Building History Databases: What’s Overkill?

Building History Databases: What’s Overkill?

Transcribed by: Sydney Thatcher

  • US and Mexican travelers 1846 across border
  • More quantitative information then expected
    • Ship manifests- which includes some data such as names of people and where they came from
  • Historians build these data bases for their own use to organize personal data or is it a way to also share the date with other researchers
  • Hard to maintain an open access database with such information
  • There was a guy in the New York times who made a Google sheet and anyone could see
    • Access and Filemaker you merely see a page at a time
    • Excel allows you to see 50 entries at the same time
    • Google sheets is also good so that multiple people can collaborate in one place
    • Quantifying Kissinger- an example of how excel can have visualizations
    • Mapping, visualizations, and social network analysis
  • Gephi- is a plug in for visualization
    • Geolayout- applies latitude and longitude
  • Gene Bower- Theory in DH, the relations you build into a database is how you can get the information out of your database
  • Hard to determine if simple data that can be held in an excel sheet can answer larger questions about the history of the time
  • Create multiple sheets for different information on excel
  • Heuristnetwork.org– possible in between source between an excel sheet and a database
    • Put in your info and how you want them to connect
  • Sequal- to be able to link multiple ships and people together
  • Openrefine.org – allows you to clean up messy data such as in an excel sheet
  • Carto.org
    • Robust mapping tool, which also has a timeline feature
  • Quantifying Kissinger is a good source for ideas of different kinds of visualizations that could be used with substantial excel skills
  • Node excel- add excel sheets and play with them
    • As Diana Cline has used
  • Paledio- is another source for visual constructions
  • Lincoln Mullin- statistical analysis and visual analysis
  • Introtodh2016.web.unc.ed/workshops/mapping
    • Has some examples of mapping sources
  • Neat line
    • Presentation, carto, D3- are more researching tools
  • D3- is a java script system but can allow you to put in research the way you want to see it
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Building History Databases: Whats Overkill?

Hosted by: David M- PHD at George Mason

-Looked at travelers between US and Mexico before 1856

-Organizing with Excel but thinks their could be some database versatility

-Trying to incorporate more visual stuff into his spread sheets, Excel is possible but very difficult to get it done, Google Sheets seems to be more user friendly for this

-Google sheets and election—> Washington Post directed people to Google Sheets to help track popular votes in past election

-Excel vs Google Sheets vs Sequel:

-Excel has proved its longevity and that no matter the improvements Google Sheets may make, Excel will still have its own usefulness.

-Excel is very helpful for social network analysis

-Google Sheets makes communicating information with other people fairly easy as it can be exported into a number of different of formats including Excel

-Sequel is good for large networks as it allows you to create separate tables for specific criteria

Multiple spreadsheets vs single spreadsheets for extensive databases:

-Multiple spreadsheets seems to be more helpful for different pieces of information about same topic instead of compiling all into single spreadsheet with numerous pages

-No one database is right for a specific topic: Many different databases can work for same topic, At the end of the day, it all depends on what exactly you are looking for, and user preference.

-Issues with historical databases: Spelling “conventions” took a long time to settle down so people may be referring to one person but are spelling it in many different ways so hard to keep accurate track of individuals

-One solution to this is the Open Refined Program (open refined.org): Source for when you have messy data to help clean up your data and clarify potential inaccuracies, spelling errors, etc

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Building History Databases: What’s Overkill?

Building History Databases: What’s Overkill?

  • Looking at travelers between Mexico and US pre 1846
    • Passenger manifests used after 1920, which is helpful
      • Organizing with excel with criteria
  • How do you organize this information?
    • Do you want to simply organize your data or do you want to share it?
      • Washington Post used Google Sheets to track popular votes
      • Access vs. Filemaker Pro vs. Excel
        • Google sheets makes it easier to communicate information with other people and it can be exported as an Excel sheet
        • Excel can also be used in social network analysis, GEPHI (plugin called Geo Layout) for visualization
  • How you construct the database dictates what kind of questions you can answer
      • Think about building in the right way to see patterns
      • Is simple data ok for answering these types of patterning questions?
        • Visualization tools can be super helpful
          • But perhaps use separate spread sheets?
  • What is a database?
    • Data dump?
    • Organized Data dump, which can be used to see relationships?
  • hueristnetwork.org
    • Very robust resource
    • Allows you to organize your date and export as CSV
    • Nonprofit open source program
  • Sequel
    • Allows you to create separate tables for specific criteria and combines them
  • OpenRefine
    • Cleans up your messy data, like spelling differences
  • Carto.org
    • Mapping tools, allows you to mess with CSS
    • Gives you a sense of changing patterns over time
  • Node Excel
    • Social Networking Analysis
    • Also, Palladio from Stanford for a less intense analysis
  • introtodh2016.web.unc.edu/workshops/mapping
    • For comparative mappings
  • Omeka and Neatline
    • More web-publishing than researching

 

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How to Connect Global Communities Online Around History

How to Connect Global Communities Online Around History

  • AJ- Purpose to build a platform/ find some way that they can learn from one another
    • Presently working on project about Frederick Douglas for Bicentennial events
    • Trying to figure out how social media platforms work together
    • How does this work behaviorally? Do you need a website before you have a social media presence, or can you build presence on social media
  • Patrick- there is a paradoxical trap worried about
    • All of these sites and groups would be in their own solis and starting another one runs the danger of creating more of the same trap
    • Looking at aggregation tools, making it all about the aggregation
    • To make sure the primary mission is doing the aggregating, not adding another site.
  • AJ- original idea is aggregation
    • Other people said they needed to have an event that this will take off
    • Place the reading in a place where passersby will stop and be able to take part in the meeting
    • Hopefully, the one event will interest others, ways to combine
    • Are there specific places for aggregation
  • Patrick
    • Zotero can be used for aggregation, maybe create a Zotero group where, when people see these events, they can share them.
  • Jen
    • The issue with the platform can depend on who you want to reach
  • David
    • Finding some way of you not having to do that labor or going out and finding these events
    • Building a site that has some time of form capability (possibly wordpress)
    • A place for “Do you have a or know of a Douglas event? Enter it here”
    • No Anthologize
    • Press Forward as a platform
    • WordPress is decent at RSS
  • Patrick
    • The utility of facebook/twitter is to make people aware of and get them to the aggregator site
  • Jen
    • Platform infrastructure, but also the reason why they should contribute.
      • A newsletter, other things to keep people informed and share the information.
  • AJ- what an RSS feed is? Is it similar to a google alert?
  • David
    • Need to manually set up the sites you want to monitor and what you want to know what its for
  • Patrick
    • Press Forward manages these feeds.
      • Helps you sort through the different information in the site.
    • RSS is a format for machine readable versions of a website
      • Sharing content that the machines can do in the background
  • Jen- what is the overall strategy
  • AJ
    • Success would be our project emerging as the place of aggregation for all things Douglas.
    • Create a group of Douglas interest
    • Hoping that is we can establish a beachhead so that when you do Douglas everything
  • Jen- is GW putting funds into it to help sustain?
  • AJ- no, but there is a possibility
    • There was a lot of interest, but the kind of “call me when you get something starting?”
  • Jen- do you want to bring people who know and want to connect Douglas more tightly or reach out to people who don’t know much about Douglas?
  • AJ- I wanted to do both
    • The more of the site has thing happening in different places, the larger the audience it can draw.
    • Way for Douglas interest people to see what other Douglas interest people are doing.
    • Black Lives Matter was a way of connecting people who combined and movement building through smart use of Twitter and other virtual connectors.
  • David
    • Lincoln Bicentennial Committee may be a more useful connection to Douglas bicentennial
  • AJ
    • Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was created by the president, had government funding and support.
    • Douglas is a reputation washer
      • People want to be involved, but may do other things in Douglas’s name.
      • Doesn’t want to go to the politicians yet
    • Thought “when I have an ask that big layers of government can do that we can’t do, then we will ask them”
    • If we are the education people, the park service, etc., the politician would come to us as the people to partner with.
    • Lincoln was defined by government sponsorship and private money, my vision is a democratic ones.
      • People have said that they will provide money if they can control the site.
      • Wanted to build something to be that people would provide funding, but be one of many.
  • Jen
    • This is a maintenance issue.
    • Reach out to teachers, state historical groups, just so they know about it, even if they can’t fund it.
    • It’s one thing to build it, but it’s another to have people coming back to it.
  • AJ
    • Has some networks with the Smithsonian, Parks Service, etc.
    • It’s the order of steps, don’t know how this will be maintained
    • This is the first phase
    • Had hoped that as we become the place where you can find the event information, then the people who fund them will support.
  • Patrick- the resources are more about people then the money
  • David
    • Thinking of this infrastructure, decide what you want to do best, the one goal
      • If the goal is to be the aggregator, focus on that, to connect the people doing these events and the people who want to participate.
  • AJ
    • That was the idea, names the “Douglas Bicentennial Community,” but hasn’t used the word “aggregation”
  • Patrick
    • Community says to me that it’s about connections and conversation
    • Aggregator say that you provide and combine the information
    • “What’s the one thing?” is super important because you can slip back in forth in what you want to do.  
    • The aggregation can be the first demonstration of usefulness, then maybe build on around the edges can bring in the communication.
  • AJ
    • Wants to pull in the art angle
    • There are lots of other groups doing the education work, i thought bringing them together to show that Douglas is bigger than the classroom.
    • This could serve the teaching mission, what the past has to teach the present
    • Wants to showcase Douglas’s presence and how it lives on.
      • Sees these goals at combined and not separated.
    • Most things that people see will be either partisan or for-profit, that or a million tiny things that are harder for people to learn about
  • Jen
    • recommendation is to design a beachhead to allow people to find you
    • get started with the open materials
    • can always change it
  • AJ
    • Has the website, but it’s password protected because it looks like a third grader built it and was afraid that the website would not look like a viable place
      • Interns presently working on making it better
    • Will be pitching again to the DC Douglas Interest
  • Patrick
    • It’s going to be a while that you are on the first page of google results
    • If you open it, people won’t really be finding it, except google.
      • By opening it, it allows google to become familiar with the content and things so they come up on search engine people.
  • Jen
    • Build your ally base (state humanities, smaller groups)
    • Do a soft launch, so other people can possible help.
  • David
    • Talk to ASLH, who is an aggregator of the smaller places, and they could probably help.
      • Seems that you are focused on the smaller, local historical societies.
      • Smithsonian and Parks Service doesn’t need the extra exposure.
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Digital Training for Librarians and Digital Library Support-11:30 Session

Resilient Networks Projects

  • How to support digital humanities projects for places that don’t have digital humanities center
  • Wanted to hear everybody’s responses
  • How can people start/realize digital humanities project
  • A Digital Humanities Project:
    • can be many things
    • the kind Amanda is most familiar with is by putting humanities information online.
    • making searchable databases online of historical documents/images
      • WhatAmericaAte.com– created at a digital humanities center- just launched out of Matrix at Michigan State University
        • they had this content, made is searchable and available
        • they combined libraries, scholarship, and digital humanities center
  • How can these projects last without being grant funded?
    • Digital humanities center and library as the same space, doesn’t really need a center.
      • Saying ejournals versus journals- they are the same thing.
      • Keeping them together can help the technological people and the content people collaborate.
    • Raises the Question: we don’t only do all humanities, how can we combine them and put them in the box?
    • Humanities- we always need to ask for money
    • Digital Humanities because a lot of humanists need help with the technology.
      • Does the library support the digital humanities center or does the digital humanities center support itself?
      • Specialized skills needed for humanities
      • Reference librarians can guide, even if they aren’t an expert
  • Why the humanities particularly?
    • Difficulties with The idea of “the Library is the Humanities Lab” as a substitute for the scientific labs
      • Engineers, sciences, etc have a lab, humanists have never worked that way
        • Humanists work on their own, in the stacks
        • Technological collaboration wasn’t as much a thing in the humanities in the past.
      • Library is more “come to me and I can help you find something”
      • Digital Humanities “we want to do this/make this/etc.”
        • GMU- the center has been separate from the library and history.
        • Librarians can have people come give the humanities people the workshop
        • The case for digital humanities hasn’t been made yet.
    • Digital Humanities Center could be called Digital Scholarship Center- it isn’t just the humanities that centers support
    • The Value of Digital Humanities
      • Transcription is a big project in the digital humanities
        • People don’t realize that search engines need text to search something
    • The Negatives of Library intrinsically connected to Digital Humanities
      • Having support from the library focused on the digital humanities
        • There is a lot of money, time, and people needed for DH
      • Library needs be there for support to help researchers find things
      • Cost
        • The more information, the harder it will be to sustain
        • Libraries would need to consider divide costs
        • In a 40 hour work week, can put X documents online OR we can help someone do their research project.
          • Trying to figure out how to make the work “good enough”
      • Sustainability
        • Funders are worried about funding these projects that are then done/away
        • If in 5 years, no one is looking at it, you need to update it
      • Labor
        • Mellon foundation is using grant trying to find an alternative to digital humanities centers
        • Having the people say, “we can’t give you a beautiful website, but we can get the information on there.”
  • What should we be doing locally and what should we be doing collectively?
    • “My library has to have everything my users need” – it can’t be done
    • Expertise training
      • Consortial efforts to make it
      • Creating a bare minimum of common knowledge
    • Finding Aids and Catalogued
      • Finding aids are collection guides, not item levels
        • Large amount of description in the scope
        • Teaching finding aids is difficult
        • A lot of people can’t use the finding aids
  • Back to “What is a Digital Humanities Project”
    • Once you have digitized things and put it on line, there is so much more you can do with it (mapping, text analysis, etc).
    • “Digital Humanities” is a term that students don’t need to know, but the professionals do.
      • Should know about digital tools, but DH is the inside talk.
  • What is in scope for libraries in the DH space and what is not in scope for libraries in DH?
    • In Libraries- should be making it discoverable, having collections, etc.
    • The analytical side should not be in scope of library/part of library’s focus
    • Similar to a writing center:
      • you can reside here, but there are specific people who work within that center.
      • not focus on transfer of resources into digital scholarship.
    • Library- needs to limit their scope of what they can do/support
      • Not everyone can do everything,
    • Some libraries feel the need to save things because no one else will
    • Encouraging libraries to not support things forever, but giving it a specific amount of time.
      • The book- you write it and you publish it, book preservation is covered by the library, but they are used to that preservation.
      • The digital project- goes out of date, the look needs to be updated, doesn’t need to be saved forever.
  • “You put it online, they will come”
    • A little bit of that, but it takes large amount of labor and time to get people to see it come up.
  • Back to the Library’s role in analysis
    • It is not in their scope to conduct analysis, but it is important for them to enable analysis.
      • A commons where researchers from multiple groups can come together to learn about the basic tools.
    • There is an issue of “non-consumptive research”
      • Non-consumptive research- automated analysis of big data sets
        • You’re not reading a million books, consuming all of the information.
      • A lot of for-profit databases are selling this as a service
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Teaching Technological and Information Literacy- 11:30AM Session, Funger 220

Notes:

-Best way to find sources- is the source credible? How to verify digital sources

-Marketing skills for the job market in information literacy

-Teaching skills to students: biggest issue- authority is contextual when it comes to sources

-Sources validity depends on the project

-“Authority for sources exists on a spectrum”

-In the classroom- evaluating authority in sources activity — evaluate biases

-Facebook and blogposts can be useful if used in the correct way

-Making research “student central”

-Credibility is variable depending on topic

-Papers and learning how to acquire sources has become less central to learning in college classrooms

-Continuing the process and information literacy through-out entire collegiate careers and as resources throughout professional lifetime

-How can we implement information literacy as an every-day tool?

-Expanding information literacy beyond just English courses

-Gap in conversation between disciplines

-Not just humanities students need these skills— not accepting what is put in front of you, establishing critical thinking skills

-Creating stronger library presences on campuses

-Should we require scopes and methods classes?

-Start information literacy classes younger

-Changing the attitude of educational institutions on the importance of information literacy embedded in course curriculum

-Connection between digital and information literacy: should they be taught as different or the same field of study?

Helpful tools for research:

-Voyant Tools voyant-tools.org

-J-STOR Text Analyzer www.jstor.org/analyze/

 

-Each library has different digital database which makes teaching different depending on institution

-Strong database presence to counter Google- databases algorithms are not like Google which is hard to teach and be affordable for most libraries and campuses

 

 

 

 

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Session Proposals and Notes

Suggest topics here by logging in and going to Posts –> Add New: what you suggest will appear below. Or just bring your ideas on Saturday. We’ll give you paper and markers to propose an idea and put it on the big grid. See the Propose page for more on session proposals.

This is also where any of you can post the notes you’ve taken on sessions. Please give the Room, Time, and Title (roughly) of the session you are writing about at the top of your entry.  You can also post bibliographies, cool examples you know about, and more so long as it is relevant! Please write one post per session. To post, you need to log in and click “Posts –> Add New” — it’s that easy.

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What’s current in institutional repositories?

I’m tangentially familiar with DSpace, Fedora, Archivematica and others. But what’s the current thinking? I see lots of people who might have IR knowledge in the profiles — anyone want to share what they think of the current state of IR software? What are you using? Why?

Full disclosure — I’m thinking about what Omeka S should aim toward for its interactions with IR systems.

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