googlie eyes
24 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
I could very easily relate to Patrick Leary’s article “Googling the Victorians” as he shares his discovery of Google and online resources related to Victorian history. This semester I’m taking two classes, this one and 711. Oh my lovely research seminar. Most of this semester thus far has been spent researching (tomorrow the first written part is due, eek!). What I’ve realized is that history grad students of 2010 have it easy. It definitely may not feel that way at times (ok, a lot of the time), but when I think about how quickly I’m able to search and find a book, journal, article, or primary documents online I’m incredibly grateful.
Patrick Leary discusses how various searches online provide resources that he doubts he’d ever be able to find through old fashion searching. He also discusses the scale of what will be available. With this vast resource readily available, there will be new problems for researchers. He touches on how successful search strategies are important in order to find the best mix of keywords to get the data you need. Certain phrases might result in too many results or too few. The method of searching will change and we will have to consider new methods and options in our future as historians. Especially if we do work to make our projects a reality.
I’m not sure that I agree with his developed concept of “offline penumbra”. I know that throughout his article he discusses the amount of information/books/etc being added to the internet, but I really hope that anything that is not online will continue to exist. Although a lot of resources have been digitized and continue to be digitized probably as we speak, I believe there is more to appreciate and understand from analog data. A lot of the primary sources I need for my research topic have been digitized and are available online for my use. While I absolutely love that I can do most of my research from the comforts of my home, nothing in the world can compare to the time I’ve spent at the Library of Congress holding and reading from a book that was originally printed in 1692. Maybe it will only be a resource that specialists will be concerned with, but I really hope that despite having a vast network of digitized data people will still want the old school.
