Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The preservation and accessibility of historical newspapers have significant challenges over the past few decades. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is crucial in converting the printed text from physical paper into machine-readable format. This paper serves as a comprehensive work record and learning experience from an internship focused on optimizing OCR of historical newspapers. The objective was to explore workflows and utilize various tools to digitize and extract text from these invaluable resources. The usage of tools such as Tesseract, pytesseract, OCRmyPDF, Transcribus, Layoutparser, Google Vision API, and OpenCV were documented. Three different re-OCRing workflows for improving accuracy of OCR results are compared. However, the physical damage and degradation inherent in historical newspapers presented challenges that impacted OCR accuracy. The paper highlights the challenges faced, methodologies employed, lessons learned, and limitations, providing a practical experience for future projects in historical newspapers.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This thesis is situated within the context of an internship at the Faculty of Arts of KU Leuven. The primary objective of the internship was to develop a digital literary exhibition titled "Exposition Littérature & Télévision en Belgique" using the Omeka Classic software. The exhibition explores the intricate relationship between literature and television in French-speaking Belgium. The purpose of this thesis is to outline the various steps involved in creating the digital exhibition during the internship. Additionally, it provides an evaluation of the Omeka Classic software. Furthermore, the thesis delves into the broader concept of digital exhibition creation, considering the opportunities and challenges encountered throughout the internship. This exploration is based on the intern's firsthand experience, an extensive literature review, and interviews conducted with professionals in the field, as well as individuals with limited experience. The outcome of the internship and the thesis is the creation of the digital exhibition, which leads to the conclusion that Omeka Classic can be a valuable tool for constructing digital exhibitions, especially when it comes to metadata creation, despite certain limitations. These limitations primarily derive from the software's monolithic interface, which restricts curatorial options and poses challenges in creating interactive exhibitions. Nonetheless, the thesis underscores the educational significance of the internship experience.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This study thoroughly explores the affordances and challenges of electronic literature on Twitter through both theoretical and empirical analysis. The first part of this thesis establishes that electronic literature roots its origins in older literary practices of the avant-garde movements. However, it also highlights that the history of electronic literature is inextricably tied to the history of computing, networking, and their social adoption. The emergence of new digital platforms on which to conduct literary experiments enabled writers to extend their creativity beyond the print medium, opening the artistic sector to a whole new network. Examining the case of Twitter as one of these new creative platforms, this first part delves into the characteristics of the network. Despite its initial design without any literary focus, Twitter has evolved into a significant platform for electronic literature, attracting both professional and amateur writers. Features such as hashtags, bots, community engagement, and widespread distribution have fostered aesthetic and conceptual innovations in electronic literature. Literary bots, at the heart of the empirical analysis conducted in a second part, are as a compelling manifestation of electronic literature on the platform. The second part is based on the first phase of a project aiming at identifying and classifying electronic literature: project LabEL. Detailing the progress of the work, this parts empirically looks at the difficulties encountered through the iterative process of shaping classification labels for the procedures used by a set of English literary Twitter bots. In the discussion of the theoretical findings and empirical considerations, this thesis draws two main conclusions. Firstly, the study of literary Twitter bots reveals a strong influence of avant-garde methods and techniques, both in their automated procedure and in their qualitative output content. The procedures employed by these bots, such as transformation or templates, and the incorporation of randomness as a creative process, reflect the experimentation and reimagining of literary practices of movements like Dada, Surrealism and the Oulipo. The digital media therefore provides new ways of exploring older procedures. Secondly, the research points out the major difficulties encountered in studying literature on Twitter. The dynamic nature of the platform, the absence of static genres, and the limitations imposed by Twitter's APIs pose significant obstacles. The suppression of accounts, notably as part of anti-bot campaigns further complicates the data collection and the construction of comprehensive databases for analysis. Nevertheless, these challenges underscore the urgent need for projects like LabEL, which not only investigate the remediating of older procedures in new media but also contribute to the preservation of born-digital heritage.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This study examines Pliny's *Natural History* from a spatial perspective, focusing on the content relating to India and incorporating the digitised and annotated text available in the [TOPOSText project](https://topostext.org/). The research employs a variety of methodologies, including word frequency and collocation analysis, topic modelling and network analysis, with an integration of close reading practices. The multifaceted role that India plays in the narrative is highlighted in the study’s findings. It emerges not only as a geographical counterpart and repository of precious treasures, but also as an important trading partner of the Roman Empire and the Mediterranean, a context closely related to Pliny’s Stoic perspective on the natural world. In addition, the creation of a network graph linking place and person names associated with India across different books highlights the clustering patterns of different discussion focuses within the content structure. HTML version of the thesis: https://raw.githack.com/lizaodawn/NH_thesis/main/NHthesis_structure.html GitHub repository of the thesis: https://github.com/lizaodawn/NH_thesis

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

One of the important missions of the field of Digital Humanities is to integrate quantitative research methods into subjects within the Humanities. Social Network Analysis, which originated in Mathematics, has been extended to the fields of Social Science, as well as Humanities such as Linguistics and Literature. However, History appears to adopt this research method at a slower pace. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to comprehend the capabilities and constraints of Social Network Analysis in historical research. This research employs Social Network Analysis on a historical dataset, 'Duacensia', a component of the broader historical database 'Impressa Catholica Cameracens,' which aims to investigate the history of Catholic printing in the ecclesiastical province of Cambrai. Following necessary data preprocessing, the research begins by reconstructing historical migration through a Network map. Subsequently, it constructs a network based on people's collaborations to present a comprehensive overview of the printing industry in Douai, highlighting the influence of English Catholics. The study then proceeds to identify significant individuals within the industry, with a specific focus on the involvement of female printers. Finally, it explores various approaches to Network construction and concludes by providing an opportunity for interested scholars to further examine the Networks established by this research. The results show that Social Network Analysis is indeed worthy of application in future historical research. Its visualisation ability can be powerful in showcasing historical migration or clustering historical connections. Additionally, its metrics, when combined with statistical analysis, can provide scientific evidence that bolsters historians' observations and statements. Nonetheless, applying Social Network Analysis requires sufficient data, and in the case of historical data, some may be missing due to age. Consequently, in comparison to modern databases, outcomes of Social Network Analysis from historical data could be more inferential and need to be interpreted with cautious consideration of potential gaps and limitations stemming from incomplete or aged records.