Medieval Sources, Digital Resources

Mark Merry

History Data Service

http://hds.essex.ac.uk

hds@essec.ac.uk

History as Product

"History may be thought of as either product or process. As a product, a piece of history consists of a representation of a past reality based upon the interpretation of a body of known facts. Such representations of past realities are always bounded: they treat a subject chosen by the historian which might be static (the situation at point x) or dynamic (how the situation changed between points x and y)."

Harvey and Press, Databases in Historical Research (1996)

Chapter 1

Sources

Historians work with information they do not control

• incomplete, poorly structured information of varying quality• sources intended for a purpose other than the historian’s• multiple sources not intended to be used in an integrated way

Nature of historical sources

• ambiguity: the meaning of material may be unclear or dependent on its context• repetition: data is often repeated in different guises• variation: the same item can be referred to using a variety of terms and spellings• variable structure: even apparently well organised sources often have margin notes and other ‘random’ additional data

Source → Resource

The ‘input channels’ of digitisation (keyboard, scanner etc.) are narrow, and can only capture a small proportion of the source’s information content

Digitising Medieval Sources

A digitised version of an historical source is a representation of the original source, not an exact replica:

• information may be left out• extra information may be included

A digitised version of an historical source should:

• try to reflect the source accurately and completely • improve the usability of the source• integrate the source with other data (additional sources, coding etc.)

•NB: these are conflicting aims!

Source → Information

Simplify the source

• Exclude unwanted information• Select information directly from the source or define a set of summarised information based on the source• Break information content into discrete elements of information• Describe the characteristics of each information element• Describe how information elements relate to each other

Source → Information

FolioLeader

Division title

Subsection

Format change

Contraction

Folio condition

Scribal hand

Language

Software and Hardware

• Technical decisions are often the least important• Remember that there is nearly always more than one way of doing something with a computer• Define what you need to do, then seek technical advice• Seek a second opinion!

• Technical support staff will often suggest what is most convenient for them, not necessarily you• Commercial companies obviously have their own motives

• Look for software that supports common standards• Avoid little-used software with proprietary features• Recognise that hardware may need to be replaced in 2 or 3 years

Some Hints

The smallest unit of data should match the smallest unit of analysis

• if you want to analyse people by surname then collect information on first and last names separately, not together

Don’t mix data types• separate numbers and words• identify numbers being used as words (addresses)

Document everything you do, either in the database or with the database

•data entry, data standardisation and coding, limits of data, issues of plausibility/probability, coping with uncertainty etc•keep information that tracks the origin and history of the database

Add information, don’t delete information

Have a backup procedure!