PARAGON REVIEW

Issue 5

Untangling the Web

The information world has been transformed in recent years by the apparently unstoppable rise of the Internet, allowing almost instant access to limitless databases, and new ways of transmitting and receiving their contents. Brian Dyson samples what is available for the historian.

Each Web site has an address or reference code, known as a URL (Universal Resource Locator). The URL for the RCHM site is http: //www.hmc.gov.uk/homepage.html

As might be expected, the HMC's homepage is an excellent initiation for anyone interested in finding out about archives. From this homepage, it is possible to access the homepages of all national, university, special and local repositories in the UK represented on the WWW, and many more overseas. Above all, there is a direct link to the database run by the National Register of Archives, which can enable the rapid tracing of the location of collections held in British repositories, and interrogation of summary lists held by the NRA.

Lists of Web sites are one thing. But what is there to see when you actually get there? Currently, and over-simplistically, the available information falls into three main categories. In the first place, there is textual information - either in full or in part - about sources in particular subject areas. Secondly, it is possible to find the same sort of information about repositories and their contents, and how to locate them. And, thirdly, digitised copies of original documents are increasingly becoming available.

Subject Information

The BUBL WWW subject tree for history

http://link.bubl.ac.uk/history/

BUBL in fact stands for Bulletin Board for Libraries, and there's a vast amount of relevant information to be found on its pages.

http://www.ihr.sas.ac.uk/ihr/ihr0101.html

Ever wanted the entire contains of the Institute of Historical Research's library in your briefcase? Well, this isn't quite it, but there's plenty here to keep you going, including databases containing details of On-line resources for historians in the UK, London, Europe and the rest of the world.

http: //cs6400.mcc.ac.uk/genuki/

GENUKI - the UK & Ireland Genealogical Information Service - provides a 'virtual reference library' of family history sources with particular reference to the British Isles.

Repositories and their contents

There are now numerous examples on the Web, with the number growing almost daily. Some of the best are:

http://www.susx.ac.uk/Units/library/manuscript/homemanu.html

This is one of the clearest and most attractively produced guides, and includes details of, for example, the library's Bloomsbury Group material.

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/bihr/

Apart from extensive details about the Borthwick's own collections, this address also contains pointers to other archival sources in York, and to other Web sites of potential interest to the researcher.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/Library/asc/ index.html

This site contains both summary descriptions and lists of Durham University's extensive archival holdings.

http://www.demon.co.uk/lincs-archives/la_ndx.htm

An imaginative introductory guide aimed primarily at the genealogist.

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/mrc.html

This contains the whole of the text of the published Guide to the MRC's holdings.

Digital images

Many WWW pages incorporate digital images into their displays. Usually, this is to make the textual information available more accessible (i.e. attractive). Increasingly, however, as technology and pilot projects develop, digitised copies of whole documents or even books are becoming available. Some good current examples of these are:

http://www.clues.abdn.ac.uk:8080/besttest/firstpag.html

This is an HEFCE-funded pilot scheme for producing a digitised image of a religious text which originated in England in c.1200. The full colour images of the original folios are accompanied by explanatory commentaries, background notes, together with transcriptions and translations (from the Latin original). There is a similar, though less impressive, medieval manuscripts digitisation project at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

http://portico.bl.uk/access/beowulf/electronic-beowulf.html

Although less impressive than the Aberdeen project, the importance of this digitisation of the first great English literary masterpiece dating from the eleventh century should not be underestimated.

http://sentinel.mcc.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/YKS/yrksdict/

This is a complete copy of Thomas Langdale's A topographical dictionary of Yorkshire for the year 1822. It is divided by Ridings, and eminently usable.

Last, and I hope not least, the Brynmor Jones Library's own Web pages for archives are available at:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/lib/archives/

These are constantly being updated. They currently contain a summary guide, details of access arrangements, and a complete list of holdings arranged both alphabetically and by subject. In the not-too-distant future it should also be possible to access the Hull University Manuscripts and Archives Database (HUMAD2) via the World Wide Web.

Brian Dyson