Coping with all the information in the world while remaining sane

Who am IThe Internet as a source for academic

researchersResearch values and the digital age

Dr William Kilbride

wgk1@york.ac.uk

AAims and ims and OObjectivesbjectives

“To support research learning and teaching with high quality and dependable digital resources.”

The ADS hosts AHDS Archaeology which is jointly funded by

ads.ahds.ac.uk

ads.ahds.ac.uk

AHDSExecutive

ADS

AHDSHistory

AHDSLit Lang Ling

AHDSPerforming arts

AHDSVisual arts

AHDSArchaeology

Advisory Comm

Answer: trusted data services

Question: how do you obtain the information you

want as a researcher?

Chaos and authenticity in the digital age

Premise: There is too much information in the world

Say you want information about Westerwood, where there is a Roman fort and a stretch of the Antonine wall near Glasgow

The Data Bomb ads.ahds.ac.uk

But Google is just matching words. So the answers you get are liable to be:

Unreliable

Irrelevant

Out of date

The Data Bomb ads.ahds.ac.uk

There are authoritative and up to date sources.

They are all online.

Provided you know where to look …

The Data Bomb

•The National Monuments Record of Scotland

•The West of Scotland Sites and Monuments Record

•The National Museums of Scotland

•The Hunterian Museum

•The Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network

•The National Library of Scotland

•Scottish Records Office

•The Portable Antiquities Scheme

•North Lanarkshire County Council

•GUARD

•Historic Scotland

•Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

•Britannia

•Journal of Roman Studies

•Glasgow Archaeology Society

•Et al

NMS NMRS WOSAS SCRAN Etc…

(tired and disappointed)

You(tired and confused)

Current services offer mix of discover, access and use functionality

Even for authoritative sources,you need to join services together manually - as well as learning multiple user interfaces

Data providers shouting louder and louder about their web sites

NMS NMRS WOSAS SCRAN Etc..

This is a problem for academic and professional research which depends on accuracyconsistency comprehensiveness currency

So, it’s just not enough to make do with bland internet search engines.

If you rely on Google, you will produce poor scholarship and will be found out:

Blair T 2003 Weapons of Mass Destruction

But the good news …

Doing serial searches like this is boring and unnecessary

What we need are trusted portal services …

ads.ahds.ac.uk

Introducing …

ArchSearchhttp://ads.ahds.ac.uk/

catalogue/Featuring …ArchWayCBA Research ReportsPSASDefence of BritainArchway Spitalfields ArchiveThe Excavation IndexCanmoreAnd many many more

Academic values and the digital age

Academic values are hard won: slow to change

Perhaps they should not change at all

Collecting and integrating material is easy: no more gazetteers, hand lists etc…

Checking references is a lot harder

Prizes for critical analysis and nuanced integration of data

Quality measures: precision, accuracy and confidence

Much more currency: need to react quickly

Preservation

These are exciting times for scholarship

Information brokers vs search engines

3rd party recommendations

JISC data services are services so make them work for you

Dr William Kilbride

wgk1@york.ac.uk

ads.ahds.ac.uk

Bland conclusions: