Digitising History - Section 1.2

The right of Sean Townsend, Cressida Chappell and Oscar Struijvé to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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	Digitising History CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION
	1.2 Aims and objectives This guide is intended as a reference work for individuals and organisations involved with, or planning, the computerisation of historical source documents. It aims to recommend good practice and standards that are generic and relevant to a range of data creation situations, from student projects through to large-scale research projects. The guide focuses on the creation of tabular data suitable for use in databases, spreadsheets or statistics packages, however, many of the guidelines are more widely applicable. For other approaches to the computerisation of historical source documents see Woollard and Denley 1996; Feldman 1995; Gahan and Hannibal 1997; Kelle 1995; Miles and Huberman 1994; Robinson 1993; and Robinson 1994. The time and resources invested in the creation of digital resources can easily be placed in jeopardy because hardware and software become obsolete, and magnetic media degrade. Long-term preservation is essential if this investment is to be safeguarded. Digital resources need to be preserved and migrated through changing technologies in order that they will continue to be accessible in the future. However, the extent to which a digital resource can be preserved without significant information loss is largely dependent on decisions taken during the data creation process; this guide seeks to explain how to ensure that a digital resource is suitable for preservation and migration. Many historical digital resources potentially have significant and long-term value to the research and teaching community. The time and resources invested in their creation can only be fully realised if they are suitable for re-use both by the data creator and by others. Such suitability, however, is again largely dependent on decisions taken during the data creation process; this guide also aims to offer advice about creating digital resources which are suitable for re-use and which will be of long-term value to the research and teaching community.
	© Sean Townsend, Cressida Chappell, Oscar Struijvé 1999 The right of Sean Townsend, Cressida Chappell and Oscar Struijvé to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All material supplied via the Arts and Humanities Data Service is protected by copyright, and duplication or sale of all or any part of it is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your personal research use or educational purposes in electronic or print form. Permission for any other use must be obtained from the Arts and Humanities Data Service. Electronic or print copies may not be offered, whether for sale or otherwise, to any third party.