Race between print and‘digital’ in the world of local history, writes Barry Shurlock…
THOSE who like to finger the pages of a book, make pencil notes in the margin, or even sniff the paper, are understandably horrified at the thought of an all-digital world. But low costs and the convenience of this ever-growing means of communication is reaching all walks of life.
And to mark the retirement of Anglo-Saxon expert Professor Barbara Yorke, who started her academic career in Winchester in 1977, colleagues and former pupils recently produced The Land of the English Kin, edited by Ryan Lavelle and Alexander Langlands. This substantial work of scholarship honoured her enormous contribution to a new understanding of early medieval history, or the Dark Ages.
Significantly, it was published digitally, as well as in print, and can be downloaded free from https://brill.com. This is clearly the way that professional historians are able to publish extensive texts and make them widely available. And it raises the interesting possibility that born-digital publishing may become the norm.
To explore this theme, the Hampshire Field Club and the Hampshire Archives Trust have just run ‘From Research to Page’, the first of a two-part virtual conference on the use of digital techniques for publishing the sort of material that traditionally appears in print – from small booklets to colour-illustrated hardback volumes.
Key messages include the fact that now, when researching the county’s past, it’s not enough to look at documents and photographs, but also required is a trawl of the Hampshire Collection of websites archived by the Hampshire Record Office, Winchester, in association with the British Library (www.webarchive.org.uk).
Another significant development is that low-resolution images suitable for digital publishing from the extensive collections of the Hampshire Cultural Trust – such as the examples shown here – can now be used for non-commercial purposes free of charge under Creative Commons licensing.
And electronic ‘pages’ of text and illustrations to match any book or journal can be created readily with a variety of publishing packages, including standard Microsoft Word software.
Professionals have long grasped the benefits of publishing material electronically, but local historians are only just starting and there are many advantages yet to be explored. Unlike printed products, the number of colour images is hardly restricted by cost, whilst digital production offers new creative options, such integration of film and oral history.
The meeting heard that although digital methods allow products by individuals or societies to be self-published cheaply with minimal technical expertise, the means and costs of marketing must not be forgotten.
As well as mimicking print formats – delivered for example as PDFs, e-books or on-demand – there are a number of other options of growing popularity, including podcasts, vodcasts (with video) and the like.
Equally, whereas conventional publications only list references to sources, with a digital product it is possible to append whole documents, or give hyperlinks to sources available online. Comment boxes offer the facility to receive new information or corrections from users in a more orderly way than the existing Facebook forums.
Despite these advantages, the ‘old disciplines’ of print still apply, with the need for peer review, permissions to use copyrighted material, effective editing, proof-reading and legal deposit with the British Library and other major libraries.
Heather Needham, Digital and Media Archives Manager at the HRO, gave expert advice, pointing out that digital products run the risk of being unreadable when current formats and software platforms become obsolete.
Simple precautions include preserving a few hard copies of all products and migrating products from ‘dying’ formats to new ones. Keeping copies on more than one kind of storage medium is also recommended, such as both a solid-state drive and the cloud (cloud-storage-guidance.pdf: www. nationalarchives.gov.uk).
Once published, digital products, like printed ones, may be deposited with the HRO, as outlined on the HCC website at: Support us | Hampshire County Council, www.hants.gov.uk.
The huge numbers of documents and photographs – as well as objects – held by museums were highlighted by Sam Butcher, a member of the Collections Team of the Hampshire Cultural Trust, based in Winchester.
Other key sites in the county, as well as the HRO, include the archives of Southampton and Portsmouth. These sources hold many rare images, whilst historic Ordnance Survey maps can be downloaded from the National Library of Scotland and, with conditions, be used free of charge. Another useful source is Geograph.
He emphasised that although many digital images can be found on the HCT website, they represent “only a fraction of what is available”. Low-resolution images, which are “fine for digital publishing”, can be provided free of charge, provided their use is non-commercial.
Commenting on technical aspects, he said that JPEG or PNG file formats are ideal, with file sizes of about 500 kilobytes and resolution of 1,500-2,000 pixels. Image editing software is available free at www.befunky.com, whilst many PCs are loaded with suitable software, such as Paint. Whatever editing is done, a copy of an untouched original should be kept.
Conference participant Karen Anderson, who studies medieval archaeology in the lower Test Valley around Romsey, suggested the use of side-by-side comparisons of OS maps and LiDAR images for highlighting topography.
A master class on the use of standard Microsoft Word software to create professional documents was given by Martin Coppen, who creates the pages of the Andover History and Archaeology Society.
The use of the ‘Styles’ box on the toolbar – which is hardly noticed by most users! – is the key. A right-hand click of any item there enables the style of each element of a document to be fixed – headings, quotes, sub-titles and the like.
He gave practical advice on styling submitted material, such as first stripping out all the author’s formatting (revealed by the paragraph icon, ¶) before adding that of the document being prepared.
Also, although it is helpful for an author to insert images and captions where required, they should be stripped out before styling – and later inserted from separate picture files which the author has submitted. Together with the ‘Layout’ option of ‘fix position on page’, this avoids “chaotic repositioning” of images.
A demonstration of styling a document can be viewed, together with the other presentations in ‘From Research to Page’, in a ‘live edit’ by Martin in a video posted on the YouTube channel of the Hampshire Field Club.
A second virtual session on born-digital publishing entitled ‘From Page to Product’ will be held by HAT and the HFC on Tuesday October 26 at 7 pm. There will be presentations on on-demand publishing by local author and publisher John Owen Smith (just send off the PDF and watch the money roll in!) and another on the use of film and sound by the manager of the Wessex Film and Sound Archive, held at the HRO, Zoe Viney.
For detailed notes ‘From Research to Page’, and a link for the second session free of charge contact: rogerottewill@btinternet.com. For more on Hampshire, visit: www.hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk and www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk.
barryshurlock@gmail.com.
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