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Article
Publication date: 22 February 2021

Bai Yun, Zhao Yue and Zhou Yaolin

This study aims to identify the prominent topics, the distribution and association characteristics of topics and the topic evolutionary trends of Documentary Heritage Preservation…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to identify the prominent topics, the distribution and association characteristics of topics and the topic evolutionary trends of Documentary Heritage Preservation and Conservation (DHPAC) research in China.

Design/methodology/approach

Keywords of relevant papers in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were extracted as the data source in this study. First, frequency and co-occurrence of keywords of the selected papers were obtained by using SATI. Second, co-word network indicators were calculated with the Pajek software. Then, VOSviewer was applied to optimize the visualization of the sub-communities. Finally, a topics evolution map of this research field was implemented by CorTexT.

Findings

The research topics of DHPAC research in China were unbalanced but distinct. Topics of DHPAC research in China possessed inconspicuous orientation and consistency. The core topics had less influence on the overall network. A research system had formed with archival conservation and ancient books conservation as the core research directions. Research in this field had formed four continuous evolutionary paths about ancient books conservation, salvage conservation, archival conservation and archives conservation technology science with topics fusion and differentiation coexisting. Attentions on “ancient books conservation”, “paper relics conservation”, “electronic record”, “digitization”, “minority”, “documents in the republic of China” had increased during the past two decades and new hot topics of DHPAC research kept appearing in China.

Originality/value

This study synthesized and analyzed the research results of DHPAC research in China from a more comprehensive perspective and revealed the topic structure and longitudinal evolution process intuitively with co-word analysis and social network analysis, which can assist researchers to improve research systematization, discover new research directions and seek cooperative research path.

Article
Publication date: 10 June 2014

Ping Bao and Suoling Zhu

The purpose of this paper is to present a system for recognition of location names in ancient books written in languages, such as Chinese, in which proper names are not signaled…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a system for recognition of location names in ancient books written in languages, such as Chinese, in which proper names are not signaled by an initial capital letter.

Design/methodology/approach

Rule-based and statistical methods were combined to develop a set of rules for identification of product-related location names in the local chronicles of Guangdong. A name recognition system, with functions of document management, information extraction and storage, rule management, location name recognition, and inquiry and statistics, was developed using Microsoft's .NET framework, SQL Server 2005, ADO.NET and XML. The system was evaluated with precision ratio, recall ratio and the comprehensive index, F.

Findings

The system was quite successful at recognizing product-related location names (F was 71.8 percent), demonstrating the potential for application of automatic named entity recognition techniques in digital collation of ancient books such as local chronicles.

Research limitations/implications

Results suffered from limitations in initial digitization of the text. Statistical methods, such as the hidden Markov model, should be combined with an extended set of recognition rules to improve recognition scores and system efficiency.

Practical implications

Electronic access to local chronicles by location name saves time for chorographers and provides researchers with new opportunities.

Social implications

Named entity recognition brings previously isolated ancient documents together in a knowledge base of scholarly and cultural value.

Originality/value

Automatic name recognition can be implemented in information extraction from ancient books in languages other than English. The system described here can also be adapted to modern texts and other named entities.

Article
Publication date: 21 September 2015

Suoling Zhu and Ping Bao

The purpose of this paper is to apply Geographic Information System (GIS) in the development and utilization of Chinese ancient local chronicles to achieve the mining and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply Geographic Information System (GIS) in the development and utilization of Chinese ancient local chronicles to achieve the mining and visualization of historical data about products distribution and dispersal in Products in Local Chronicles of Guangdong.

Design/methodology/approach

Using 1,756 records of product-related location names in Products in Local Chronicles of Guangdong of the Qing dynasty, which are recognized by a name recognition system, as attribute data; taking the spatial data of Chinese administrative geography of the Qing dynasty in 1820 and the Historical Atlas of China as spatial data; connect the attribute data with relevant spatial data based on the table connection function of Arcmap in Arcgis 8.3 to implement the data management, cartography and analysis.

Findings

The application of GIS in the development and utilization of ancient local chronicles was quite successful. With some thematic maps, knowledge about products distribution and dispersal in ancient books was vividly displayed so as to facilitate relevant researches.

Research limitations/implications

Only product-related location names inside China were analyzed, not other named entities in local chronicles; and only static visual display was achieved, not dynamic visual display. Historical maps of the world can be used to carry out the visualization of the products distribution and dispersal in the world, and even the visualization of other knowledge, such as poetries and songs scattered over many places in China. The process of products dispersal and the distribution of poetries and songs can be dynamically and visually displayed by pictures, audios, videos, multimedia, etc.

Practical implications

By using GIS in the development and utilization of Chinese ancient local chronicles, this paper explores a new way for the collation of ancient books and open up a new area for the research of digital humanities.

Originality/value

This is the first try about the application of GIS in the development and utilization of ancient local chronicles, and also the same of digital humanities research in the field of agricultural history.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 33 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2010

Mingjie Li and Jinfang Niu

This paper aims to provide a theoretical guide for preserving ancient books in China.

2191

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a theoretical guide for preserving ancient books in China.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews the history of the damage and preservation of ancient books in China, and analyzes the value attributes of ancient books: archaeological value, historical value and artistic value.

Findings

The paper proposes a preservation framework for Chinese ancient books. This framework is composed of three layers. The foundation layer is to preserve the physical entity of ancient books so that the archaeological values are preserved. The middle layer is to preserve the intellectual content of ancient books so that the values for historical research are preserved. The top layer is mainly about preserving the productions process of the artistic format of ancient books, so that not only the static artistic formats are preserved, the techniques and procedures to produce the artistic format are preserved as well.

Originality/value

The paper presents a framework that connects the value attributes of ancient books and the strategies to preserve those values, systematizes them and presents them as a whole. The framework can be used to justify government policies and help identify pitfalls in the preservation strategies for ancient books.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 66 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 May 2023

Yuheng Wang and Junyuan Chen

This study seeks to understand how accountant stereotypes have been constructed and reconstructed at the macro-national and the structural level in Chinese society.

1517

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to understand how accountant stereotypes have been constructed and reconstructed at the macro-national and the structural level in Chinese society.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative investigation into China's social construction of accountant stereotypes employs Becker's (1963) labelling theory. Viewing stereotyping as a socially constructed practice, this study draws on a post-positivistic, reflexive epistemology in conducting 28 semi-structured interviews with accountants and related actors.

Findings

Chinese accountant stereotypes are constructed and reconstructed according to the rules created and enforced in different cultural-political periods. The accountant stereotypes constructed during the ancient Confucian period (500 BC – 1948) were replaced during 1949 and 2012 when the political focus shifted towards propagating socialism and later promoting economic growth. They also show how Confucian stereotypes of accountants resurfaced in 2013 but were reconstructed by the central government's cultural confidence policy of propagating Confucianism.

Originality/value

Empirically, prior literature has focused on what the accountant stereotype is and how accountants respond to such stereotypes, but it has neglected the ways in which these accountant stereotypes are politically and culturally constructed, diffused and legitimated. This paper fills in the gap by understanding the social practice of accountant stereotyping in a previously unexplored political-cultural context, namely Chinese society. In theoretical terms, by offering the first use of Becker's (1963) labelling theory in the accounting literature, it furthermore enhances our understanding of how accountants' identities and social standing are shaped by social rules.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 April 2012

Hur‐Li Lee

This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).

1020

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).

Design/methodology/approach

Originating from a theoretical stance that situates knowledge organization in its social context, the study applies a multifaceted framework pertaining to five categories of textual data: the Seven Epitomes; biographical information about the classificationist Liu Xin; and the relevant intellectual, political, and technological history.

Findings

The study discovers seven principles contributing to the epistemic foundation of the catalogue's classification: the Han imperial library collection imposed as the literary warrant; government functions considered for structuring texts; classicist morality determining the main classificatory structure; knowledge perceived and organized as a unity; objects, rather than subjects, of concern affecting categories at the main class level; correlative thinking connecting all text categories to a supreme knowledge embodied by the Six Classics; and classicist moral values resulting in both vertical and horizontal hierarchies among categories as well as texts.

Research limitations/implications

A major limitation of the study is its focus on the main classes, with limited attention to subclasses. Future research can extend the analysis to examine subclasses of the same scheme. Findings from these studies may lead to a comparison between the epistemic approach in the target classification and the analytic one common in today's bibliographic classification.

Originality/value

The study is the first to examine in depth the epistemic foundation of traditional Chinese bibliographic classification, anchoring the classification in its appropriate social and historical context.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 68 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1996

Traianos Gagos

The University of Michigan owns one of the largest collections of ancient papyri. In 1991 a project was initiated to explore image capture of papyri in the Michigan collection…

Abstract

The University of Michigan owns one of the largest collections of ancient papyri. In 1991 a project was initiated to explore image capture of papyri in the Michigan collection with the use of electronic media (scanners), and to create a detailed online catalog with information relevant for all those involved in the study and research of the ancient Mediterranean world. In the summer of 1994, the Michigan papyrus collection underwent an extensive period of testing alternative media for image capture, as well as better, faster, and more efficient hardware and software. The collection created its own home page on the World Wide Web and made available sample images as a means of soliciting comments from the experts in the field of papyrology. The papyrus collection at Duke University has also launched a project similar to that envisioned by Michigan in 1991; and that project is now approaching completion. Further developments in the past two years have brought together the five largest papyrus collections in the United States to form a consortium known as the Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS), which operates under the guidance of the American Society of Papyrologists (ASP).

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Article
Publication date: 25 March 2020

Jihong Liang, Hao Wang and Xiaojing Li

The purpose of this paper is to explore the task design and assignment of full-text generation on mass Chinese historical archives (CHAs) by crowdsourcing, with special attention…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the task design and assignment of full-text generation on mass Chinese historical archives (CHAs) by crowdsourcing, with special attention paid to how to best divide full-text generation tasks into smaller ones assigned to crowdsourced volunteers and to improve the digitization of mass CHAs and the data-oriented processing of the digital humanities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper starts from the complexities of character recognition of mass CHAs, takes Sheng Xuanhuai archives crowdsourcing project of Shanghai Library as a case study, and makes use of the theories of archival science, including diplomatics of Chinese archival documents, and the historical approach of Chinese archival traditions as the theoretical basis and analysis methods. The results are generated through the comprehensive research.

Findings

This paper points out that volunteer tasks of full-text generation include transcription, punctuation, proofreading, metadata description, segmentation, and attribute annotation in digital humanities and provides a metadata element set for volunteers to use in creating or revising metadata descriptions and also provides an attribute tag set. The two sets can be used across the humanities to construct overall observations about texts and the archives of which they are a part. Along these lines, this paper presents significant insights for application in outlining the principles, methods, activities, and procedures of crowdsourced full-text generation for mass CHAs.

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore and identify the effective design and allocation of tasks for crowdsourced volunteers completing full-text generation on CHAs in digital humanities.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 72 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1913

IN an address delivered recently before the members of the Library Assistants' Association, Mr. R. T. L. Parr, a Local Government Auditor, revived the suggestion that Public…

Abstract

IN an address delivered recently before the members of the Library Assistants' Association, Mr. R. T. L. Parr, a Local Government Auditor, revived the suggestion that Public Libraries should be merged in the Education Authority. At first sight the suggestion seems reasonable. Public Libraries are a part and an important part, of the educational machinery of the country; a fact that the public are slow to acknowledge, if one can judge from the meagreness of the funds placed at the disposal of library authorities. Past efforts to increase generally the limited library rate of one penny in the pound have failed signally, while the unlimited general education rate has been rising steadily, without any great protests being made by rate‐payers. Why not, then, adopt Mr. Parr's suggestion, and drop all efforts to promote the new Libraries Bill, and instead favour an Education Bill, in which the necessary reforms for public libraries could be inserted? If this could be done without public libraries being placed under the control of the Board of Education, well and good, but, if not, it is advisable to pause and consider. For many years librarians have been endeavouring to organize their profession, and there is a great danger in the individuality of librarianship being swallowed up in general education. The work of the librarian is quite distinct from that of the teacher, and unless the librarian preserves his individuality he is lost. If public libraries are ever placed under the control of the Government, librarians would be well advised to see that they are specially administered on a professional basis, and not run by educationalists to whom the technique of librarianship is a thing unknown. An example of an attempt to combine librarianship with education is dealt with in the succeeding note. Apart from the idea of placing public libraries under the control of the Board of Education, a state of affairs that we do not recommend, librarians would do well to adopt Mr. Parr's hints, and talk more of the educational value of libraries, for it is in this direction that most influence can be brought to bear upon public thought.

Details

New Library World, vol. 16 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1905

The Pagination of Books is important, as the chief guide to their completeness and order. Early books were not paged, and it is usual to collate them by means of watermarks…

Abstract

The Pagination of Books is important, as the chief guide to their completeness and order. Early books were not paged, and it is usual to collate them by means of watermarks, catchwords, signatures and other features in order to ascertain their perfection or imperfection.

Details

New Library World, vol. 8 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

1 – 10 of 107