The Laborious Cleaning: Acquiring and Transforming 19th-Century Epistolary Metadata

Senka Drobac; Johanna Enqvist; Petri Leskinen; Muhammad Wahjoe; Heikki Rantala; Mikko Koho; Ilona Pikkanen; Iida Jauhianinen; Jouni Tuominen; Hanna Leena Paloposki; Matti La Mela; Eero Hyvönen

doi:10.5617/dhnbpub.10669

The Laborious Cleaning: Acquiring and Transforming 19th-Century Epistolary Metadata

Senka Drobac, Johanna Enqvist, Petri Leskinen, Muhammad Wahjoe, Heikki Rantala, Mikko Koho, Ilona Pikkanen, Iida Jauhianinen, Jouni Tuominen, Hanna Leena Paloposki, Matti La Mela, Eero Hyvönen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › Scientific › peer-review

28 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The paper documents the process of collecting, consolidating, and publishing epistolary metadata from Finnish cultural heritage organizations to create an archive for bottom-up analyses of 19th-century epistolary culture. We describe and discuss the data survey that was conducted to gather information about available letter collections across Finland, as well as the cleaning and harmonizing of over 350,000 letters from twelve different sources in various digital formats. We have also developed a data model that combines event-based and letter-based aspects of the metadata. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of the initial phases of data-intensive research and the importance of discussing the labor of cleaning data. We believe that our experiences described in this paper can have wider significance for other digital humanities projects in Europe.

Original language	English
Number of pages	15
Journal	Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Publications
Volume	5
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5617/dhnbpub.10669
Publication status	Published - 2023
MoE publication type	A4 Conference publication
Event	Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries - Virtual, Online, Norway Duration: 8 Mar 2023 → 10 Mar 2023 Conference number: 7

Access to Document

10.5617/dhnbpub.10669Licence: CC BY

SCI_Drobac_etal_DHNB_2023Final published version, 444 KBLicence: CC BY

Constellations of Correspondence: Relational Study of Large and Small Networks of Letter Exchange in the Grand Duchy of Finland (CoCo)
Hyvönen, E. (Principal investigator)
01/09/2021 → 31/08/2025
Project: Academy of Finland: Other research funding

Cite this

@article{b7683e41625a479f818588701218f05a,

title = "The Laborious Cleaning: Acquiring and Transforming 19th-Century Epistolary Metadata",

abstract = "The paper documents the process of collecting, consolidating, and publishing epistolary metadata from Finnish cultural heritage organizations to create an archive for bottom-up analyses of 19th-century epistolary culture. We describe and discuss the data survey that was conducted to gather information about available letter collections across Finland, as well as the cleaning and harmonizing of over 350,000 letters from twelve different sources in various digital formats. We have also developed a data model that combines event-based and letter-based aspects of the metadata. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of the initial phases of data-intensive research and the importance of discussing the labor of cleaning data. We believe that our experiences described in this paper can have wider significance for other digital humanities projects in Europe.",

author = "Senka Drobac and Johanna Enqvist and Petri Leskinen and Muhammad Wahjoe and Heikki Rantala and Mikko Koho and Ilona Pikkanen and Iida Jauhianinen and Jouni Tuominen and Paloposki, {Hanna Leena} and {La Mela}, Matti and Eero Hyv{\"o}nen",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.5617/dhnbpub.10669",

language = "English",

volume = "5",

journal = "Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Publications",

issn = "2704-1441",

publisher = "University of Oslo",

number = "1",

note = "Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries, DHNB ; Conference date: 08-03-2023 Through 10-03-2023",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Laborious Cleaning: Acquiring and Transforming 19th-Century Epistolary Metadata

AU - Drobac, Senka

AU - Enqvist, Johanna

AU - Leskinen, Petri

AU - Wahjoe, Muhammad

AU - Rantala, Heikki

AU - Koho, Mikko

AU - Pikkanen, Ilona

AU - Jauhianinen, Iida

AU - Tuominen, Jouni

AU - Paloposki, Hanna Leena

AU - La Mela, Matti

AU - Hyvönen, Eero

N1 - Conference code: 7

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The paper documents the process of collecting, consolidating, and publishing epistolary metadata from Finnish cultural heritage organizations to create an archive for bottom-up analyses of 19th-century epistolary culture. We describe and discuss the data survey that was conducted to gather information about available letter collections across Finland, as well as the cleaning and harmonizing of over 350,000 letters from twelve different sources in various digital formats. We have also developed a data model that combines event-based and letter-based aspects of the metadata. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of the initial phases of data-intensive research and the importance of discussing the labor of cleaning data. We believe that our experiences described in this paper can have wider significance for other digital humanities projects in Europe.

AB - The paper documents the process of collecting, consolidating, and publishing epistolary metadata from Finnish cultural heritage organizations to create an archive for bottom-up analyses of 19th-century epistolary culture. We describe and discuss the data survey that was conducted to gather information about available letter collections across Finland, as well as the cleaning and harmonizing of over 350,000 letters from twelve different sources in various digital formats. We have also developed a data model that combines event-based and letter-based aspects of the metadata. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of the initial phases of data-intensive research and the importance of discussing the labor of cleaning data. We believe that our experiences described in this paper can have wider significance for other digital humanities projects in Europe.

U2 - 10.5617/dhnbpub.10669

DO - 10.5617/dhnbpub.10669

M3 - Conference article

SN - 2704-1441

VL - 5

JO - Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Publications

JF - Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Publications

IS - 1

T2 - Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries

Y2 - 8 March 2023 through 10 March 2023

ER -

The Laborious Cleaning: Acquiring and Transforming 19th-Century Epistolary Metadata

Abstract

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

Constellations of Correspondence: Relational Study of Large and Small Networks of Letter Exchange in the Grand Duchy of Finland (CoCo)

Cite this