New Guide to Creating Digital Resources from Historical Documents
The History Data Service is pleased to announce the web publication of
Digitising History, a new guide to creating, documenting and preserving
digital resources derived from historical documents. The guide is available
at http://hds.essex.ac.uk/g2gp/digitising_history/index.html and will also
be published by Oxbow Books later in the year. For more information, please
contact Oxbow Books, email: [log in to unmask], +44 (0) 1865) 241249, fax:
++44 (0) 1865) 794449, URL: http://www.oxbowbooks.com/
The guide is intended as a reference work for individuals and organisations
involved with, or planning, the computerisation of historical source
documents. It aims to recommend good practice and standards that are generic
and relevant to a range of data creation situations, from student projects
through to large-scale research projects. The guide focuses on the creation
of tabular data which can be used in databases, spreadsheets or statistics
packages. Many of the guidelines are, however, more widely applicable.

The guide includes a glossary and a bibliography of recommended reading, and
offers guidance about:

Effectively designing and managing a data creation project.
Transferring historical source documents into digital form and designing a
database.
Choosing appropriate data formats and ensuring that a digital resource can
be preserved without significant information loss.
Documenting a data creation project.

The guide is one of three commissioned by the History Data Service as part
of the Arts and Humanities Data Service publication series Guides to Good
Practice in the Creation and Use of Digital Resources
http://ahds.ac.uk/public/guides.html. The series aims to provide guidance
about applying recognised good practice and standards to the creation and
use of digital resources in the arts and humanities.

Cressida Chappell, Acting Head, History Data Service, Data Archive,
University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, Phone +44 (0)1206
873984, Fax +44 (0)1206 872003, email [log in to unmask],
http://hds.essex.ac.uk/





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