Exploring British Design: developing research competencies by connecting archive content

这个项目将通过连接不同档案中与设计相关的内容来改变对英国设计历史的探索。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地探索英国设计档案中保存的细节深度。该项目是对研究人员行为的调查的一部分，并与研究人员共同设计，它将以符合用户需求和要求的技术完整性和数据质量为基础。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的可能性的阶梯性变化。它不仅仅是一种获取在线材料的工具，更是一种对数字过程思维方式的探索。（Drucker 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。网络和数字内容日益复杂，需要对不同观点有更清晰的跨部门认识。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输入。该项目提出了一种转变，即从馆长和信息专业人员提供服务，研究人员消费服务的模式转变为一种共同设计模式，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。档案收藏为我们了解设计历史的特殊性和复杂性提供了一种手段。本项目认为，这些独特的藏品需要在丰富的背景下进行观察和解释，从而为它们的理解和解释提供信息。档案馆藏是多层次的资源，反映了复杂的关系。因此，档案的描述是分层的，以反映每个档案的组装方式。通过描述的传统路线从集合级别下降到系列到单个项目，无论是文件，照片，计划还是图纸。这种做法来自于研究人员在内容中采用预先定义的路线的原则，但这个项目将创建一个更动态的导航，跨不同层次的集合，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构建上下文和连接，这些描述旨在与Web一起工作，并采用最近商定的国际标准。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；它们可以通过建立特定的关系和记录关键事件，提供一种将个人和组织联系在一起的方法。虚拟国际权威文件连接到其他关键接入点，如公司、展览、设计学科、对象和材料，是连接世界各地资源的机制。该项目将通过结合来自国内外不同档案来源的数据，为设计历史学术提供新的研究潜力，其次，它将激发对档案数据在数字环境中编码和排列的更好理解，这是数字人文研究实践中一个关键但被忽视的技能。它将揭示和讨论原始人工制品与其数字替代品之间的关系，以及它所在的信息体系结构的构建。与此同时，它将成为档案管理员了解更多研究经验的一种手段，以及为了满足研究人员的需要和利用万维网的新发展，编目方法可能会发生怎样的变化。

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.