Alison Harvey
(she/her)
Archivist, Special Collections and Archives
Overview
Based in Special Collections and Archives, I support research and teaching with Cardiff University's archives and digital collections.
I'm passionate about using heritage collections to support emerging areas of digital scholarship, including digital archives, exhibitions and guided viewing, data mining, text analysis, data visualisation, crowdsourcing, computer vision, and IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework).
Research
Supporting research with digital archives at Cardiff University and beyond
In 2022-23, I undertook a research project funded by the AHRC-RLUK Professional Practice Fellowship Scheme for research and academic libraries. Minimal Digital introduces IIIF principles, and provides overviews and tutorials for free digital curation and exhibition tools, including Storiiies, Exhibit, Padlet, Google Sites, CollectionBuilder, and Wax.
Publications
- Minimal Digital (Summer 2023)
- Digital collections at Cardiff University. Glamorgan (Spring 2022)
- Why edit Wikipedia? Glamorgan (Spring 2022)
- Learning to enhance and share collections with IIIF. Guest post for IIIF-C Staff. Medium (16 Feb 2021)
- From self-isolation to self-development: technical training review. ARC Magazine: Archives and Technology (29 Aug 2020)
- Poetry in the making: teaching with literary manuscripts. ARC Magazine: Literary Manuscripts (29 Apr 2020)
- Offscript at the Edward Thomas archive. Wales Arts Review (6 Apr 2017)
- Edward Thomas: The Journey to War. BBC Radio Wales (31 Mar 2017)
Biography
Archivist, Cardiff University (2010-present)
- Project managing the implementation of Alma Digital and its integration with existing software infrastructure
- Rationalising legacy digital content and metadata, and defining ingest workflows with Python
- Supporting research, and delivering teaching related to digital archives and visual culture
- Supervising and training interns and volunteers
- Managing and cataloguing archives
- Curating physical and digital exhibitions
- Creating and maintaining public-facing online content
Honours and awards
- AHRC/RLUK Professional Practice Fellowship Scheme, 2022-23
- Cardiff University Outstanding Contribution Award Scheme, 2022
- Cardiff University Outstanding Contribution Award Scheme, 2019
- Cardiff University Sustained Outstanding Contribution Award Scheme, 2017
- Cardiff University Outstanding Contribution Award Scheme, 2014
Speaking engagements
- Exploring the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) in Cultural Heritage. Research Libraries UK Digital Shift Forum (Jan 2024)
- Digitally unlocking a world of illustration: the International Image Interoperability Framework. Illustration Studies: New Approaches, New Directions Conference (Apr 2023)
- Minimal computing for digital humanities. Research Libraries UK 2023 Conference (Mar 2023)
- Supporting research with digital archives at Cardiff University and beyond. IIIF Winter Conference 2022 (Dec 2022)
- Alma Digital and the magic of IIIF. International Group of Ex Libris Users Conference 2022 (Sep 2022)
- Alma Digital and the magic of IIIF. Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum Colloquium 2022 (Jun 2022)
- No money, no problem: supporting research and teaching with the Internet Archive presentation and accompanying tutorial: Batch uploading to the Internet Archive using Python (and a Raspberry Pi). DCDC21 Conference: Crisis as a catalyst for changing practices (Jul 2021)
- Supporting research with the Internet Archive. History UK / National Archives Conference (Apr 2021)
Committees and reviewing
Advisory Board and Committee membership
- Chair. Cardiff University / Amgueddfa Cymru | Museum Wales Strategic Partnership Theme Lead for Digital Cultures and Adaptive Technologies (2023-)
- Cardiff University Representative. RLUK Digital Scholarship Network (2023-)
- Member. Cardiff University AHRC Expert Advisory Group (2023-)
- Advisory Board. Finding a place: advancing digital methods to unlock the use of digitized book illustrations in cultural institutions. NEH/AHRC New Directions for Digital Scholarship in Cultural Institutions (2022-25)
- Wales Representative. Archives Hub Steering Committee (2021-)
Contact Details
Specialisms
- Digital humanities
- Archival, repository and related studies
- Book history
- Digital curation and preservation
- Digital history