What is HUMMA?

HUMMA is a digital platform for humanities and arts. Its development began in 2020, and it continues to evolve, taking into account the interests and needs of HUMMA developers, researchers, and collaborating partners.

The mission of HUMMA is to collect, popularize, and make accessible various types of information related to Latvia’s and Latvian diaspora cultural expressions and processes, as well as research and general knowledge in the field of humanities and arts.

HUMMA serves as a digital platform for researchers, students, and other interested individuals in the field of humanities and arts, providing structured information on various cultural and art-related topics.

The goal of HUMMA is to create preconditions for conducting extensive and large-scale research in a vast dataset. 

HUMMA not only facilitates data storage but also provides data representation, selection, publicly available data downloads, and data analysis tools for research projects.

Based on the HUMMA platform, associated digital resources and specialized tools for information processing, analysis, and visualization are being developed.

Who participates in HUMMA?

HUMMA is developed and maintained by the Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art of the University of Latvia (LU LFMI). Certain modules of HUMMA are being developed in collaboration with other institutions.

In order to supplement research sources and information, LU LFMI collaborates with the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia, Liepāja University, Rēzekne Technical University, and other partners.

The manuscript transcription module is being developed in collaboration with the Ethnology Research Center of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History.

What resources are associated with HUMMA?

Depending on the needs, HUMMA provides unified user registration and management, a unified data editor environment, a unified database for biographical data, published works, theater data, locations, and folklore archive collections.

The following resources have been developed based on the HUMMA platform, using APIs and other solutions:

What collaboration opportunities are available?

The Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art at the University of Latvia is open to collaboration with research and cultural heritage institutions, non-governmental organizations, and others, in implementing joint projects in digital humanities and digital cultural heritage in Latvia and beyond. Interested parties are invited to contact humma@lulfmi.lv.

Services offered

  1. LU LFMI ensures the continuous operation and development of HUMMA, data maintenance on LU LFMI servers, and backup preservation.
  2. LU LFMI is open to collaboration with state-funded research institutions, non-governmental organizations, private persons, and other interested parties in using HUMMA.
  3. Partners are only entitled to submit data for which they own intellectual property rights.
  4. Partners are not allowed to submit data for which intellectual property rights belong to third parties.
  5. Prior to data inclusion in HUMMA, the digital infrastructure manager and IT specialists at LU LFMI provide consultations to partners, adapting the imported data structure to the HUMMA data structure.
  6. Integration of depositable data into HUMMA is possible:
    • For integrating small volumes of data, the data can be prepared in .xlsx or .csv files.
    • For large volumes of data, an application programming interface (API) developed by the importer can be used.
  7. Upon receiving a dataset for integration into HUMMA, LU LFMI performs automated data verification, identifying objects that already exist in HUMMA.
  8. If objects are found to be identical in the HUMMA database and the imported dataset, the partner must perform manual data verification to determine whether the identified objects are indeed identical or not.
  9. Partners are responsible for structuring the data at the collection, repository, and unit levels. LU LFMI facilitates the creation of these structural elements in HUMMA.
  10. The preferred format for submitted unit files is .tiff for images and .wav for audio recordings.
  11. LU LFMI does not provide storage for large-volume (video) files. In cases where storage is needed, video files can be deposited on other video storage platforms (e.g., https://youtube.com), and a link to these resources can be included in HUMMA.
  12. When depositing sensitive data in HUMMA, partners are obliged to clearly distinguish between publicly accessible and restricted access datasets, for which HUMMA provides special tools and corresponding data access levels.
  13. In the case of depositing sensitive data, the partner must provide information to the LU LFMI digital infrastructure manager regarding registered users in the HUMMA database who require access to sensitive content, and specify the level of rights to be granted to each user.
  14. As per the partners' needs, HUMMA allows for the inclusion of sources and their metadata in multiple languages.
  15. In specific cases, such as depositing large volumes of data or the need for the development of new specialized tools or additions to the data structure or functionality of HUMMA, these expenses are covered by the partner, subject to agreement with LU LFMI. Additionally, LU LFMI, in agreement with the partner, may apply annual service fees for covering data server costs.