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Documentation and the users of digital resources in the humanities

Warwick, C.; Galina, I.; Rimmer, J.; Terras, M.; Blandford, A.; Gow, J.; Buchanan, G.

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Authors

I. Galina

J. Rimmer

M. Terras

A. Blandford

J. Gow

G. Buchanan



Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of documentation for digital humanities resources. This includes technical documentation of textual markup or database construction, and procedural documentation about resource construction. Design/methodology/approach – A case study is presented of an attempt to reuse electronic text to create a digital library for humanities users, as part of the UCIS project. The results of qualitative research by the LAIRAH study on provision of procedural documentation are discussed, as also is, user perception of the purpose, construction and usability of resources collected using semi‐structured interviews and user workshops. Findings – In the absence of technical documentation, it was impossible to reuse text files with inconsistent markup (COCOA and XML) in a Digital Library. Also, although users require procedural documentation, about the status and completeness of sources, and selection methods, this is often difficult to locate. Practical implications – Creators of digital humanities resources should provide both technical and procedural documentation and make it easy to find, ideally from the project web site. To ensure that documentation is provided, research councils could make documentation a project deliverable. This will be even more vital once the AHDS is no longer funded to help ensure good practice in digital resource creation. Originality/value – Previous work has argued that documentation is important. However, the paper presents actual evidence of the problems caused by a lack of documentation and shows that this makes reuse of digital resources almost impossible. This is intended to persuade project creators who wish resources to be reused to provide documentation about its contents and technical specifications.

Citation

Warwick, C., Galina, I., Rimmer, J., Terras, M., Blandford, A., Gow, J., & Buchanan, G. (2009). Documentation and the users of digital resources in the humanities. Journal of Documentation, 65(1), 33-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410910926112

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2009
Deposit Date Sep 5, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Documentation
Print ISSN 0022-0418
Publisher Emerald
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 65
Issue 1
Pages 33-57
DOI https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410910926112
Keywords Documentation management, Digital libraries, Extensible markup language, Data handling.
Related Public URLs http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/13809/

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Copyright Statement
This article is © Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here http://dro.dur.ac.uk/13567/. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.




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