Julien A. Raemy

Information Specialist and Digital Humanities Practitioner. Data Scientist at the Swiss Federal Archives. Active member of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) and Linked Art.

Summary (tl;dr)

Julien Antoine Raemy (he/him) currently works as a Data Scientist at the Swiss Federal Archives. He holds a PhD in Digital Humanities from the University of Basel, successfully defended his thesis in November 2024, with a dissertation titled Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage: Perspectives on Community Practices and Semantic Interoperability. He also holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Information Science from the HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland.

He has worked extensively in academia and in or for the cultural heritage domain, including as a Photo Archivist for the Montreux Jazz Digital Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2015–2017), as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Haute école de gestion de Genève (2017–2021), and as an Interoperability Specialist at DaSCH, Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities (2021–2024).

He is an active member of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) and Linked Art communities. He has also been involved in the Archival Resource Key (ARK) Alliance.

Julien is particularly interested in ways of improving the digital preservation, dissemination and interoperability of cultural heritage objects and their associated metadata through the application of standards that adhere to the Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD) design principles.

Curriculum vitae

Experience :office:

Since April 2024: Data Scientist at the Swiss Federal Archives

Since February 2021: Lecturer (self-employed/contract)

  • At the HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Haute école de gestion de Genève, Bachelor Information Science
    • Teaching the Introduction to Open Data course: 2023-2024 (16h)
    • Assessing bachelor’s theses in an expert capacity: 2021-2022 (1x), 2022-2023 (1x), 2023-2024 (1)
  • At the University of Zurich / Zurich Central Library, CAS Data Management and Information Technologies (DMIT)
    • Teaching the IIIF course: 2021 (4h), 2022 (8h), 2023 (8h), 2024 (8h)
    • Monitoring and assessing students’ project work and reports
  • At the University of Zurich / Zurich Central Library, MAS Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft (BIW)
    • Teaching the IIIF course: 2021-2023 (4h), 2023-2025 (4h)
    • Monitoring and assessing students’ project work and reports

February 2021 - October 2024: Interoperability Specialist at the DaSCH – Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities

  • Advising on the use of standards and tools
  • Developing Python scripts to enable the automatic and standardised generation of IIIF Manifests for all media files in the DaSCH Service Platform
  • Representing DaSCH within the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), notably through the Technical Review Committee (TRC)
  • Co-organising academic conferences
  • Co-supervising an intern on the subject of IIIF and 3D
  • Contributing to the IIIF 3D Technical Specification Group

February 2021 - March 2024: Assistant and PhD Candidate in Digital Humanities at the University of Basel, Digital Humanities Lab

  • PhD undertaken within the Sinergia project titled “Partizipative Wissenspraktiken in analogen und digitalen Bildarchiven / Participatory Knowledge Practices in Analogue and Digital Image Archives” (PIA) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
  • Dissertation: “Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage: Perspectives on Community Practices and Semantic Interoperability” :link:

July 2020 - December 2020: Knowledge Graph Engineer / IIIF Systems Architect for the Swiss Art Research Infrastructure (SARI) at the University of Zurich

  • Developing an overarching strategy for the integration of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) within the Swiss Art Research Infrastructure (SARI)
  • Conceiving different IIIF implementation scenarios and assessing which IIIF APIs should be leveraged for the Bilder der Schweiz Online (BSO) project
  • Assessing the conformance of image formats and the optimal conversion recipes for their dissemination on the research platform and the BSO website
  • Building a IIIF Manifest template
  • Representing SARI on relevant IIIF committees and working groups

August 2017 - January 2021: Research and Teaching Assistant in Information Science at the HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Haute école de gestion de Genève (HEG-GE)

  • Coordinating the bilingual French-German curriculum of the BSc in Information Science
  • Teaching the course “Informations- und Dokumentationssysteme” and ensuring the hands-on exercises during the “User-centred design” and “Linked Open Data in Libraries” courses
  • Helping Professor René Schneider with his research projects, assignments, as well as the training sessions that he gives during further education programmes
    • Two-day continuing training courses on “Web Usability” at the CERN in 2017 and for members of the Handschriftenportal (HSP) project in 2019
    • Moderation of the “Rolle der Schweizerischen Nationalbibliothek (NB) in der digitalen Gesellschaft” (Role of the Swiss National Library (NL) in the digital society) workshop on 05.12.2018
    • User Friendly Online Services for Scientific Information (UFO) assignments with the Fachhochschule Graubünden (FHGR)
    • Conducting research, reporting and presentations, as well as developing models and approaches for assigning persistent identifiers as part of the “Identités de confiance pour les données de l’art et du design” (ICOPAD) project in partnership with the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA), the Zentralbibliothek Zürich and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste
    • Coordinating the “Towards IIIF-Compliance Knowledge in Switzerland” (TICKS) project and the uptake of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) in Switzerland
    • Coordinating the “Infrastructure Nationale d’un Complément d’Identifiants Pérennes, Interopérables et Traçables” (INCIPIT) project aimed at developing ARKetype an Archival Resource Key (ARK) allocation service in Switzerland.

January 2015 - July 2017: Photo Archivist for the Montreux Jazz Digital Project at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Cultural Heritage & Innovation Center (previously MetaMedia Center)

  • Assessing the photography archives and digitizing pictures for the Montreux Jazz Digital Project
  • Checking the quality process and adding metadata to them on the Montreux Jazz Festival database
  • Conducting research and interviews in order to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the records and the added metadata.
  • Transferring data on our servers and on magnetic tapes (LTO) for long-term preservation
  • Conducting guided tours for artists, sponsors, and friends during the festival in Claude Nobs’ Chalet in Caux where the original audiovisual records are stored.
  • Defining long-term archiving strategies
  • Writing a report on Semantic Web technologies
  • Collating anecdotes for the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab II designed by the EPFL+ECAL Lab
  • Taking part in conferences and working group sessions such as iPRES, IIIF and Museomix

August 2016 - October 2016: University Intern at the University of Basel, Digital Humanities Lab

  • Doing a survey and writing a report about the criteria for standard digital video formats for long-term preservation (based on the recommendations from IASA, FADGI and Memoriav)
  • Conducting video transcoding tests with FFmpeg
  • Writing up a conference paper which demonstrate the benefits of elaborating a structure for digital video assets based on the IIIF concepts for the use in archival environments

Memberships :busts_in_silhouette:

Archival Resource Key (ARK) Alliance [:link:][ark]

formerly “ARKs in the Open (AITO)”

formerly “Bibliothèque Information Suisse” (BIS)

  • Since March 2014: Member
  • May 2018 - February 2021: Member
  • Since October 2010: Member
  • September 2013 - July 2016: Bar Manager
  • September 2010 - August 2013: Bartender
  • Since January 2008: Member

Education :school:

  • 2021-2024: PhD in Digital Humanities at the University of Basel
  • 2018-2020: Master of Science in Information Science at the HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Haute école de gestion de Genève
  • 2013-2017: Bachelor of Science in Library and Information Science at the HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Haute école de gestion de Genève
  • 2010-2011: Professional Business Baccalaureate (“Maturité professionnelle commerciale”) at the Ecole professionnelle artisanale et commerciale (EPAC)
  • 2005-2008: Federal Diploma of Vocational Education and Training - Bookseller (“Certificat fédéral de capacité de libraire”) at the Ecole professionnelle commerciale de Lausanne (EPCL)