Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)
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The Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) is a national service funded by JISC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to aid the creation, use and preservation of digital collections in the arts and humanities.
The AHDS is organised via a central Executive at King's College London and subject centres in five separate subject areas (archaeology, history, literature, languages and linguistics, the performing arts and the visual arts). It collects, preserves and disseminates high-quality digital resources, often developed by those working with JISC or AHRC funding, advising on the means of their creation and encouraging their re-use in teaching and research.
What we can do for you
Holdings
The digital resources available through the five service providers of the AHDS come in a variety of different formats and types. Users can access electronic texts; digital images; film and audio clips; linguistic corpora; and archaeological, historical and other datasets and collections.
All resources are free of charge and can be applied to a variety of teaching and research situations. See more information on the AHDS collections.
Advisory services
The AHDS provides advice to those involved in digitisation projects, whether it be in planning, creating, depositing or preserving a digital resource. This information is available through a number of channels, including workshops, the AHDS website, a mailing list and printed publications. Interested parties can also contact the AHDS directly in order to get responses to particular queries.
Preservation services
As part of its remit to collect and retain digital resources in the arts and humanities, the AHDS has developed a sophisticated infrastructure for preserving these resources. This allows for the ingest of the wide variety of research material developed in the arts and humanities to be ingested and then made available in the long term. See more information on this service and AHDS research and development in the area is available at http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation.
Publications
The AHDS offers a range of publications in both printed and electronic formats.
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Guides to good practice provides practical instruction in applying recognised standards and good practice for digitisation projects
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Case studies provide examples of projects employing these standards and practices
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Areas of collection suitable for FE
The various digital resources made available by the AHDS will be of interest to both lecturers and students in archaeology and cultural, heritage, art and design, drama, film and television, English, music, history, and tourism and travel.