Mapping Saints

Sara Ellis-Nilsson, Linnaeus University

The following was originally published as a thread on Twitter @MappingSaints (Dec. 18, 2020). It has been edited for clarity.

The year [2020] is drawing to a close. Time to reflect! The project has taken clear steps forward: developed an input interface and a data model for our cultural heritage data, created a holy place register, implemented vocabularies and linked data where possible, and digitized analogue material, etc.

Our collaborators at the Swedish Historical Museum and the Swedish Heritage Board archives have finished their digitizing components. Some metadata enrichment is still ongoing. These collections are being integrated into our platform, but will also later be linked to via SOCH (Swedish Open Cultural Heritage).

We held a (digital!) workshop for our advisory board and managed to have a two-day project meeting [in the autumn] to discuss challenges and solutions. We welcomed two work-experience students to our team for a month. All invaluable collaborative efforts! Work is of course ongoing and there is still much to do, especially in terms of entering data and digitizing our analogue source texts.

We continue to collect and input data, and develop/fine-tune our model. More tools/solutions will be implemented. But we have come a long way in a year, and especially this one, despite the setbacks, for example, of not being able to travel to archives to collect material. Thank you to everyone! (And to digital meetings and tools!)

Next year [2021] will be even more exciting with ongoing work on our research resource, as well as new developments! First, we have received financing for a postdoc researcher from Finland who will be starting in the summer (more on that later in 2021). In addition, we will start collaborating with the newly funded Society of Swedish Literature in Finland project, Lived Religion in medieval Finland. There is a lot to look forward to with these collaborations!

Finally, we have of course presented the project numerous times in different fora.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us and shown an interest along the way! Keep yourselves posted on further developments via Twitter or here on our blog!