Data mining and information trapping

Nowadays, being “online” is simply the best way to be “aware”. For managers, journalists, politicians, students – undergraduate or graduate, for scholars, for ordinary users and enthusiasts… the list is endless. But still one question stays and disturbs every user’s mind – Is this all? Is everything we find online is everything that truly exists? This week’s session is concerning exactly the same questions and is also trying to demonstrate that especially for scholars, being online is not only inevitable, but it’s as important, as knowing how to make a simple bibliography. On the other hand, “being online adequately” is not a skill that comes with the buying of a computer, it has to be developed. Searching on the Web is not a one-way street and if you want to achieve the goal, you need not only to search it, but to know how and where to search it, in order to escape the “dead end-streets”. But let’s not underestimate the limitations that the Web “offers” because if we do, those limitations threaten to become serious menaces.

(Hidden) Advantages:

· The net is rich with specialized search services, (although many of them are trying to find a way to get their slice of the billions of dollars Google makes every year answering queries.) (Cool Search Engines that are not Google)

· Existence of other search engines, different from Google – ChaCha, Collecta, Trackle, Kosmix, Windows Live Academic (a concurrent to Google Scholar)

· Googling around the internet cannot substitute an old-fashion library research. But the reverse is also true. (Googling the Victorians)

· Explosive expansion in the reproduction and distribution of the public domain sector of our textual heritage. (Googling the Victorians)

· Search engines present a quite peculiar way of interacting with groups of texts. (Googling the Victorians)

· Communication, interaction, collaboration - connections across national, institutional and disciplinary boundaries – “sense of common purpose” (Googling the Victorians)

Limitations:

· There is always a danger of becoming jumbled mess (even with well sustained academic sources) (Subject Headings Galaxy)

· Search engines don’t work sufficiently with humanities. (The Single Box Humanities Search)

· The people designing and building these "academic" search engines are from a distinct subset of academia: computer science and mathematical fields such as physics. (The Single Box Humanities Search)

· Cherry-picking approach to reading. (Googling the Victorians)

· Blindness to the limitations of the internet generally, disheartening credulity about the information to be found there, reluctance to do the serious work among the print texts. (Googling the Victorians)

· The offline penumbra (Googling the Victorians)

· Digital tools are superb instruments for ratio – searching, researching, abstracting, refining and concluding, but not for intellectus – creating. (Contemplating Scholarship in the Digital Age)

· The differences between scholarship and quick information seeking. (The Peloponnesian War and the Future of Reference, Cataloging and Scholarship in Research Libraries)

What to improve:

· Google and other search engines are not the future but the presence of scholarly discovery. (Googling the Victorians)

· Need to encourage actively the development of digitally literate curators. (Contemplating Scholarship in the Digital Age)

· Special collections librarians to help with their skills. (Contemplating Scholarship in the Digital Age)

· Need to educate researchers and users (The Peloponnesian War and the Future of Reference, Cataloging and Scholarship in Research Libraries)

· Universal Digital Library – is it a dream?

History Wired and The History Channel

I would like to focus my attention on two very interesting historical websites – History Wired: A few of our favorite things and The History Channel.

I am really impressed by History Wired. It is an experimental site, held by the Smithsonian Institution, which gives the opportunity to all visitors to see some of the three million objects, available in the National Museum of American History. At the moment more than 450 objects are displayed on the site (quite small amount yet), but the project is still a work in progress. The items were chosen by curators, but their choice doesn’t mean to be representative for the whole collection of the museum. The site tries to be a sort of a “real tour” around the museum. Every reader can select the object which he likes and then he gets an explanation of its significance. The virtual tour is very interactive, because the visitor can share his opinion, can like or dislike or, can give suggestions or to point out the weak points.

The interface of the website is very interesting and impressive. It’s based on the map-like sites. The “Map” includes: a timeline, keywords, pointer lines, thumbnails and search. What can you do? You choose a “square” – this is the object – on the map, you click on it and what happens? Interactive arrows demonstrate with which fields your object is connected. Let’s click on one. Diana Ross’s dress from 1960s. Now we are able to see the photo and the information about it, as well as to give it a mark, by answering the question – “Would you like to see more objects like that?” Visitors can look for their “item” by choosing – the time, the keywords or the field.

The History Channel or History.com tends to be a very useful resource for both professionals and grass-root historians. But my opinion is that it is made mainly for popular historians and enthusiasts.

Its content is divided into several topics, focused mainly on the American history, such as – Science and technology, Native American history, Wars, Presidents, Places, Black history, Women’s history, People, Ancient, Events, etc. Another important achievement of the site is the presence of TV Shows and Videos, available online. The website is the official site of the popular History Channel and for that reason it has in archive many of the videos and shows, broadcasted on the television. When you choose a topic a great variety of resources appears – video clips, articles, photos, pictures, recommended articles, related people, topics and themes, events, etc.

I wouldn’t like to underestimate the importance of History.com (first of all, because I am a great fan), but I still think that this site is not sufficient for a major and deeper historical analyze, because it only gives some information (in many of the cases just overviewed one), without referring to any primary sources. And this can be a problem! Accept that, it is still an entertaining and educative source.

Cliopatria’s History Blogroll – an absence in the presence…

It’s been a week already that I’ve been trying to get to Cliopatria’s Blogroll, but it just turns out to be impossible for me. “Server not found” was the label I’ve been seeing those days and I really got used to it. I’m quite sure that after one week, when I don’t need the site so desperately, it will magically appear. But yes, these are just one of the surprises which the Web can offer us. In the following, I’d like to mention some of my favorite blogs, which unfortunately, I don’t know if they exist in the Cliopatria’Blogroll. Most of them are focused on women’s, gender and feminism history, because that is the field in which I’m highly interested.

The first one is Women of History. I especially like it, because it gives very interesting information about notable, (or not so much) women’s historical figures and thus unveils more and more women’s history. It’s a clear attempt to make them part f the mainstream history.

The second one is – Clio talks back. This is the Karen Offen’s blog - a famous women’s historian. The blog suggests different articles, concerning women’s history. According me, it is an example for a real professional historical blog, because its author is regarded as an “authority” in the field.

The third one is, unfortunately in Bulgarian. It looks like a feminist blog is more focused on the present situation. It analyzes women’s situation in the contemporary world, in particular in the popular culture. Its main goal is to urge for women’s empowerment.

I have to admit that I have never been interested in Bulgarian historical blogs. The main reason is that most of them suffer from painful nationalist ideas and obsessed beliefs to represent Bulgaria as the oldest, the most important and the richest culture in Europe (because the country was founded in 681 AD and survived after 500 years of Ottoman dominance). I decided to check out the Bulgarian historical blogs. Well, I cannot say that I face something different from what I was expecting. Most of the blogs are related with either the Bulgarian glorious past or they are victimizing the country, trying to demonstrate how misunderstood or “cheated” by fake friends Bulgaria was. My intentions here are not to criticize those blogs, but I’m afraid that they continue to represent only the mainstream, political history. Social history is still absent.