Historic Preservation - Historum

Freemason Cyclist · February 4th, 2009, 09:55 PM

I would like your opinion on something. That is do you consider using the internet and computer databases to be a form of historic preservation?

I think we can all agree that historic preservation includes the careful cataloguing, filing and storing of historic documents and artifacts. Some of which are put on public display. In some areas these historic items are stored in climate controlled and alarmed environment. In other areas it is only climate controlled but in no way alarmed so in the event of a fire or flood the historic items could be lost forever.

That is why I ask do you consider using the internet and computer databases as a form of historical preservation? Here is an example of what I mean. I am currently doing research on an architect named William L. Steele. Up until I started doing the reasearch nothing about him was digitally scanned or stored in anyway on a computer database, thumb drive or the internet. Now a lot of what I have researched about him is on a thumb drive or computer database, not to mention the internet. The way I see it this is a way to preserve this history. Some day the hard copy formate may be all gone and all that is left is the computer format. This is not my sole intention or reason I am doing this. It is more or less a positive side effect.

Your thoughts?

mlipo · February 5th, 2009, 08:08 AM

I don't see why they shouldn't be a form of historic preservation. My mother told me that she printed out all of my emails I sent to her from Iraq just in case something happened to me. But she could have simply transferred them to a disk or something.

Or am I misunderstanding you?

Wolverine · February 5th, 2009, 02:30 PM

The internet is an awesome tool and should be used. I have found an incredible amount of info online. Many older reference materials are in the public domain and can be read for free without traveling to a library. Some of the stuff I'm interested in could only be found in the rare book section of the downtown library. You can sometimes view scans of original documents that you would never be able to hold in your hands.

For serious history research where you seek to discover new ideas, you'll probably have to leave the house. Most things posted online have probably been closely examined. I've heard of collaborative projects to decipher ancient text or documents, but those would require significant expertise.

I applaud your efforts to share the knowledge you have gained. Once posted on the internet, it has the potential to live forever. If I google my name, I'll still find a picture of a boat I sold several years ago.

VM1138 · February 6th, 2009, 11:21 AM

Absolutely it should be used. Computers are amazing for cataloging. I did an internship with a historical society and they didn't even know 90% of what they had because they were just plugging in items and documents.

Also, electronic preservation is not as cool as having the real deal, but just like you said, the originals will be lost someday, and it's good to have backups.

**Black Dog** · February 11th, 2009, 03:36 AM

The only problem with the Internet, as is well known, is the sheer size and controversial nature of the data it holds. Very little is, or can be, checked for accuracy. Much of it is unregulated, and whilst I am, at the best of times, uneasy about "official" histories, nevertheless, such is the spectrum of information on the 'net that it would be difficult to sift it for the actual truth. It would probably muddy the waters more than enlighten.

A paradigm of this is Archaeology. Most people think that archaeologists become terribly excited by "unusual" or prestige artifact finds, but they are not, simply because these are not very information rich. Archaeologists like to find commonplace things that confirm, or otherwise, what we already know. For much of European history, at least, this means simple items such as pottery, coins, or axeheads etc. From such things, we can deduce that if we find, for example, samianware pottery in Britain, dated from the 6th century, then closer analysis would allow us to deduce that either samianware was being either copied, or was from elsewhere. This can give us great insights into then local culture and influences, or confirm that trade was happening. Another example: in North Wales, UK, at a seaside area called Penmaenmawr, there is a hill which used to be a volcano. The stone from this is absolutely unique, confined to that one hill. Axes made from this stone have been found as far away as the south of France. Hence, extensive trade was taking place.

Conversely, if we found a fabulous- and unique- gold headdress, it would not tell us anything like as much.

This is as anomylous to finding a Rolls Royce buried in one's garden: take this too seriously, and one could assume that this was commonplace!

In a long winded way, I am trying to say that the Internet has many anomolies and false leads with very little regulation. One could publish one's family tree, in all seriousness, with Queen Elizabeth I and Shaka Zulu as one's ancestors!

Freemason Cyclist · February 11th, 2009, 05:18 AM

95% of this information I am posting on my blog comes from sources, other then the internet. None of it is original. Right now the series I am doing on William L. Steele comes from the Pearl St. Research Center, Sioux City Public Museum, Sioux City Public Library and the Sioux City Catholic Diocese. All of the records I have to sift through were collected and catalogued by someone else some time ago. None was originally in a digital format until I started this project. The most advanced technology until I made a digital scan was microfilm. I use the public library's digital film viewer that has a scanner to create scans of the articles I want and save them as a jpeg. Everything else came from a hard copy document that had to be placed on a scanner digitally scanned as a jpeg. Some of these documents are over 100 years old.

The way I see what I am doing is continueing the historic preservation of these documents, if only in a small way. This is not my sole intention but one that I would describe as a positive side affect of what I am doing.

The bottomline is this information was not originally on the internet until I got ahold of it, it came from other hard copy sources that had already been collected, catalogued and organized by someone else. The only original thing I have done is put it together in a brief format with the pertinent information that I need for the blog postings and created digital scans of the items I need about the piece of history I am posting about.

VM1138 · February 14th, 2009, 07:24 AM

I see the point made about the Internet muddying the waters, but I have to disagree. If documents are digitized by institutions chances are they will be fairly accurate. It's not any different than translations: Sometimes things are inaccurate. It's the name of the game for a historian and we will have to use our skills online as well as off.