Doing Digital History - (Ihr Research Guides) by Jonathan Blaney & Jane Winters & Sarah Milligan & Martin Steer (Paperback)

About the Book

A practical guide to digital history, which shows just how much can be done without writing any code. This book will give researchers in history or related fields the skills and confidence to approach existing digital resources and to create their own. Assuming no prior knowledge, the guide focuses on hands-on techniques for working with text.

Book Synopsis

This book is a practical introduction to digital history. It offers advice on the scoping of a project, evaluation of existing digital history resources, a detailed introduction to how to work with large text resources, how to manage digital data and how to approach data visualisation.

Doing digital history covers the entire life-cycle of a digital project, from conception to digital outputs. It assumes no prior knowledge of digital techniques and shows you how much you can do without writing any code. It will give you the skills to use common formats such as XML. A key message of the book is that data preparation is a central part of most digital history projects, but that work becomes much easier and faster with a few essential tools.

From the Back Cover

This book is a practical introduction to digital history, with a focus on working with text, covering the life cycle of a digital project, from conception to digital outputs. It places digital history in its historiographical context, and stresses the importance of understanding the history of digital history. This guide assumes no prior knowledge of digital techniques and shows how much you can do without writing any code. It will also give you the skills to use common formats such as XML with confidence.

The book will benefit anyone who is considering carrying out research in history that has a digital or data element and will also be of interest to researchers in related fields within digital humanities, such as literary studies or Classics. It offers advice on the scoping of a project, evaluation of existing digital history resources, a detailed introduction on how to work with large text resources, how to manage digital data and how to approach data visualisation.

A key message of the book is that data preparation is a central part of most digital history projects, but that work becomes much easier and faster with a few essential tools. It will be especially useful for postgraduates or other researchers about to embark upon a large piece of research.

About the Author

Jonathan Blaney was Head of Digital Projects at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London until 2021

Sarah Milligan is an independent scholar based in Victoria, Canada

Marty Steer is Technical Lead, Digital Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London

Jane Winters is Professor of Digital Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London