• Leif Isaksen

University of Exeter

Co-authors: Travis Coan, Charlotte Tupman, Richard Ward, Helen Birkett, Erato Kartaki & Sarwat Qureshi

This paper will present some of the outcomes of the AHRC-funded project Hot Source! Targeted Digital Skills Development, from Artefact to Analytics. As one of four pilot projects intended to develop a network of digital skills training centres for the AHRC’s iDAH network, its objectives were threefold:

The first was to gain greater clarity on the requirements landscape for A&H researchers, particularly in the Southwest. In a broader societal and economic context in which sophisticated uses of digital technologies are no longer seen as the preserve of computing specialists (or even the STEMM sector more broadly), it sought to ask which skills A&H researchers see as most essential for their work, both currently and in the future. Noting that academics are increasingly forced to balance an ever-expanding range of professional responsibilities, it also looked beyond content to explore what modes of delivery might best be integrated with the complex demands of a research career.

The second aim was to develop and deliver a series of new training courses as the core of a broader programme focussed on the digitization and analysis of primary source materials, as well as providing a mechanism for trialling and refining varying methods of delivery, online and in person. The courses span a range of levels of expertise and have relevance to a broad array of disciplines. They were broadly divided into two streams. One stream focused on methods for producing digital texts from analogue materials, including capturing and presenting human-readable 2D, 2.5D and/or 3D visualizations of physical resources and extracting text from images using OCR and HTR-based approaches. The second stream focused on enhancing the use of digital texts, including dataset creation, curation, data management issues, and introduced participants to programmatic text analysis using Python. In this paper, we reflect on changes in delivery mode, duration, and their affect on issues like registration and participation.

The third aim was to establish a wider skills programme, and a community of digitally proficient A&H research practitioners and trainers in conjunction with the other pilot projects. In the paper we will touch on our overall impressions about the potential and pre-requisites for a UK-wide network of digital skill training centres.

• Eamonn Bell ,
• Annaliese Micallef Grimaud

University of Durham

“Accelerating embedded computational analysis of Web data about music in UK universities” was a 12-month AHRC- funded digital skills training pilot led by researchers at Durham University and University of Birmingham, which commenced in 2023. In this presentation, we report on the findings of this pilot project, with a view to informing the design of a future digital skills training initiative for UK-based music researchers, a constituency which is currently underserved by existing provision.

We first conducted a needs-mapping exercise, using an online survey and focus groups to assess the digital skills gap in music researchers at a variety of career stages, to better comprehend how they develop their own skills and understanding, and to identify the specific kinds of Web data and related skills they perceive as valuable for their research. We describe our preliminary findings and reflect on the requirements for a more substantive needs-mapping exercise that will serve as a solid evidence base to improve the relevance of training offered by a future national
digital research infrastructure to music researchers.

A notable feature of this pilot project was its commitment to explore the awareness and application of The Carpentries as a digital skills training methodology for music researchers. The Carpentries (https://carpentries.org) is a 501(c)non-profit organisation consisting of an international community that aims to build new capacity in software skills at a global level. The Carpentries employ a hands-on approach to teaching with an emphasis on learner engagement, freely available training materials, and iterative, collaborative lesson design.

Project staff and affiliates were trained as Carpentries-certified instructors and curriculum designers, in collaboration with the Sustainable Software Institute. Six online training events held in Summer 2023 seeded the development of a new set of freely licensed training materials, which since have been made available online as pre-alpha Carpentries lessons, for wider use and iterative refinement. We share the experiences of trainers and trainees, to provide insight into the usefulness of this methodology for our community of practice and to reflect on the potentials of a train-the-
trainers approach to digital skills delivery.

Next steps for the project include exploring the scope for broader impact outside of academia through the delivery and iterative improvement of the materials for music researchers working in or to support the creative industries (e.g. promoters, artists, and label executives). This project is one of four AHRC-funded pilot projects working on embedding digital skills in the arts and humanities, as part of the iDAH Digital Skills Training Network. We finally reflect on the opportunities and challenges of co-ordinating between project teams working at other institutions and on different – but related – initiatives, and the situation of such initiatives within the broader research and innovation policy landscape, as it relates to digital skills.

• A panel of cooperating partners of DARIAH in the UK

DARIAH-UK

This session will provide an update on the UK's cooperation with the Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH). DARIAH is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) dedicated to empowering research communities through digital methods to create, connect, and share knowledge about culture and society. In recent years, various UK institutions have joined forces to become cooperating partners with the aim of attaining full membership in this consortium. Recognising the established digital methods and practices within UK institutions researching in the Arts and Humanities, the cooperating partners seek to leverage European efforts for mutual benefit. The session will discuss ongoing initiatives such as DARIAH Campus and DARIAH Marketplace, and will explore how other researchers and institutions can become involved with DARIAH.