Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:39:56.157Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Automated Archivist: Interdisciplinarity and the Process of Historical Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Chad Gaffield  and
Peter Baskerville
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The basis of most historical research including social science history is quite unsystematic. This characteristic results from the ways in which researchers find and choose historical sources for examination. Despite claims to be systematic, historians still tend to identify relevant evidence in impressionistic ways. Many social science histories involve the rigorous study of a source happily discovered by chance. Of course, access to the past has never been easy. Researchers have always lamented a presumed lack of “essential” records. Nonetheless, the actual ways we discover existing evidence have received little attention despite the fact that this process is fraught with difficulties and hidden dangers especially for researchers of a social scientific bent. Do not the presuppositions of social science history extend to the identification of sources? How do we know when we have all the “relevant data” for a particular project? Can systematic data analysis be justifiably built upon unsystematic identification of sources?

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Spring 1985 , pp. 167 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1985 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baskerville, P. and Gaffield, C. (1983-84) “The Vancouver Island Project: Historical Research and Archival Practice.” Archivaria 17: 173–187.Google Scholar
Bearman, D. (1982) “Towards National Information Systems for Archives and Manuscripts: Opportunities and Requirements.” Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Bercuson, D. and Granatstein, J. L. (1981) “The Public Archives of Canada and the Historical Profession.” Canadian Historical Review 62: 1–2.Google Scholar
Berner, R. C. (1978) “Arrangement and Description: Some Historical Observations.” American Archivist 41: 169–181.Google Scholar
Berner, R. C. (1982) “Toward National Archival Priorities: A Suggested Basis for Discussion.” American Archivist 45: 164–174.Google Scholar
Berner, R. C. (1983) Archival Theory and Practice in the United States: A Historical Analysis. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Bogue, A. G. (1983) Clio and the Bitch Goddess: Quantification in American Political History. Beverly Hills, California: Sage.Google Scholar
Boles, F. (1982) “Disrespecting Original Order.” American Archivist 45: 26–32.Google Scholar
Bolotenko, G. (1983) “Archivists and Historians: Keepers of the Well.” Archivaria 16: 5–25.Google Scholar
Carr, D.et al. [eds.] (1982) Philosophy of History and Contemporary Historiography. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
Clubb, J. M. (1980) “The ‘New’ Quantitative History: Social Science or Old Wine in New Bottles?’ in Clubb, and Scheuch, [eds.] Historical Social Research: The Use of Historical and Process-Produced Data. Stuttgart: KlettCotta.Google Scholar
Cook, T. (1983) “From the Editor: Dead or Alive.” Archivaria 16: 3.Google Scholar
Cook, T. (1983-1984) “Archival Networks and Congresses.” Archivaria 17:16–17.Google Scholar
Data Management (1982) “Library Data Banks: Electrifying the Book Shelves.” Special issue, volume 20.Google Scholar
de Mause, L. (1975) “The Independence of Psychohistory.” History of Childhood Quarterly 3:163–200.Google Scholar
Dürr, W. T. (1981) “Baltimore Region Institutional Studies Center” in McCrank, (ed.) Automating the Archives: Issues and Problems in Computer Applications. White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industries Publications: 71–84.Google Scholar
Dürr, W. T. (1984) “Some Thoughts and Designs about Archives and Automation, 1984.” American Archivist, 47: 271–289.Google Scholar
Eastwood, T. (1983) “The Origin and Aims of the Master of Archival Studies Programme at the University of British Columbia.” Archivaria 16: 35–52.Google Scholar
Evans, F. B.et al. (1974) “A Basic Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators and Record Managers.” American Archivist 37.Google Scholar
Falb, S. R. (1984) “The Social Historian and Archival Appraisal. O.A.H. Newsletter (February) 16–18.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (1982) “Circumstantial Evidence in ‘Scientific’ and Traditional History,” in Carr, et al. (eds.) Philosophy of History and Contemporary Historiography. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press: 61–112.Google Scholar
Gagan, D. and Turner, H. E. (1982) “Social History in Canada: A Report on the ‘State of the Art.’” Archivaria 14: 27–52.Google Scholar
Gardiner, J. B. and Adams, G. R. [eds.] (1983) Ordinary People and Everyday Life: Perspectives on the New Social History. Nashville, Tenn: American Association for State and Social History.Google Scholar
Ham, F. G. (1975) “The Archival Edge.” American Archivist 38: 5–13.Google Scholar
Haworth, K. M. (1976-77) “Local Archives: Responsibilities and Challenges for Archivists.” Archivaria 3: 28–39.Google Scholar
Hershberg, T. [ed.] (1981). Philadelphia: Work, Space, Family, and Group Experience in the 19th Century. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Hershberg, T. et al. (1974) “Occupation and Ethnicity in five Nineteenth-Century Cities: A Collaborative Inquiry.” Historical Methods Newsletter 7:174–216.Google Scholar
Hoffenberg, R. I. and Clubb, J. M. (1977). Social Science Data Archives: Applications and Potential. Beverly Hills, CA and London: Sage.Google Scholar
James, R. S. (1981) “Administration of Municipal Records: The Toronto Experience.” Government Publications Review 8A: 321–325.Google Scholar
Jensen, R. (1983) “The Microcomputer Revolution for Historians.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14: 91–111.Google Scholar
Journal of Interdisciplinary History (1983) “The Measure of American History.” Special issue, volume 13.Google Scholar
Loy, T. and Powell, G. R. (1977) Archaeological Data Recording Guide. Victoria, B.C.: British Columbia Provincial Museum.Google Scholar
Lytle, R. H. (1980) “Intellectual Access to Archives: I; Provenance and Content Indexing Methods of Subject Retrieval.” American Archivist 43: 64–75.Google Scholar
McCrank, L. J. (1979) “Prospects for Interpreting Historical and Information Studies in Archival Education.” American Archivist 42: 443–455.Google Scholar
McCrank, L. J. [ed.] (1981) Automating the Archives: Issues and Problems in Computer Applications. White Plains, N.Y.: Knowledge Industries Publications.Google Scholar
McInnis, R. M. (1981) “Some Pitfalls in the 1851-1852 Census of Agriculture of Lower Canada.” Histoire sociale/Social History 14: 219–232.Google Scholar
Miller, F. M. (1981) “Social History and Archival Practice.” American Archivist 44: 113–124.Google Scholar
National Information Systems Task Force (1982a) “A MARC Format for Archives and Manuscript Materials: A Proposal to the Profession.” Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
National Information Systems Task Force (1982b) “Data Elements Used in Archives, Manuscript and Records Repository Information Systems: A Dictionary of Standard Terminology.” Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
National Library of Canada (1979a) Canadian MARC Communication Format: Monographs. Ottawa: 3rd edition.Google Scholar
National Library of Canada (1979b) Canadian MARC Communication Format: Serials. Ottawa: 2nd edition.Google Scholar
Nesmith, T. (1981) “Le Roy Ladurie’s ‘Total History’ and Archives.” Archivaria 12: 127–134.Google Scholar
Nesmith, T. (1982) “Archives from the Bottom Up: Social History and Archival Scholarship.” Archivaria 14: 5–26.Google Scholar
Pugh, M. J. (1982) “The Illusion of Omniscience: Subject Access and the Reference Archivist,” American Archivist 45: 33–44.Google Scholar
Rabb, T. K. and Rotberg, R. I. [eds.] (1982) The New History, the 1980s and Beyond: Studies in Interdisciplinary History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rundell, W. Jr., (1970) In Pursuit of American History: Research and Training in the United States. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Russell, M. V. (1983) “The Influence of Historians on the Archival Profession in the United States.” American Archivist 46: 277–285.Google Scholar
Sundin, J. and Winchester, I. (1982) “Towards Intelligent Databases: On the Database as Historical Archivist.” Archivaria 14:137–158.Google Scholar
Thibodeau, K. (1976) “Machine-Readable Archives and Future History.” Computers and the Humanities, volume 10.Google Scholar
Warner, S. B. Jr., (1977) “The Shame of the Cities: Public Records of the Metropolis.” The Midwestern Archivist 2: 27–34.Google Scholar
Weldon, E. (1982) “Archives and the Practice of Public History.” The Public Historian 4: 49–58.Google Scholar