Structuring metadata in polysemic environment: case study BiHMe

Nina Karać nk@hrc.unsa.ba Aida Hajro ah@hrc.unsa.ba Human Rights Centre University of Sarajevo

34th Meeting of the European Coordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation

Sarajevo, 23 – 24 May 2013

Oral History in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Unveiling Personal Memories on War and

Detention (BiHMe)

• The BiHMe project duration: November 2011- October 2013 • The overall objective of this project is the stimulation and

empowerment of the social and individual processes of “dealing with the past” in order to improve mutual understanding in BiH and among other post-Yugoslav countries;

• 100 oral statements of war victims in BiH during the recent war ’92 – ’95;

• collected interviews would be used as a research basis for scientists and research.

METADATA • Data about data; • It is descriptive information about a particular data set, object, or

resource, including how it is formatted; • helps search engines recognize data on web pages; • helps information get sorted and cataloged correctly; • Metadata sheme is used to define the metadata fields that need to be

filled out; • Each schema defines the fields and their type • Metadata shemes – Dublin Core

• “Why is an index necessary?

It doesn’t take long before even the interviewer has trouble remembering who said what in which interview” (Ritchie, 2003)

First step – Creating a collection

Google maps (location) and dates

Metadata for persons

Relation between different levels on

CA platforme

-Every created interview (object) on CA platform is added to BiHMe collection data set (Unveiling Personal Memories on War and Detention in Bosnia and Herzegovina – BiHMe) -Every created profile for persons (entities) is integrated into interview data set (objects)

CA Objects

BiHMe Collection

CA Entities

Metadata of interview

Transcripts

Oral history

“Oral history is not necessarily an instrument for change; it depends upon the spirit in which it is used. Nevertheless, oral history certainly can be a means for transforming both the content and the purpose of history. It can be used to change the focus of history itself, and open up new areas of inquiry; it can break down barriers between teachers and students, between generations, between educational institutions and the world outside; and in the writing of history—whether in books, or museums, or radio and film—it can give back to the people who made and experienced history, through their own words, a central place.” (Perks; Thomson, 1998)

Interpretation

New meaning?

• First generation of researchers • Second generation of researchers • Re-reading of text • Interpretation and verification

Preserving and using documents of oral history

• Internet and oral history; • Dissemination of data, not publishing; • Access to raw data

Literature • Caplan, Priscilla. Metadata Fundementals for Librarians. Chicago:

American Library Association, 2003. • Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alistair eds. The oral history reader. London:

Routledge, 1998 • Ritchie, D.A. Doing oral history: a practical guide. New York: Oxford

University Press, 2003 • Sicilia, Miguel-Angel. Metadata and Semantics. New York: Springer, 2009. • The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative URL: http://dublincore.org (stranica posjećena 08.04.2013.)

Thank you!