Digital Humanities Commons^™

University Ai At Work: The Impact On Personal Document Creation, Vanessa Reyes, Alec Mullender

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This international study examines the use of AI tools provided through university-issued platforms in the US and Canada. The authors aim to discover how embedded AI tools in the university workplace affect the daily creation of personal documents within their digital workspaces. Using University-Issued Tools, such as Outlook, Teams, and all other Microsoft Suite Products, this study places a hyperfocus on time, efficiency, accuracy, usability, functionality, and how the embedded nature of AI tools facilitates working conditions, functions, intentionality, and purpose.

Key research questions are: (1) How do embedded AI tools support daily work processes? (2) In what ways do …

Artificial Intelligence And The Palimpsestuous Nature Of Image Documents, Brian C. O'Connor, Laurie J. Bonnici

Proceedings from the Document Academy

We propose that document engagements are palimpsestuous - meaning emerges through layered interactions between viewers and documents rather than inhering within documents themselves. A photograph of a coffee mug prompts the question "Who's Blake?" for one viewer while evoking decades of family ritual, community relationships, and funeral flowers in ice cream containers for another. Traditional cataloging systems capture surface-level nouns (coffee mug, ice cream parlor) while systematically excluding the epidata and proximity relationships where meaning lives.

Through conversations with Claude.ai about photographs - including a Lewis Hine child labor image, everyday objects, and landscapes - we demonstrate that AI systems …

Editorial, Sascha Donner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

DOCAM 2025 was a special gathering for me personally. As Chair, I had the honor of welcoming our international community to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, an institution and a city whose rich history and vibrant intellectual spirit felt particularly fitting for the conversations we needed to have. This was DOCAM's first time at Humboldt University and its first time in Germany. I was fortunate to host it at the Berlin School of Library and Information Science, where the current Head of School, Vivien Petras, had already been part of DOCAM's earliest days. It was a very special occasion for her to …

Ultrasonic Sensor-Based Sound Synthesis Using Raspberry Pi Pico W, Niraj Jaishwal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

At the intersection of Human Computer Interaction and digital art, this project transforms simple motion into musical expression. It explores an interactive real-time sound synthesis system using ultrasonic sensors to generate continuous audio. The objective is to design a system that maps physical distances into musical parameters such as pitch and amplitude, which will create a responsive audio environment. Two ultrasonic sensors are used in combination with the Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontroller running CircuitPython and Adafruit Audio Hat for real-time sound output. One sensor controls the pitch of the generated tone, while the other controls volume. This enables expressive …

Documents In The Age Of Non-Human Agency, Bernt Ivar Olsen-Kristiansen Dr, Niels W. Lund

Proceedings from the Document Academy

As documents are inherently tied to humans and their expressions (Lund 2024), facilitating communication across time and space, we might have historically reflected on the implications of inserting a computer or information system between humans. If we envision the human as a handyman engaged in technical engineering, we can comprehend the development of AI, Artificial Intelligence, as part of a much longer history of creating instruments and machines to support human endeavors. These include the printing press, musical instruments, steam engines, typewriters, microphones, and progressing to digital musical instruments that create their own music.

Yet, it remains humans who craft …

Imagining The Future Of Records Management: An Analysis Of The Srikandi In Indonesia Through Documentation Studies, Suprayitno Suprayitno, Rahmi Rahmi, Zulfatun Sofiyani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The SRIKANDI application, a cornerstone of Indonesia's digital records management initiative, embodies the nation's commitment to modernizing governance through electronic systems. This study employs Niels Windfeld Lund’s Complementary Documentation Analysis Model to dissect SRIKANDI'S evolution (diachronic analysis) and its current state (synchronic analysis), offering a comprehensive understanding of its role in Indonesia's e-government landscape. Diachronically, SRIKANDI'S development reflects a strategic shift from fragmented, standalone applications towards a unified, interoperable platform, as mandated by Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2018. This transition aims to streamline government processes, reduce redundancy, and enhance budget efficiency. Synchronically, SRIKANDI is evaluated as a digital platform …

One Object, Fluctuating Trajectories: Harnessing The Document Future Of Premodern Manuscripts, L.P. Coladangelo, Rose A. Mccandless

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Using copy theory as a framework to explore document surrogacy and simulation, this paper discusses premodern manuscripts as a case study for understanding relevant aspects of temporality and materiality in the experience of documents to speculate on the nature of immersive documents of the future. This speculation is powered on mapping and synthesizing the paths of interconnected temporal and material change manuscripts have followed by examining multiple “versions” of these documents based on various contexts of use and access and technological innovations. As hand copied documents of similar texts, premodern manuscripts are posited as both copies and originals depending on …

Utilizing Metadata From Heterogeneous Sources Within The Framework Of The Jvmg And Golem Projects To Identify Patterns In Anime-Based Fandoms On Ao3, Zoltan Kacsuk, Xiaoyan Yang, Saskia Dreßler, Federico Pianzola, Martin Roth

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper offers an overview of the first step in the data alignment and joint research efforts between the Japanese Visual Media Graph (JVMG) and the Graphs and Ontologies for Literary Evolution Models (GOLEM) projects. Focusing on fully or in-part anime based fandoms in the Archive of Our Own (AO3) data in the GOLEM knowledge graph we connected 534 fandoms with 1,734 anime works from the JVMG knowledge graph. The fanfiction publication numbers and dates for these fandoms were then analyzed in conjunction with the various metadata available on the corresponding anime works, such as release date, genre, content rating …

Document Productivity Cycle (Study Case Of Samudera Raksa Ship Museum), Ciwuk Musiana Yudhawasthi, Lydia Christiani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The study aims to discuss document productivity in the case of the Samudera Raksa Ship Museum. To answer this, the researchers made a productivity document study based on (1) Blasius Sudarsono's axiom, which states that "In the beginning, it was the human will to express what he thought and/or felt;" (2) Sudarsono's thoughts regarding documents as processes and products; (3) Lund’s concept of document creation; (4) Sabine Roux's thoughts on the rhizome concept in the document productivity process; and (5) the concept of museum communication by Yudhawasthi. Based on these theoretical frameworks, an analysis of the document productivity in the …

Documentation As Meta-Level Activity, Sascha Donner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Today we live in an information society, which is to a large extent also a document society (Buckland, 2018). In our daily lives, we must cope with an ever-growing flood of different documents, keep track of them, pick out relevant content, and produce documents in suitable forms. In addition, tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as ChatGPT[1], are making their way into the document world, challenging us with new affordances, and questions about how to deal with them and what changes this will bring.

Existing documentation models such as the model of complementarity (N. W. Lund, …

Recursive Documentary Design And An Awareness Of The Mechanism, Wayne Defremery

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This essay documents 3D-printed sculptures displayed at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Document Academy. To raise awareness about the cultural significance of the mechanisms that produce digital substance, the sculptures lend material heft to some of the abstractions that help to constitute textual representations of a sixteenth-century Korean lyric and modern Korean poems from the early twentieth century in digital environments. The essay also describes previous exhibitions of the sculptures that utilized augmented reality technologies. By documenting the ways augmented reality technologies represented 3D-printed sculpture that documents digital texts that represent printed documents and manuscripts, the essay suggests how …

Artificial Intelligence And The Preservation Of Historic Documents, Gaute Barlindhaug

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In recent decades, digitization has been presented as an important strategy both for the preservation of historic documents and for giving increased access for researchers to such materials. In the Norwegian context, this has not only implied the digitization of printed matter but also the digitization of audiovisual material like photography and analog tape recordings. From a technical perspective, there are of cause difficulties in digitizing such a variety of material when considering the diversity of media formats dating back to the nineteenth century. However, from the archival community criticism has been raised not only about the quality of the …

Document Dimensions Of Imuseum’S Instagram Posts, Ciwuk Musiana Yudhawasthi, Lydia Christiani, Widya Damayanti

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Social media is source of information during a pandemic. Using virtual ethnography methods and cyber media analysis, this article tries to trace digital cultural artifacts on IMERI iMuseum’s Instagram posts. Digital cultural artifacts that emerged were then analyzed using Buckland's concept of physical, mental and social dimensions of document. The results of the analysis show that cultural artifacts in iMuseum’s IG posts have document dimensions, seen from the physical, mental and social aspects and even a combination of dimensions. In the context of infodemic, through its social media, iMuseum seeks to carry out its role in disseminating information on health, …

More Than Meets The Eye: Proximity To Crises Through Presidential Photographs, Laurie J. Bonnici, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

We look at three photographs, each made at a time of profound crisis, in order to tease out notions of proximity. Vision gives us proximity at a distance. Photographs may give us a similar proximity. Human vision depends on experience built up from individual events of seeing. Can a photograph made in a fraction of a second by someone else at some other time and some other place provide anything more than data about some surfaces in front of the lens? Can words and other images from the photographers enhance the viewer’s proximity to the original? Can we make use …

Humans Of Ua: A University Of Akron Unclass 2020, Kaylie Yaceczko

Student Projects from the Archives

No abstract provided.

Taking A Different Look At The University Of Akron: Researching In The Archives, Katelynn Olsen

Student Projects from the Archives

No abstract provided.

Documentary Ghosts, Tim Gorichanaz

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper explores how they documents provide evidence, particularly in anomalous cases, where the evidence is specious. I suggest that it is fruitful to consider such cases with the metaphor of ghosts, as ghosts suggest a breakdown in our everyday understandings of the link between life and death. I describe three types of ghosts and consequently three types of documentary ghosts. Documentary Ghost 1 is a document whose object no longer exists; Documentary Ghost 2 is a document that seems to evince one object, but upon scrutiny it evinces something else; and Documentary Ghost 3 is a document that seems …

Art Is Data Is Art, Nicole Orchosky

Student Projects from the Archives

The Digital Humanities field is rapidly introducing new and innovative ways in which we can analyze and explore large bodies of humanities material in order to make new discoveries and connections. This project serves as an introduction on how to use simple Digital Humanities tools to examine a dataset. In this project, data collected about the body of artwork exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show like medium, subject, or year of creation is analyzed using three different free-to-use tools. The data is then presented in a visual format that brings new questions and connections to light. The limitations and frustrations …

A Prized Memento Of The Civil Way: Joseph Abbott's "Lightning Brigade" Medal, James Brenner

Student Projects from the Archives

This silver medal commemorates Joseph N. Abbott's Civil War service with Wilder's Lightning Brigade, 1861-1865. The engraving on the reverse reads, "Jos. N. Abbott, Co. B, 98th Illinois. Dating to about 1887, these medals were features at post-war veterans' reunions.

Mcguffey's Second Eclectic Reader, Lisa Van Gaasbeek

Student Projects from the Archives

McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader

By: Lisa M. Van Gaasbeek

This article focuses on the life of William H. McGuffey and how he created his series of eclectic readers for children in school.

The Story Behind My Uncle's Copy Of Il Milione, Janos M. Jalics

Student Projects from the Archives

In 1983, a 1948 copy of Marco Polo’s Travels was given to my Uncle Laci by my Great-Aunt Kristi and Great-Uncle Paul. It was translated by William Marsden. The story of this book is surrounded by adventure.

Recovering Thirty-Five Years Of A Factory Worker's Life, Kristie Zachar

Student Projects from the Archives

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation's plant in Sharon, Pennsylvania operated from the 1920s till the 1980s and saw a number of significant events during that period. This article uses a belt buckle that was given to one company employee as a 35-year service award, and it explores the historical significance of the object by focusing on the major events its owner was involved in during those 35 years. It looks closer into the life of one Westinghouse employee while also exploring significant events that influenced the company itself as well as the small town of Sharon, Pennsylvania.

Hot Dog Vs. Christian Fundamentalism In 1920s America, Nicole Orchosky

Student Projects from the Archives

Hot Dog: the Regular Fellow’s Monthly was a satirical magazine published by the Merit Publishing Company in Cleveland, Ohio throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Editor Jack Dinsmore included crudely humorous short stories and poems, images of scantily clad women, and editorials and opinion pieces offering his own commentary on current events. In the case of the December 1921 issue, Dinsmore offers scathing criticism of religious Prohibition supporters, namely Billy Sunday and Reverend John Roach Straton. This paper examines how an opinionated independent publication representative of its anti-Prohibition readership reacted to the Temperance Movement and subsequent outspoken Fundamentalist Christian figureheads.

Paratext – A Useful Concept For The Analysis Of Digital Documents?, Roswitha Skare

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In his study, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation , the French literature scholar Gérard Genette introduces the concept of the “paratext” to the public. Genette explains the term paratext as that “what enables a text to become a book and to be offered as such to its readers and, more generally, to the public” (Genette 1997, 1).

Genette’s concept has since also been applied to other media, especially audiovisual forms, such as film and television. Film scholars are using the concept when analyzing the importance of opening scenes and credits in films , or the significance of different technologies in providing …

Documentary Provenance And Digitized Collections: Concepts And Problems, Mats Dahlström, Joacim Hansson

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Provenance research in digitized memory institution collections is mainly devoted to documenting and mapping the trajectories of the physical source documents across time, place and contexts, primarily by developing metadata standards and data models. The provenance of the digital reproduction and its relation to one or several physical source documents is however not being subjected to much inquiry. A possible explanation for this is the face-value approach with which we tend to regard digital reproductions. Looking more closely at such reproductions and their complex digitization process suggests a far from straightforward and linear provenance relation, and begs the question of …

Scholarly Communication And Documentary Fragmentations In The Public Space: A Functional Citation Study, Fidelia Ibekwe, Lucie Loubère

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper studies how academic content published in Open Edition.org, an online publication platform in the Social Sciences and Humanities is re-appropriated by members of the public. Our research is therefore concerned with the public appropriation of science and Open science. After extracting the contexts of citation of these content and mapping them, we propose a typology of citation functions as well as of citers (their origins and types). Our preliminary results indicated that academic literature is repurposed and cited by members of the public mainly as scientific warrant (support for their argumentation). We also found that academic content is …

When Might Human Indexing Be Strongly Justified, Julian Warner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The paper is concerned with the justification for human indexing, in the modern era. We understand human indexing in a classic sense, of human description of information objects in accord with a controlled vocabulary.

A justification for human indexing would be, when it yields a value commensurate with its cost. A long historically established value for retrieval systems is selection power, or an enhanced capacity for informed choice for the searcher.

The question of the justification for human indexing is made analytically tractable by reversing the historical order of development. We ask, what forms of selection power are not readily …

On The Reactionary Treatment Of American Radicals By J. Edgar Hoover's Fbi, Sonia Potter

Student Projects from the Archives

African Americans, who had been systematically oppressed from the very beginning of their time in the United States, were calling more and more loudly for freedom and equality in the mid-twentieth century. Compounded with the fear and hatred of communism was also a fear of black Americans ascending to the same societal plane as white Americans, especially among individuals and groups of people who held racist views and had reservations about equality between blacks and whites.

One of the groups of people who seemed to have reservations about such a concept was the United States’ own Federal Bureau of Investigation …

Tuberculosis Patient Number 296 In The Daniel Harris Papers, Margaret Stehura, Cristopher Shell, Zachary Piette

Student Projects from the Archives

This essay examines Susan Sontag's _Illness as Metaphor_ alongside Daniel Harris's studies of those admitted for tuberculosis care at the Saranac Lake Sanitarium. While both Sontag’s perceptions and Patient 296’s tubercular reality may not be 100% aligned with one another (i.e., lived experience of someone with tuberculosis versus historical perceptions of the disease itself), by combining both aspects we are able to develop a fairly crystalline image of what it was like to actually have tuberculosis at this point in time. In doing so, it becomes clear that while some perceptions of tuberculosis may have been fairly misguided, it was …

“Failure Of Will”?: Tb Patient Narratives And Susan Sontag’S Illness As Metaphor, Bryon Dickon, Ashley Gonzalez

Student Projects from the Archives

Susan Sontag outlines in Illness as Metaphor the romantic narratives of what she called a “tubercular personality.” Sontag writes the following in doing so, describing one key aspect of romantic tuberculosis: “TB was understood, like insanity, to a kind of one-sidedness; a failure of will or an overintensity…the tubercular was considered to be someone quintessentially vulnerable, and full of self-destructive whims” (63-64). “A failure of will” and “quintessential vulnerability” form a set of characteristics through which a narrative of the “tubercular personality” is constructed. The tubercular narrative Sontag describes is based on a wide variety of stereotypes. This creates a …