Introduction

 Since the emergence of the World Wide Web several decades ago, technology has prospered significantly in terms of both purpose and efficiency.  For the purpose of this blog post and the week three requirements outlined as a part of George Mason University’s HIST390 course I will be focusing on how digital opportunity has contributed to our ability to preserve and explore history, and the pros and cons associated with this.

Preserving History

There are a variety of tools which available to convert a historical item from its original form into a digital representation.  Chapter 3 of Cohen and Rosenzwieg’s Digital History explains techniques and machinery used to covert text, audio, video, or images depend on the desired result, intention, resources, and budget.  Some of these tools include:

• Automatic sheet feeder
• Flatbed scanner
• Microfilm scanner
• Turntable
• VCR

My Research Experience

Researching historical events through digital archives and databases is something I didn’t experience until college.  I have taken classes at both James Madison University and George Mason University and have had the wonderful opportunity to access and familiarize myself with a range of databases accessible via student login on the University website.  Although tackling the online research databases was overwhelming at first, the University has done a good job of teaching me how to use it through practice for a variety of subjects.  I think it is amazing that students have access to such materials, which for the average person could cost any range of viewing of membership fees.

Prior to this course I had some experience with programs such as LexusNexus, Academic Search Complete, and JSTOR.  For this assignment I explored an archive I was less familiar with, ProQuest Historical Newspaper.   I decided to start my search my entering “CIA secrets” in the basic search box.  The search yielded 46,605 results, so it was time to narrow it down.  Taking a course on the anthropology of drugs last year motivated me to research a topic we discussed lightly, controversy of the CIA conducting experiments involving LSD.  Entering a search for “CIA LSD” yielded a fraction of results in comparison to the prior search.  Although there were hundreds to explore, they were much easier to sort through in terms of relevancy.  Practice in using such databases helps us to be more efficient researchers.  Such programs are becoming increasingly user friendly and accessible.  One of the issues we discussed in class is the question of authenticity.  I would like to learn more about the process these items must go through to be approved for online use.

Above is a screen capture taken from my search.  The image was saved in PNG format, which is somewhat hard to see. I tried saving the image as a JPEG, but when I attempted to upload the image it would stop at 58%.  This is an example of how formatting can affect the usefulness of digital items.  However, the primary point I hoped to make with this image is that databases use lists and sublists to assist users in conducting a more defined search.  On the right hand side of the page, the user can choose to narrow their results based on:

1. Publication type
2. Document type
3. Tags
4. Data base
5. Publication date