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Humanities researchers often need to study heterogeneous digitized archives from different sources. But how can they deal with this heterogeneity, both in terms of structure and semantics? What are the digital tools they can use in order to integrate resources and study them as a whole? And what if they are unfamiliar with the methods and tools available? Towards this end, DARIAH-EU[1] and CLARIN[2] research infrastructures already support researchers in exploiting digital tools. Specific use case research scenarios have also been developed, with the PARTHENOS SSK[3] being a successful example. In this paper we describe our related (ongoing) experience from the development of the Greek research infrastructure APOLLONIS[4], where, among others, we have focused on identifying and supporting the workflows that researchers need to follow to perform specific research studies while jointly accessing disparate archives. Using the decade of 1940s as a use case, a turbulent period in Greek history due to its significant events (WWII, Occupation, Opposition, Liberation, Civil War), we have assembled (digitized) historical archives, coming from different providers and shedding light on different historical aspects of these events. From the acquisition of the resources to the desired outcome, we record the workflows of the whole research study, including the initial curation process of the digitized archives, the ingestion, the joint indexing of the data, the generation of semantic graph representations and, finally, their publication and searching. After the acquisition of the heterogeneous source materials we perform a detailed investigation of their structure and contents, in order to map the different archive metadata onto a common metadata schema, thus enabling joint indexing and establishing semantic relations among the contents of the archives. The next step is data cleaning, where messy records are cleaned and normalized. Natural Language Processing methods are then exploited for the extraction of additional information contained in the archival records or in free text metadata fields, such as persons, places, armed units, dates and topics, which enhance the initial datasets. The outcome is encoded in XML using the common schema and ingested into a repository through an aggregator implemented using the MoRE[5] system. A joint index based on a set of basic criteria is generated and maintained, thus ensuring joint access to all archival records regardless of their source. In addition, an RDF representation is generated from the encoded archival data, enabling their publication in the form of a semantic graph and supporting interesting complex queries. This is based on a specifically designed extension of CIDOC CRM[6] and a compilation of a list of research queries of varying complexity encoded in SPARQL. Preliminary tests of the entire workflows and the tools used in all steps yielded very encouraging results. Our immediate plans include full scale ingestion and indexing of the material from a number of archives, producing the corresponding semantic graph and streamlining the incorporation of new archives. [1]DARIAH-EU, https://www.dariah.eu/ [2]CLARIN, https://www.clarin.eu/ [3]PARTHENOS Standardization Survival Kit (SSK), http://www.parthenos-project.eu/portal/ssk-2 [4]APOLLONIS Greek Infrastructure for Digital Arts, Humanities and Language Research and Innovation, https://apollonis-infrastructure.gr/ [5]MoRE Aggregator, http://more.dcu.gr/ [6]CIDOC CRM, http://www.cidoc-crm.org/

Sharing archaeological data across national borders and between previously unconnected systems is a topic of increasing importance. Infrastructures such as ARIADNE aim to provide services that support sharing of archaeological research data. Ontologies such as the CIDOC CRM are an appropriate instrument to harmonize different data structures and thereby support data exchange. Before integrating data by mapping to ontologies it is crucial to establish where the shared meaning of the data lies and to understand the methodology used to record the data. As the largest proportion of archaeological data are derived from excavations or field investigations the initial focus falls on the documentation of these “raw data”. But documentation often varies depending on country-specific guidelines, different excavation methods and technologies, project management requirements, budget, etc. Therefore an analysis of the different recording forms should prove helpful to identify the common meanings of concepts and terms used in archaeological fieldwork. This paper will show first results of research based on the collection of excavation report forms and manuals from different countries which cover a range of fieldwork methodologies (e.g. single context recording, palaeolithic excavations, etc.). The aim is to analyse and compare the different methodologies, the archaeological concepts involved and the data records, perhaps for the first time on an international level. We want to discuss the challenges of integrating different concepts, terms and vocabularies, often in different languages, and whether problems with integrating such archaeological data could be addressed by additional archaeological extensions to the CIDOC CRM.

The presentation was held during the Mutual Learning Workshop for Improving Cultural Heritage Bibliographical Data (October 12-14, 2022) organised by the Bibliographical Data Working Group of the DARIAH-ERIC. The Mutual Learning Workshop for Improving Cultural Heritage Bibliographical Data has been supported by the DARIAH ERIC.

eShadow is a digital storytelling platform inspired by traditional Shadow Theatre. It enables the creation of digital stories within a project-based approach that may start from scenario development and include the creation of digital puppets and sceneries, the set-up and recording of story scenes and the final assembly of a digital story. This paper presents details about eShadow architecture, features and how its use has been enhanced, employing the PerFECt framework, to combine it with immersive technologies such as projection mapping, to create mixed reality installations that offer rich learning experiences to participants in informal learning settings. Two installations are described and compared. The evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach towards engaging learning experiences that combine mixed reality approaches with arts such as black light theatre.

The National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe (NI4OS Europe) project supports the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by contributing to its portfolio of services, by involving national and regional research communities in the EOSC governance, by strengthening open science (OS) practices, and by promoting the FAIR principles (Macan et al., 2020; Garavelli et al., 2021) to help build the infrastructure and create a favourable environment for open and intensive scholarly communication.The main instrument in achieving this is the network of 15 national Open Science Cloud Initiatives (NOSCIs) established in the partner countries as national-level coalitions of Open Science stakeholders that have a prominent role and interest in the EOSC. The concept of NOSCI has been developed in response to the specific traits and challenges in the targeted region, based on complex and multilayered analyses of stakeholders, policies, and local contexts (Toli et al., 2020). Inclusive by nature, NOSCIs connect stakeholders from across the research lifecycle at the national level and provide not only a testbed for the formulation of OS policies but also a forum for knowledge dissemination and sharing.Drawing on a secondary analysis of the abundant data collected and materials produced during the project, this presentation focuses on the challenges identified as the NOSCIs were built – from data collection in the context of landscaping (Kosanović & Ševkušić, 2019) and policy analysis, through concept development, to implementation, testing, and verification (use cases). It highlights the relationship between individual challenges and NOSCI elements that address these challenges.The challenges are largely owed to diversities within the region, most notably the varying levels of integration into European structures (of the 15 partner countries, eight are not EU members), linguistic diversity, different research governance systems, policy traditions, and available funding. The framework for NOSCI development, the so-called blueprint (Toli et al., 2020), was designed in full recognition of these diversities. It relies on three modular workflows (Toli et al., 2021) and gives maximum flexibility to countries or national initiatives while making sure that all locally specific aspects are addressed.We believe that the approach adopted by the NI4OS-Europe team could be applied in other highlydiversified environments, as has been demonstrated by the NI4OS-Europe use cases, thanks to the flexible mechanism of interaction between challenges and responses underlying the very concept of NOSCI. The results presented in this poster were subsequently published in: Ševkušić M, Toli E, Lenaki K, Kanavou K, Sifakaki E, Kosanović B, Papastamatiou I, Papadopoulou E. Building National Open Science Cloud Initiatives (NOSCIs) in Southeast Europe: Supporting Research and Scholarly Communication. Publications. 2022; 10(4):42. [https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040042] Interactive version: [https://open.ac.rs/index.php/ni4os-europe-pubmet2022-poster] Conference abstract: [https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_13397] Conference abstract: [https://doi.org/10.15291/pubmet.3952]