Semantic Annotation of Digital Objects by Multiagent Computing: Applications in Digital Heritage

Abstract

Heritage organisations around the world are participating in broad scale digitisation projects, where traditional forms of heritage materials are being transcribed into digital representations in order to assist with their long-term preservation, facilitate cataloguing, and increase their accessibility to researchers and the general public. These digital formats open up a new world of opportunities for applying computational information retrieval techniques to heritage collections, making it easier than ever before to explore and document these materials. One of the key benefits of being able to easily share digital heritage collections is the strengthening and support of community memory, where members of a community contribute their perceptions and recollections of historical and cultural events so that this knowledge is not forgotten and lost over time. With the ever-growing popularity of digitally-native media and the high level of computer literacy in modern society, this is set to become a critical area for preservation in the immediate future.