HISTORY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Interview with Dr Sarah Richardson and Professor Mark Knights, Department of History

Digital technology is not just making it easier for historians to access archives, it is fundamentally changing the way they are able to formulate their ideas about how we used to live. Dr Sarah Richardson and Professor Mark Knights, both of the Department of History, explain how new technologies are changing the way both teachers and students of history communicate.

Not so long ago, Dr Sarah Richardson, a historian at the University of Warwick, had to spend hours searching archives and squinting at microfilm on day-trips that were both time consuming and relatively expensive. Her research is focused on the 18th and 19th century, currently looking specifically at women’s role as philanthropists, so newspapers are a key primary resource. For her, the digitisation of archives has changed everything: “The British Library ran a project that digitised 48 regional and local libraries' newspapers covering the whole of the 19th century. That is a phenomenal resource. It is generally free-text searchable.”

It seems that the 18th and 19th centuries are good time periods to be studying, in terms of resources - there are also Early English Books Online and 18th Century Collections Online which together provide access to 250,000 titles. The only way to cope with this amount of information is to use advanced search options. Traditionally archivists used a paper system, Palmer’s Index, to document the content in old newspapers, the analogue equivalent of tagging or metadata, in order to help researchers navigate the newspapers. Digital free-text searching is obviously a lot quicker and more precise.

The increased quantity of information lends itself to more collaborative working practices. Professor Mark Knights, also a historian at the University of Warwick, runs a microsite for his students called the Early Modern and 18th Century Forum. He has previously lead an interdisciplinary research project looking at unpacking the term ‘Commonwealth’, utilising digital technology in the research process. “The word has had lots of different meanings. The project brought together a whole range of academics, from literary historians to historians of political thought, looking at how the term shifted in meaning from medieval times to the French Revolution.”

They conducted teaching and discussion sessions via video link-ups. This time they were helped by the open-source software Sakai combined with a video conferencing tool called Access Grid. It required some technical support but proved a reliable and stable platform. When working with large groups this requires a projector and large wall - facilities that are now available at many universities - so that everyone can see everyone else clearly. They also, ambitiously, tried to write the resultant article as a group: “That was probably the hardest part.” This is an example of a research project that would have been almost impossible without the digital platform - getting that range and number of people together in one place regularly would have been a nightmare.

Dr Richardson has also had experience of working with people who are based all over the country. She achieved funding to run a project that looked to develop teaching resources for a new online repository called HumBox: “We all divided up the work, took on roles related to our expertise and did our bit.” It required minimal organisation but they used a programme called Basecamp, involving Wikis, to make sure everyone knew what was going on.

For Dr Richardson engaging with online tools means she can provide teaching in a way that allows her students to be as independent as possible. Every year she organises a field trip to Bradford. Tagged Google Maps are provided that enable students to get an idea of the place they are visiting in advance: “I ask students to lead different parts of the trip. This helps them get a sense of the space.” Maps, timelines and spreadsheets are all classic visualisation tools used by historians to better understand the subjects they are studying: “Often students don’t know how far Bradford is away. Studying maps helps them get a sense of how far industrial cities were from each other and how long it took to travel between them.”

Similarly, there is an iPhone App that gives you access to old maps of London, bringing the history of the city to a whole new group of people. It seems that there is much to be gained by historians, who get engaged and enthused about the host of new digital possibilities. But is anything lost? Often time and money are involved in facilitating these new communications - it might be cheaper and easier than meeting in person but that does not mean it is free. Opening up channels of communication does usually result in more communication which eats into time for doing other things.

Prof Knights articulated his position nicely: “It started when, in a previous post, I was asked ‘If you could do anything with digital technology, what would you do?’. It is in the way I have been taught to think and work. But more than that, I like working collaboratively. I like other people’s ideas.”

The presumed anxiety - that these development threaten their reputation as academics - is not something that seems to resonate with them. “I know my mind,” said Dr Richardson, “I know that I will always bring something of value, and different, to the study of archive resources. I am happy to open up and enter into communications with lots of people because I greatly benefit from others being similarly open towards me.”

Thinking Aloud
Prof Mark Knights has set up Thinking Aloud, a project which facilitates debate between PHD students through the production of video and audio podcasts. The team are looking for three new co-ordinators, drawn from any subject in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Each co-ordinator will be rewarded with £400 for their efforts - more information about this opportunity can be found on the Think Aloud home page.

Image courtesy of Early Modern Texts.

In addition to her teaching and research responsibilities, Dr Sarah Richardson's role as the HEA's Subject Director for History focuses on strategic issues and she represents the discipline at a national level. Dr Richardson's research is in the field of modern political and gender hsitory, particularly women and political culture in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain. Dr Richardson won a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence in 2006, and her interest in e-learning is reflected in her role as a founder member of the Association for History and Computing. On this subject Dr Richardson co-authored Using Computers in History (2005), designed to help students of history make the most of the tools readily available to them. She was also involved in the steering group of the Teaching and Learning Technology Project (Phase 3) and the Courseware in History Consortium.