Challenges in Implementing a Recommender System for Historical Research in the Humanities

TL;DR

This paper discusses the unique challenges of developing recommender systems for historical legal documents in the humanities, emphasizing item characteristics, stakeholder complexity, and scholar behavior to improve digital humanities research tools.

Contribution

It highlights specific challenges in implementing recommender systems for humanities archives, focusing on item uniqueness, multi-stakeholder environments, and user behavior.

Findings

Charters have unique characteristics affecting recommendations.

Multi-stakeholder environments complicate system design.

Scholars exhibit distinct information-seeking behaviors.

Abstract

This extended abstract describes the challenges in implementing recommender systems for digital archives in the humanities, focusing on Monasterium.net, a platform for historical legal documents. We discuss three key aspects: (i) the unique characteristics of so-called charters as items for recommendation, (ii) the complex multi-stakeholder environment, and (iii) the distinct information-seeking behavior of scholars in the humanities. By examining these factors, we aim to contribute to the development of more effective and tailored recommender systems for (digital) humanities research.