Utilizing Technology in Research

As another week of reading has passed, the focus of the readings have shifted from questioning the validity of the digital revolution amongst historians to embracing it... kind of.  The advantages of digital equipment when it comes to cataloging and copying is undeniable.  Instead of spending hours copying information on a copier (and wasting a tremendous amount of trees), we can now take a picture of the page with its bibliography information and have it stored digitally.  The benefits are simple, no more crowded offices with stacks of paper lying everywhere and an easy to recall system utilizing key words.  To a younger crowd, this is studying 101, but to an older generation this may be a wake up call that today things can be a bit easier when one is willing to embrace the technology.  Some people tend to dig there heels into the dirt when it comes to this, they genuinely find comfort in the stacks of books and the piles of paper littered with Post-It notes and page markers.  While I myself have to admit that it is easier for me to flip through the papers and lay them out in an order on a table, I also must admit that spending the day at the copy machine isn't all that fun.  There will be give and take, and there will definitely be an adjustment phase to utilizing the technology properly.  Bear with me, it may not be as bad as you think.

In an online article ( http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2005/0501/0501arc1.cfm ) authors Kirklin Bateman, Sheila Brennan, Douglas Mudd, and Paula Petrik take a 101 type approach to utilizing technology to your benefit when researching.  This is a great article, what I find to be astonishing is that even though it was written in 2005, it seems to already be somewhat outdated.  In the article it presses the reader to make an investment in a few items that will make their lives easier when it comes to using technology to their benefit while doing research.  These items include a digital camera with several presets, a tripod, and a flat bed scanner that connects to ones laptop.  These all make great sense and can be very helpful, however, a bit cumbersome.  Why would I need all this equipment when there are cell phones such as the Nokia Lumia 1020 that houses a 41 megapixel camera?  The technology of cell phones today, coupled with the use of apps such as Evernote, make researching and saving information so easy, that the idea of lugging around a camera, tripod, and/or scanner... much less hundreds of pieces of paper seems ridiculous.  One big point that I found the article hits on is the importance of tagging information when you save it.  One a normal computer when you save images you need to come up with a system that will allow you to easily recall the image.  Such as putting the author of a book and the subject (i.e. Johnson_AndrewJackson), one possible downfall to this is simply forgetting your tag system that you have set up.  Again, this problem can be fixed with Evernote, simply tag something "History" and Evernote will file it under history, it also reads authors names and digitally scans the words from the picture to make them searchable as well.  So simply searching "Andrew Jackson Battle of New Orleans" under your "History" tags will bring up all saved pictures pertaining to Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.  Technology is not as hard and demanding as some make it out to be, this is the whole reason for apps, to make technology user friendly.

The question is, how do we catalog all of this data and use it to its full potential?  The answer is simple, sharing.  The problem is creating a system that this information can be shared on.  While forums on the internet are an easy way for certified members to share information, the difficulty lies in the exhaustive searches that accompany these forums.  Hours can be spent searching for a particular answer, so limitations must be set.  High definition pictures can be a life saver when it comes to researching a particular piece of art or historic document when one can not readily fly across the country and make physical contact with the item.  Although it is easy to research a document, wouldn't it be nice to have a website that one could go to and search for a high def version of a document?  There are multiple sights that specialize in certain events or certain people, the Youtube effect can be very rewarding when it comes to research.  The Youtube effect is simple, you research a topic and similar topics are brought up in a suggestion bar.  These may be subjects that are associated with the searched topic, that an individual hadn't even thought to research.  The amount of information on the internet is vast, and to organize this would be exhaustive, but I don't believe that the creators of Youtube ever realized that one day over 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute.  Its possible that the history community is focused enough that a similar website could be created, if we could quit arguing long enough to get it going.

I'm beginning to really focus on my research project, and I must admit, it is a bit exhausting.  I have a multitude of great ideas, the problem is figuring out how to effectively project them digitally without piggy-backing off of an existing idea.  As with anything, it would be great to be the first at something.  I'm strongly considering doing something that will tie into my internship at Hunt Cabin in the South Carolina Botanical Gardens.  I've already done a documentary, but I think it would be awesome to go a bit deeper into what it takes to maintain and restore a historic building.  I will update my progress on this as the days go by.

-Jason Barrett