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The Way We Write History Has Changed
Archives and the digitization of knowledge
Unlike libraries, archives have generally resisted the digitization of knowledge. They are still mostly paper where you might spend weeks to months working through all the boxes of interest.
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Difference between libraries and archives
History comes out of an archive, not a library.
- Libraries spread knowledge that's been collected and compressed into books and other media.
- Archives are where collections of papers are stored. Archives contain materials from the people and institutions near it. For example, the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford contain everything from Atari's business plans to HP co-founder William Hewlett's correspondence.
Archives and the digitization of knowledge
Unlike libraries, archives have generally resisted the digitization of knowledge. They are still mostly paper where you might spend weeks to months working through all the boxes of interest.
The tools are changing
With the use of smartphones, instead of reading papers during an archival visit, historians take digital photos of the documents to look at them later.
The practice might seem insignificant, but the ways that information is collected and managed is changing what historians can learn from it. As a result, different histories will be written.
Archives for the modern mind
With digitization, archives are now accessed through many mediums by more than just the historian.
Different types of people outside the professionalized historical tradition could do history, which will lead to more diverse authors, and ultimately a different account of events.
How history could change
With the ability to capture more documents, the depth of archival work will increase. At the same time, because you are able to find relevant information beyond your project, you may lose what's going on locally.
When you digitize more, you may overestimate your knowledge and believe that your record is complete.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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A History Of Pandemics
- A Pandemic is defined as the proliferation of a disease over the whole country or the entire world.
- Diseases and illnesses have troubled humanity since the earliest days, but ...
Quarantined
- The original use of the word Quarantine was the act of anchoring a ship arrived in Venice, Italy, for 40 days before landing.
- Infectiousness of any disease is measured by the reproduction number (R0, or R naught). For example, Smallpox has an R0 of 6 whereas Measles has an R0 of 16.
- Vaccination, if available, and herd immunity can curb the spread of disease.
- Big cities, with exploding population and traffic, can lead to the rapid spread of any infectious disease.
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Spreading of diseases
Transmissible diseases existed during humankind’s hunter-gatherer days, but the shift to agrarian life 10,000 years ago created communities that made epidemics more possible.
We started build...
430 B.C.: Plague of Athens
The earliest recorded pandemic happened during the Peloponnesian War. It passed through Libya, Ethiopia, and Egypt, and it reached Athens as the Spartans laid siege. Two-thirds of the population died.
The disease, suspected to have been typhoid fever, weakened the Athenians significantly and played a big role in their defeat by the Spartans.
165 A.D.: The Antonine Plague
It may have been an early appearance of smallpox that began with the Huns.
The Huns then infected the Germans, who passed it to the Romans and then returning troops spread it throughout the Roman empire. This plague continued until about 180 A.D., claiming Emperor Marcus Aurelius as one of its victims.
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History In The Making
Currently, epidemiologists, doctors, researchers, and other experts are busy studying the new virus and the ongoing pandemic.
Historians would be compiling stuff and in the next few dec...
Oral History
Most of history is derived from government documents, transcripts, newspaper articles, and recently, from digital data. Oral history, a tradition from the old, pre-written cultures are often crucial in providing a holistic, rich, and complete picture of a historical event.
Oral histories (and even personal journals) sometimes answer questions that aren’t found in the official texts, about the inner motivations and discarded facts that may be important.
Bias In History
30 years from now, oral history collected through TV interviews and online resources will be incredibly valuable, but can also carry certain biases. Historians have to ensure that the interpretations are accurate and untainted.
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