Managing and mining historical research data

The purpose of this paper is to review how historical research data are managed and mined today.

The methodology builds on observations over the last decade.

Reading speed is a factor in managing the quantity of text in historical research. Twenty years ago historical research involved visits to physical libraries and archives, but today much of the information is online. The granularity of reading has changed over recent decades and recognizing this change is an important factor in improving acce.

Computer-based humanities text mining could be simpler if publishers and libraries would manage the data in ways that facilitate the process. Some aspects still need development, including better context awareness, either by writing context awareness into programs or by encoding it in the text.

Future researchers who want to make use of text mining and distant reading techniques will need more thorough technical training than they get today.

There is relatively little discussion of text mining and distant reading in the LIS literature.