life of a fragment of history

The Life of a Fragment of History

Working History: Professional Historians Association conference, 2016

Yvonne Perkins Twitter: @perkinsy Blog: www.stumblingpast.com

Indexing on the fly – searching for the word ‘Arabic’

CSV file produced by program in Python written with the aid of http://programminghistorian.org/ 2


Stumbling Through the Future

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www.stumblingfuture.wordpress.com

By JMortonPhoto.com & OtoGodfrey.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44599375

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API

• Application Programming Interface• A really powerful and quick way of downloading lots of files• Learn how to use the Trove API the easier way – step by step

instructions at: https://stumblingfuture.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/an-introduction-to-the-trove-api/

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DIY Digitisation Studio

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My not cheap small camera

BORROWED tripod

FREE desk dumped in laneway

FREE cardboard box

$30 lamp

$7 glass cut to specs by glazier CHEAP cotton

gloves from supermarket

Instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/Bargain-Price-Book-Scanner-From-A-Cardboard-Box/

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OCR

• Optical Character Recognition• Adobe Acrobat Pro• Omnipage by Nuance

OCR enables a CTL + F search on digitised documents

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http://transcripts.sl.nsw.gov.au/page/295919/view#overlay-context= 9


<date when=“1918-09-10”>Tuesday</date>...Had MESS with a <hi rend=‘bold’>mixed</hi> INDIAN CAVALRY Camp – Representation from 10 Indian Cavalry Regts were there some very R<hi rend=‘bold’>ich</bold> education Rajah chaps – real silver on the Table etc :- Many courses <del rend="overstrike">not much grog</del> - Some castes are allowed to smok + <hi rend="underline">not</hi> drink, others drink …

TEI Transcription

Learn TEI yourself: http://teibyexample.org/

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Melodee Beals• ‘TEI for Close Reading: Can It Work for History?’:

http://mhbeals.com/researchblog/tei-for-close-reading-can-it-work-for-history/

• ‘XMLing My Way to Data Management; or, What should I do with my old notes’: http://mhbeals.com/xmling-my-way-to-data-management-or-what-should-i-do-with-all-my-old-notes/

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http://mhbeals.com/xmling-my-way-to-data-management-or-what-should-i-do-with-all-my-old-notes/

http://mhbeals.com/xmling-my-way-to-data-management-or-what-should-i-do-with-all-my-old-notes/

Our Code of Ethics• 3.6 “Members should acknowledge help from informants.

They should respect an informant’s request for privacy, except where compulsion of law requires disclosure. “

• 4.10 “Members must not use confidential information to the advantage or disadvantage of the client, nor disclose such information except where required by law. “

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Thank you Libraries & Archives!

In this presentation I used the digitised resources provided by the following institutions:• State Library of New South Wales @statelibrarynsw – WWI

diaries transcriptions• National Archives of Australia @naagovau – WWI service

records

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life of a fragment of history

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