Gabby - Data and Digitization

In Chapters 2 and 3 of the digital humanities textbook, the authors explained different types of data that exist in the digital humanities world. In the second chapter, they went into detail about sub categories of the umbrella term “digital data” and the areas of data that existed before the digital world was developed. The authors transitioned chapters to inform us of the types of data that exist now as well as the processes by which data is preserved. This is where I truly made the connection between what it means when we refer to something as “digital” and how “humanities” as a study evolved by utilizing this as a resource. I find humanities to be similar to the offline data that the authors explain as the records or material which existed before a web presence or role imagined for them. Having the ability to translate this existing data into a digitized format allows us to archive almost anything. It provides creative ways to format data from past to the present and come up with newer ways to display these things virtually. When we combine these practices, we get “digital humanities”. 

The concepts of these chapters applied well to the digital humanities project I am working on now because I am currently collecting research of my own using an online 'data hub'. This website in particular is a documentary archive and transcription project about the Salem witch trials. It was a project created for educational purposes by The University of Virginia. When I look at my website, I can find many types of humanities collected in digital form. There are maps, books, records, letters, and much more kinds of data to analyze. Now that I know the process behind digitization, I appreciate how advanced this website actually is. It seems simple, but it must have taken a long time to collect things and then archive them. On top of this, it takes more time to format this data into an easy to access way. However, this website allowed me to appreciate all of the work that goes on behind the scenes. 

I have a part of the textbook which stuck out to me the most as it relates to my DH project. 

"Humanities 'data' are produced by taking documents or artifacts and abstracting from them certain features that can be represented explicitly. Humanists also extract data from the records kept about those artifacts--- such as library and museum catalogs or estate and auction catalogs"


Comments

  1. Dr. MSeptember 15, 2026 at 11:20 AM

    Metadata is going to apply to your project as well, as in who decides how artifacts are catalogued and tagged.

    ReplyDelete

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