行为调查的一部分，并与研究人员共同设计，将以技术完整性和数据质量为基础，与用户需求和要求保持一致。它的功能和设计将带来对档案研究的理解和数字环境下设计研究可能性的一步变化。它不仅仅是一种在线获取材料的工具，它还是一种对数字过程中的思维方式的探究。(德鲁克2013：7)这个项目将打破信息专业人员、策展人和研究人员之间的障碍。网络和数字内容的日益复杂要求对不同视角进行更清晰的跨部门识别。研究人员需要了解结构化元数据的可能性，以便提高他们自己的研究能力，并为数字发展提供知情的投入。该项目建议从馆长和信息专业人员提供服务、研究人员消费的模式转向联合设计模式，在这种模式下，研究人员在数字人文基础设施中拥有更大的利益。档案收藏为我们提供了一种理解设计历史的特殊性和复杂性的手段。该项目认为，这些独特的收藏需要在丰富的背景下进行查看和解释，这有助于理解和解释它们。档案馆藏是多层次的资源，反映了复杂的关系。因此，档案的描述是分层次的，以反映每个档案的组合方式。通过描述的传统路线从收藏级别向下延伸到系列，直到个别物品，无论是文档、照片、平面图还是图纸。这种做法源于这样一种原则，即研究人员在内容中采用预先定义的路线，但这个项目将创建一种更动态的导航，跨越不同级别的集合，而不是传统的自上而下的方法。为了实现这一点，我们将通过创建丰富的权威描述来建立上下文和联系，这些描述旨在与Web一起工作，并采用最近达成的国际标准。这些描述不仅仅是关于明确的识别；它们本质上是关于关系和联系；它们可以提供一种手段，通过建立具体的关系和记录关键事件将个人和组织联系在一起。虚拟国际权威档案连接到其他关键访问点，如公司、展览、设计学科、物品和材料，是连接世界各地来源的机制。该项目将通过将国内和国际不同档案源的数据结合起来，为设计历史学术提供新的研究潜力，其次，它将促使人们更好地理解在数字环境中对档案数据进行编码和整理时的情况，将其作为数字人文研究实践中一项关键但被忽视的技能。它将揭露和辩论原始艺术品和它的数字替代品之间的关系，以及它所处的信息架构的构建。同时，它将使档案工作者更多地了解研究经验，以及编目方法可能如何改变，以满足研究人员的需要并利用万维网的新发展。

This project will transform the exploration of Britain's design history by connecting design-related content in different archives. A collaboration between researchers, information professionals, technologists, curators and historians, the aim is to build a portal that gives researchers the freedom to explore the depth of detail held in British design archives. Produced as part of an investigation into researcher behaviours, and co-designed with researchers, the project will be underpinned by technical integrity and data quality aligned to user needs and requirements. Its functionality and design will bring about a step change in the understanding of archival research and in design research possibilities in digital environments. More than a tool to access material online, it is an enquiry into 'ways of thinking with digital processes.' (Drucker 2013: 7) This project will break down barriers between information professionals, curators and researchers. The ever increasing complexity of the Web and digital content demands a clearer cross-sector recognition of different perspectives. Researchers need to understand what is possible with structured metadata in order to improve their own research capacity and to provide informed input into digital developments. This project proposes a move away from a model where curators and information professionals provide services, and researchers consume them, to a co-design model where researchers have a greater stake in digital humanities infrastructure.Archival collections provide us with a means to understand the particularities and complexities of design's history. This project argues that these unique collections need to be viewed and interpreted within the rich context that informs their understanding and interpretation. Archive collections are multi-level resources, reflecting complex relationships. Descriptions of archives are therefore hierarchical in order to reflect the way each archive is assembled. Traditional routes through descriptions descend from the collection-level down through series to individual items, be they documents, photographs, plans or drawings. This practice comes from the principle that researchers take a pre-defined route through content but this project will create a more dynamic navigation, across collections at different levels rather than the traditional top down approach. To enable this, we will build context and connections through the creation of rich authority descriptions that are designed to work with the Web and which adopt recently-agreed international standards. These descriptions are about much more than unambiguous identification; they are essentially about relationships and connections; they can provide a means to connect individuals and organisations together through establishing specific relationships and documenting key events. Connected to other key access points such as companies, exhibitions, design disciplines, objects, and materials, the Virtual International Authority File is a mechanism to connect sources across the world. The project will present new research potential for design historical scholarship by conjoining data from disparate archive sources nationally and internationally, and secondly, it will provoke better understanding of archival data when encoded and arranged in digital environments as a key, yet overlooked, skill in digital humanities research practice. It will expose and debate the relationship between the original artefact and its digital surrogate, and the construction of the information architecture in which it sits. At the same time it will be a means for archivists to understand more about the research experience, and how approaches to cataloguing might change in order to to meet the needs of researchers and take advantage of new developments within the World Wide Web.