INFORUM 2006 - 12. Annual Conference On Professional Information Resources

Investing in Knowledge for Heritage Management: DIHELIA E-Portal Project [contribution]

Author: Sebastia Montserrat,  University of Barcelona, Spain

Co-author: Eva Delgado, Pablo Campoy

Fulltexts

Abstract

The main aim of this project is to investigate and identify the pillars of Knowledge Architecture in the field of Cultural Heritage. This will be carried out through the construction of a specialised Portal and a multilingual thesaurus for the social and educational dissemination of cultural, historic and natural heritage. We study cultural heritage and how it’s managed from a multidisciplinary point of view, employing the methods and procedures used in the human and social sciences, information technology and library science together with documentation. The research team will design the Dihèlia portal and the thesaurus through the use of a wide range of procedural activities. To achieve this, the information shall be organised on the basis of a multilingual taxonomy, involving an analysis of scientific production, the primary sources and information resources of the team’s researchers, the scientific community and any available resources that can be found on the Internet. In this way, we will design 5 databases (projects, resources and the culture of information, researchers, scientific production and cultural industries). We will work on the thematic areas of the realms of heritage through the use of 40 concept maps so as to construct the hierarchical thesaurus and the alphabetical thesaurus for information retrieval, which will be multilingual (Catalan, Spanish, English and French). The information system, which will be located on the website of the Scientific Park of Barcelona (URL: http://www.dihelia.org).The final aim of the research will be to confirm whether indeed digital and virtual environments, such as the portal, allow for the informative dissemination and scientific understanding of all aspects of heritage in the information society.

About the author

Dra. Montserrat Sebastià is a Head of a ArsMagna Research Group and a Director of Dihèlia e-Portal Project. She is specialized and research: concept maps, thesaurus, advanced information retrieval systems, personalisation, and information technologies applied humanities and social sciences. She teach University of Barcelona two topics: Knowlegde Organization and Information Retrieval Systems; and Information Ecology.

Mrs. Eva Delgado is a researcher of ArsMagna and Coordinator of Dihèlia Project. She is specialized: corporate taxonomy, information retrieval systems, personalisation, and heritage cataloguing.

Mr. Pablo Campoy is an information architect, researcher of ArsMagna Research Group. He is specialized: Resorces Web, standards, usability, and information technologies.