Arts and Humanities Data Service
Encyclopedia
The Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) was a United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 national service aiding the discovery, creation and preservation of digital resources in and for research, teaching and learning in the arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....

 and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

. It was established in 1996 and ceased operation in 2008 (although the website and related digital collections are still accessible).

Organised via a Managing Executive at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

 and five AHDS Centres, hosted by various UK Higher Education Institutions, the AHDS was funded until the end of March 2008 by the Joint Information Systems Committee
Joint Information Systems Committee
JISC is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body whose role is to support post-16 and higher education and research by providing leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration...

 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Established in April 2005 as successor to the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Arts and Humanities Research Council is a British Research Council and non-departmental public body that provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the...

 (AHRC).

However, in March 2007 the AHRC decided to cease funding for the AHDS beyond March 2008. As a result, the AHDS is now advising AHRC applicants to ensure their projects include a budget for the costs of preservation and sustainability (whether with the AHDS or another service).

Following the sad demise of AHDS, and the cessation of the Methods Network, the Centre for e-Research (CeRch) was established at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

 in 2008. The Centre's aims are to facilitate interdisciplinary, institutional, national and international collaboration.

The five subject-based AHDS Centres are:
  • AHDS Archaeology
    AHDS Archaeology
    AHDS Archaeology was one of the subject centres of the Arts and Humanities Data Service, which closed in March 2008, its role was to support digital research in the arts and humanities in the UK. AHDS Archaeology was hosted by the Archaeology Data Service at York University which continues to be...

     — University of York
    University of York
    The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...

  • AHDS History — University of Essex
    University of Essex
    The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

  • AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics
    AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics
    AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics is one of the subject centres of the Arts and Humanities Data Service, supporting digital research in the arts and humanities in the UK. AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics is hosted by the Oxford Text Archive at Oxford University....

     — Oxford University
  • AHDS Performing Arts
    AHDS Performing Arts
    AHDS Performing Arts was a part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service providing digital resources to the performing arts in the United Kingdom, and it was based in Glasgow. It supported research, learning and teaching in the areas of music, dance, theatre, radio, film, and television with high...

     — HATII
    Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute
    The Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute is a research and teaching institute at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. HATII undertakes innovative research in Information, Communication, and Technology in the cultural heritage and arts and humanities sectors...

     at the University of Glasgow
    University of Glasgow
    The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

  • AHDS Visual Arts — University for the Creative Arts (Farnham campus)


Specific areas of work that the Arts and Humanities Data Service covers include:
  • Digital Preservation — including a series of preservation handbooks detailing specific preservation issues with various digital file formats and information on its digital repository
  • Advice on digitization — including a series of case studies of existing digitization projects, information papers on specific issues in digitization, and longer Guides to Good Practice dealing with digitization topics in particular arts and humanities disciplines
  • Online collections created by universities and museums in the UK. These include:
    • An online catalogue with details of collections held within the archive
    • Designing Shakespeare — 40 years of Shakespearian
      William Shakespeare
      William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

       performance in London
      London
      London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

       and Stratford
      Stratford-upon-Avon
      Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...

    • The Stormont Papers - Parliamentary debates from Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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