I am a Digital Humanities researcher, currently working at National Museums Scotland as a postdoc on the AHRC-funded Tools of Knowledge project. This work involves remodelling a legacy Microsoft Access database of scientific instrument makers to an events-based Linked Open Data model, developing an ontology of scientific instrument types for making connections to collections data, and more detailed modelling to produce case studies for particular objects and assemblages, based around the idea of object itineraries. My research interests include metadata modelling and Linked Open Data applied in an ancient, historical, or cultural heritage context, as well as broader Digital Humanities issues, such as openness, research infrastructures, usability, and sustainability.
I recently (August 2022) completed my PhD at the Open University, which investigated Linked Data usability for Ancient World research. Linked Data technologies are used to make connections between digital objects based on common features, by describing what they are and their relationships with each other in a way that can be understood by a computer. It can connect objects within and across digital collections, allowing researchers to search multiple sources at once to find e.g. all objects of a particular type, from a particular place or time, or that were created by the same person. Additionally, it can highlight relationships between objects that would not have been apparent otherwise. I used a survey and interviews to explore researchers’ experiences of using and producing digital tools and resources, including those involving Linked Data, with my findings forming the basis of a series of recommendations to optimise usability for future developments in this area.