Linnaeus University (Linnéuniversitetet, LNU) is an international public university in the province of Småland, Sweden. LNU was founded in 2010 by a merger of the former Växjö University and Kalmar University, and currently has approximately 44,000 enrolled students. The university is currently Sweden’s sixth largest in terms of student numbers. It has 600 partner universities in more than 80 countries around the world.

Over the past decade, there has been a distinct emphasis on the Digital Humanities at LNU through a variety of initiatives, all focused on fostering interdisciplinary expertise in the Humanities, data analysis, cultural heritage, and ICTs. Best described as a decentralized collaborative culture, DH at LNU includes knowledge environments (e.g. Digital Transformations), centers of excellence (e.g. the Centre for Data Intensive Sciences and Applications), and the iInstitute (the local center for the international iSchools consortium). LNU was the first Swedish university to join DARIAH and is now leading the bid for national membership. In 2016, Linnaeus established a Digital Humanities Hub to focus on data-intensive digital humanities, leading to the implementation of digital humanities as a research and teaching subject at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and to the Digital Humanities MA programme. This programme is being offered in English to international students, who benefit from being able to take advantage of the worldwide iSchools agreement for virtual student and faculty exchange. As part of the work of the DH Hub and the iInstitute, LNU was recently granted funding for a national PhD school in digital humanities, an initiative between four Swedish universities. In this presentation we will outline the original vision for fostering DH at Linnaeus University, reflect on the challenges and successes of the past few years and present general ideas on how to facilitate DH at the intersection of multiple disciplines. 

PurposeIn order to estimate the value of semi-automated subject indexing in operative library catalogues, the study aimed to investigate five different automated implementations of an open source software package on a large set of Swedish union catalogue metadata records, with Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) as the target classification system. It also aimed to contribute to the body of research on aboutness and related challenges in automated subject indexing and evaluation.Design/methodology/approachOn a sample of over 230,000 records with close to 12,000 distinct DDC classes, an open source tool Annif, developed by the National Library of Finland, was applied in the following implementations: lexical algorithm, support vector classifier, fastText, Omikuji Bonsai and an ensemble approach combing the former four. A qualitative study involving two senior catalogue librarians and three students of library and information studies was also conducted to investigate the value and inter-rater agreement of automatically assigned classes, on a sample of 60 records.FindingsThe best results were achieved using the ensemble approach that achieved 66.82% accuracy on the three-digit DDC classification task. The qualitative study confirmed earlier studies reporting low inter-rater agreement but also pointed to the potential value of automatically assigned classes as additional access points in information retrieval.Originality/valueThe paper presents an extensive study of automated classification in an operative library catalogue, accompanied by a qualitative study of automated classes. It demonstrates the value of applying semi-automated indexing in operative information retrieval systems.

Fiction is a challenging genre for automatic theme identification. Unlike other types of documents, such as physics academic papers, fiction does not always name the concepts it addresses, but rather implies them through subtle clues. Fiction also uses metaphors intentionally to convey deeper meanings. To make Swedish LGBTQ+ fiction more accessible, the Queerlit database (https://queerlit.dh.gu.se/) provides subject indexing by information professionals. They use the QLIT thesaurus (based on Homosaurus) for LGBTQ+ themes and Swedish Subject Headings (SAO – Svenska Ämnesord) for non-LGBTQ+ themes. The indexing is comprehensive and retrospective, assigning terms to previously published Swedish fiction.

This work aims to determine to what degree and under which conditions is it possible to automatically assign subject index terms from QLIT, in order to estimate the usefulness of automatic tools to support subject indexing conducted by information professionals. This process may require a large number of training documents which are not available (the entire Queerlit database has about 2000 works indexed and QLIT has about 800 terms, while SAO is much bigger). Therefore, another approach will be explored – whether automatically extracted terms from the texts provide the potential to complement existing, professionally assigned terms from QLIT and SAO. We experiment with zero-shot classification transformers and topic modeling.

The proposed paper will present the intermediate results of different methods applied to available texts from the QLIT database. It is important to note that the project is currently in an exploratory phase and that the presentation is intended to showcase how different approaches have both failed and succeeded. We also intend to highlight areas of possible applicability specifically from the perspective afforded by the QLIT thesaurus, i.e., the appropriateness of the methods for Swedish LGBTQ+ fiction. We will also discuss the challenges and limitations of automatic theme identification for fiction, especially for LGBTQ+ themes that are often implicit or nuanced.

Has something been lost in the move towards federated searching and relevance ranking in academic library search interfaces? The richness of metadata and other knowledge organisation systems (KOSs) such as classification schemes and controlled vocabularies is often not featured in library management system (LMS) procurement. The ISKO Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) has set up a working group to develop a set of guidelines for academic and research libraries that are planning to procure an LMS. The purpose of the guidelines is to enable users to benefit from the intellectual effort that has been invested in assigning metadata to electronic resources. This paper reports on progress of the working group in its review of the literature and the plans for consultations with stakeholders.

This article addresses the underutilization of knowl­edge organization systems (KOS) elements in online library catalogs, hindering effective subject-based search and discovery. It highlights the International Society for Knowl­edge Organization's initiative to develop metadata guidelines for library catalog procurement, focusing on maximizing the value of subject metadata from classification systems and controlled vocabularies. The paper discusses the rationale for quality subject access, proposes desirable search functionalities based on research, explores implementation challenges, and outlines future developments. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of providing quality subject access in digital services and calls for further research on interface design, guideline adoption, KOS evolution, and the impact of language models on subject metadata use. The work underscores the need for applying controlled vocabularies in search interfaces across libraries, archives, and museums while acknowledging the complementary role of alternative approaches like social tagging and automatic indexing. Extensive future research is suggested to implement search functionalities, promote guidelines adoption, enhance KOS evolution, and assess the influence of language models on subject metadata utilization.

Subject indexing of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, and ace) materials is often criticized for being too general and superficial, as general subject headings systems rarely provide the desirable depth and breadth. LGBTQ+ fiction is an even bigger problem because fiction is most often indexed only for genre, place, and time, while themes remain unaddressed. Thus, many readers look outside the library catalogue to identify LGBTQ+ titles in social medial, personal social networks, or web search engines. This exploratory study builds on the Queerlit database of over 1800 Swedish LGBTQ+ works of fiction which have been subject indexed using a dedicated thesaurus. It aims to identify and discuss how Queerlit subject terms compare with those in the Swedish Union Catalogue (Libris), the social cataloguing website Goodreads as well as the Google Books API. In addition, subject access to LGBTQ+ works of fiction in China is discussed, particularly via Douban, the social networking platform. 

We are currently in a phase where it seems that new applications for large language models (LLMs) in general and generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) in particular are tested every day. Examples are as diverse as automated data mining for building energy management (C. Zhang et al., 2024), evaluating the accuracy of differential-diagnosis lists for clinical vignettes (Hirosawa et al., 2023), and human-machine-augmented intelligent vehicles (J. Zhang et al., 2023). They can also be used to extract structured information from unstructured text (Söderström, 2023). This poster presents a pilot study on one such application, the potential use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT for automatic subject indexing of archival documents in Swedish, Swedish LGBTQ fiction and Chinese fiction. The accuracy of the assigned subject index terms is compared with the output from ANNIF (Suominen et al., 2022), an established automatic subject indexing software used in libraries. The results display an impressive degree of accuracy for the subject index terms assigned by ChatGPT, but challenges have been identified in all three document types. For example, the appropriateness of the terms for historical text is highly questionable at times. The terms assigned by ANNIF, in contrast, are drawn from a controlled vocabulary, which ensures that they have been manually selected as suitable subject index terms. The pilot study shows that it is feasible to run the index terms suggested by ChatGPT through ANNIF to get index terms from a controlled vocabulary while harnessing ChatGPT’s state-of-the-art natural language understanding. This presents intriguing opportunities for implementing GPTs in the archival/library cataloging workflows. Semi-automatic approaches and manual checks are still to be preferred, however, in order to maintain the authenticity of the generated metadata.

PurposeThis exploratory study aims to help contribute to the understanding of online information search behaviour of PhD students from different humanities fields, with a focus on subject searching.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is based on a semi-structured interview within which the participants are asked to conduct both a controlled search task and a free search task. The sample comprises eight PhD students in several humanities disciplines at Linnaeus University, a medium-sized Swedish university from 2020.FindingsMost humanities PhD students in the study have received training in information searching, but it has been too basic. Most rely on web search engines like Google and Google Scholar for publications' search, and university's discovery system for known-item searching. As these systems do not rely on controlled vocabularies, the participants often struggle with too many retrieved documents that are not relevant. Most only rarely or never use disciplinary bibliographic databases. The controlled search task has shown some benefits of using controlled vocabularies in the disciplinary databases, but incomplete synonym or concept coverage as well as user unfriendly search interface present hindrances.Originality/valueThe paper illuminates an often-forgotten but pervasive challenge of subject searching, especially for humanities researchers. It demonstrates difficulties and shows how most PhD students have missed finding an important resource in their research. It calls for the need to reconsider training in information searching and the need to make use of controlled vocabularies implemented in various search systems with usable search and browse user interfaces.

Purpose: This article aims to help ensure high-quality subject access to Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersexual (LGBTQI) fiction, and aims to identify challenges that librarians consider important to address, on behalf of themselves and end users.

Design/methodology/approach: A web-based questionnaire comprising 35 closed and open questions, 22 of which were required, was sent via online channels in January 2022. By the survey closing date, 20 March 2022, 82 responses had been received. The study was intended to complement an earlier study targeting end users.

Findings: Both this study of librarians and the previous study of end users have painted a dismal image of online search services when it comes to searching for LGBTQI fiction. The need to consult different channels (e.g. social media, library catalogues and friends), the inability to search more specifically than for the broad LGBTQI category and suboptimal search interfaces were among the commonly reported issues. The results of these studies are used to inform the development of a dedicated Swedish LGBTQI fiction database with an online search interface.

Originality/value: The subject searching of fiction via online services is usually limited to genre with facets for time and place, while users are often seeking characteristics such as pacing, characterization, storyline, frame/setting, tone and language/style. LGBTQI fiction is even more challenging to search because indexing practices are not really being standardized or disseminated worldwide. This study helps address this important gap, in both research and practical applications. 

Humanities scholars can today engage in research inquiry using data from a range of varied collections which are often characterised by poor subject access, often resulting in systems that underperform and even effectively prevent access to data, information and knowledge. In spite of the availability of professional standards and guidelines to provide quality-controlled subject access through knowledge organisation systems (KOS), subject access in such collections is rarely based on KOS. At the same time, KOS themselves may come with problems such as being slow to update, being rigidly structured and not incorporating end-users’ vocabulary. It may therefore be useful to consider methods for remediating these deficiencies in KOSs, such as collecting user-generated metadata via social tagging or complementing automated indexing techniques with manual ones. To help address the above problems, the paper discusses these challenges and points to possible solutions in different contexts. It does so by reflecting on an open educational resource (OER) devoted to this theme, titled Introduction to Knowledge Organisation Systems for Digital Humanities. It was developed as part of an EU project called DiMPAH (Digital Methods Platform for the Arts and Humanities), 2021–2023, creating seven OERs for inclusion in DARIAH Teach.

Information and Knowledge Organisation in Digital Humanities: Global Perspectives (DCMI), explores the potential uses of, and challenges involved in, applying the organisation of information and knowledge in the various areas of Digital Humanities. By focussing on how information is described, represented, and organised in both research and practice, this work furthers the transdisciplinary nature of digital humanities. Most importantly, perhaps, the book provides a starting point for discussions about the impact of information and knowledge organisation and related tools on the methodologies used in the Digital Humanities field. The book is by and large an international volume, as its 41 authors are affiliated with universities and related organisations in 16 countries on 4 continents. Since several chapters are authored by practitioners, with real world examples, practitioners will also appreciate the relevance of this work, as well as offer inspirations for new projects and initiatives.

Prof. Golub and Dr. Liu will briefly provide an overview of the book and reflections on its goals and production. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

The digital humanities (DH) is an emerging field of teaching and research that invites modern technologies to address traditional humanities questions while simultaneously making space for humanistic critiques of those technologies. A natural relationship exists between DH and the field of information studies (the iField), particularly surrounding their common focus on the interface between humans and computers, as well as subfields such as the organization of information, libraries and archives, data preservation, and information in society. Thus, we propose that iField programs in universities should take an active role in DH education. We are particularly interested in programs that are officially Information Schools (iSchools), members of the international iSchools Organization. Our research began as part of a DH curriculum committee convened by the iSchools Organization. To support iSchool engagement in DH education, we have inventoried and analyzed the degrees and supplemental credentials offered by DH education programs throughout the world. Our study deployed multiple data collection methods, which included conducting both ad hoc and comprehensive website surveys, querying an online DH catalog, and inviting members of the iSchools Organization to participate in an online questionnaire. This work has revealed several common patterns for the current structure of DH programs, including the various types of degrees or supplemental credentials offered. We observe that iSchools have a significant opportunity to become more engaged in DH education and we suggest several possible approaches based on our research.

The interdisciplinary field known as digital humanities (DH) is represented in various forms in the teaching and research practiced in iSchools. Building on the work of an iSchools organization committee charged with exploring digital humanities curricula, we present findings from a series of related studies exploring aspects of DH teaching, education, and research in iSchools, often in collaboration with other units and disciplines. Through a survey of iSchool programs and an online DH course registry, we investigate the various education models for DH training found in iSchools, followed by a detailed look at DH courses and curricula, explored through analysis of course syllabi and course descriptions. We take a brief look at collaborative disciplines with which iSchools cooperate on DH research projects or in offering DH education. Next, we explore DH careers through an analysis of relevant job advertisements. Finally, we offer some observations about the management and administrative challenges and opportunities related to offering a new iSchool DH program. Our results provide a snapshot of the current state of digital humanities in iSchools which may usefully inform the design and evolution of new DH programs, degrees, and related initiatives.

The Digital Humanities Master’s Programme at Linnaeus University started enrolling students in the autumn of 2020. It is implemented as a collaboration between two faculties, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and Faculty of Technology. The two-year programme is structured to allow a general one-year introduction to the field and in the second year the students choose their specialization. One-year programme is also available. The programme relies heavily on invited talks and collaboration with external sectors for theses. topics and research-based teaching. The talk will report on the structure and challenges of running such an interdisciplinary programme across departments and delivering it to a highly heterogeneous student group. 

Digital Methods Platform for Arts and Humanities (DiMPAH) is a three-year Erasmus+ project started in 2020 with six partner universities from Cyprus, Demark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden. The project has three objectives. The first one is to create novel OERs on digital methods and associated tools for the construction of new knowledge on A&H research questions and for audience engagement in a suite of coursesacross the complementary areas of qualitative and quantitative digital research tools and methods and providing access to A&H resources for i) information access through knowledge organization systems, and ii) user engagement via Augmented Reality (AR) of cultural heritage. The OERs will be accompanied by an interactive book to ease the introduction of teachers, trainers, and learners into the digital methods, across disciplines. The DiMPAH suite, channeled by the #dariahTeach platform, will be openly available across European institutions to support current and future professionals from cultural heritage sectors as well as academia in improving competencies, connecting best practices and applying spearheading technologies, to enable collective efforts towards future solutions. The second objective is to apply and test the DiMPAH methods via case studies in three prominent European digital heritage contexts: a) digitised newspaper collections; b) built heritage environments and their digital twins; and, c) performing arts collections. Finally, the project aims to move ‘towards new stories for Europe’: the selected new methods and technologies, and cultural heritage case studies, will be deployed in learning scenarios to localise and show possible solutions and potential impact on social equity, transnational and cultural diversity, gender equality, good health and well-being.

Information and Knowledge Organisation explores the role of knowledge organisation in the digital humanities. By focusing on how information is described, represented and organised in both research and practice, this work furthers the transdisciplinary nature of digital humanities.

Including contributions from Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East, the volume explores the potential uses of, and challenges involved in, applying the organisation of information and knowledge in the various areas of Digital Humanities. With a particular focus on the digital worlds of cultural heritage collections, the book also includes chapters that focus on machine learning, knowledge graphs, text analysis, text annotations and network analysis. Other topics covered include: semantic technologies, conceptual schemas and data augmentation, digital scholarly editing, metadata creation, browsing, visualisation and relevance ranking. Most importantly, perhaps, the book provides a starting point for discussions about the impact of information and knowledge organisation and related tools on the methodologies used in the Digital Humanities field.

Information and Knowledge Organisation is intended for use by researchers, students and professionals interested in the role information and knowledge organisation plays in the Digital Humanities. It will be essential reading for those working in library and information science, computer science and across the humanities.

Purpose: The study aims to paint a representative picture of the current state of search interfaces of Swedish online museum collections, focussing on search functionalities with particular reference to subject searching, as well as the use of controlled vocabularies, with the purpose of identifying which improvements of the search interfaces are needed to ensure high-quality information retrieval for the end user.

Design/methodology/approach: In the first step, a set of 21 search interface criteria was identified, based on related research and current standards in the domain of cultural heritage knowledge organization. Secondly, a complete set of Swedish museums that provide online access to their collections was identified, comprising nine cross-search services and 91 individual museums' websites. These 100 websites were each evaluated against the 21 criteria, between 1 July and 31 August 2020.

Findings: Although many standards and guidelines are in place to ensure quality-controlled subject indexing, which in turn support information retrieval of relevant resources (as individual or full search results), the study shows that they are not broadly implemented, resulting in information retrieval failures for the end user. The study also demonstrates a strong need for the implementation of controlled vocabularies in these museums.

Originality/value: This study is a rare piece of research which examines subject searching in online museums; the 21 search criteria and their use in the analysis of the complete set of online collections of a country represents a considerable and unique contribution to the fields of knowledge organization and information retrieval of cultural heritage. Its particular value lies in showing how the needs of end users, many of which are documented and reflected in international standards and guidelines, should be taken into account in designing search tools for these museums; especially so in subject searching, which is the most complex and yet the most common type of search. Much effort has been invested into digitizing cultural heritage collections, but access to them is hindered by poor search functionality. This study identifies which are the most important aspects to improve.

This work focuses on questions of knowledge organization related to literary fiction. How can LGBTQI fictional literature become more accessible to readers and scholars? The project Queerlit Metadata Development and Searchability for LGBTQI Literary Heritage addresses this question in two ways: by the development of a thesaurus for the description of Swedish LGBTQI literature, and by building a curated bibliographical database for this material with flexible search options. Despite the community and scholarly interest in LGBTQI literature, relevant LGBTQI literature is hard to find both for readers and researchers. Subject indexing is underdeveloped for this topic, and subject headings have been historically inadequate and offensive. The paper focuses on how LGBTQI literature can be made more easily accessible through subject indexing. This will make new research possible, such as gaining overviews of the development of specific themes over time, the presence of LGBTQI literature within or outside of the literary canon or in different genres and changing ideas and perceptions concerning sexualities and gender identities. It will also accommodate user’s needs of better access to LGBTQI themed fictional literature.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the needs of potential end-users of a database dedicated to Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) literature (e.g. prose, poetry, drama, graphic novels/comics, and illustrated books), in order to inform the development of a database, search interface functionalities, and an LGBTQI thesaurus for fiction.

Design/methodology/approach: A web questionnaire was distributed in autumn 2021 to potential end-users. The questions covered people's reasons for reading LGBTQI fiction, ways of finding LGBTQI fiction, experience of searching for LGBTQI fiction, usual search elements applied, latest search for LGBTQI fiction, desired subjects to search for, and ideal search functionalities.

Findings: The 101 completed questionnaires showed that most respondents found relevant literature through social media or friends and that most obtained copies of literature from a library. Regarding desirable search functionalities, most respondents would like to see suggestions for related terms to support broader search results (i.e. higher recall). Many also wanted search support that would enable retrieving more specific results based on narrower terms when too many results are retrieved (i.e. higher precision). Over half would also appreciate the option to browse by hierarchically arranged subjects.

Originality/value: This study is the first to show how readers of LGBTQI fiction in Sweden search for and obtain relevant literature. The authors have identified end-user needs that can inform the development of a new database and a thesaurus dedicated to LGBTQI fiction.

While support for subject searching has been traditionally advocated for in library catalogues, notably since Cutter’s objectives for library catalogues, research shows that subject access in online library catalogues, repositories, and commercial services like bibliographic databases and discovery services has been less than optimal and fails to meet established objectives of bibliographic systems. Although the services try to match users’ expectations by implementing Google-like single search box interfaces, it seems that efficient mechanisms such as ranking algorithms used by Google, efficient exploitation of intellectual effort that has been invested into subject indexing, or even quality-controlled subject indexing per se, are still missing from these services, leading to retrieval failures. 

Specific problems in indexing humanities research have offered concerns for research over several decades. As part of the general development of digital scholarship, disciplines and research areas in the humanities have developed new structures both within themselves and in relation to other disciplines, both within and outside the humanities. In the currently growing interdisciplinary field of digital humanities, it is important to provide quality subject access to a vast variety of heterogeneous information objects in digital services. This includes both primary sources and secondary ones.

Recent studies of subject access in selected discovery systems, a university repository and Scopus will be used to demonstrate the raised issues, complemented by a qualitative study of researchers in the humanities and their ways of subject searching.