http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/tags/archives Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Tag: archives - Recent Posts en-US Fri, 13 May 2016 19:26:58 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/search.php http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/where-do-you-go-for-data#post-2257 Thu, 13 Nov 2014 10:33:38 +0000 thomasgpadilla 2257@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>Where do you go for data to support your DH work aside from LAMs (library, archive, museum) specific repositories? </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/have-you-used-mongodb-for-dh-project#post-1851 Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:49:03 +0000 jlmcdonald@gmail.com 1851@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>I think MongoDB has a lot to offer DH projects -- it basically incorporates some of the best features of a document-oriented database and a relational database all in one. For so much of the data often worked with in DH projects, that are sometimes squished and squeezed so much to fit a relational model that never quite works, a schemaless approach to indexing and storing data like Mongo has works very well. I especially see value for those projects that don't need a full-blown structured repository like FEDORA, but that need more than flat files or relational DBs can do.</p> <p>Having said that, the biggest thing to consider is that you say using MySQL works very well already for you. If you can't tell that there is something missing, not-quite-right, or not efficient enough with your current setup, the transition to Mongo may not be worth the effort in the long run. Mongo is pretty straightforward to set up, but it does approach data differently and doesn't use SQL at all, so when you say you'd be rewriting the backend, you'd really be rewriting it! You have to evaluate your data itself to know if the effort is worth it. Is your data tabular, or document-based? Are you mostly dealing with numbers and simple structured data (with some relationships), or heavily semantic data with complex metadata?</p> <p>Perhaps another path to consider, if you decide to rewrite your back end, is to completely decouple it from your front end. Create a thin layer that is nothing but a RESTful API -- the api talks to the DB and only spits out structured JSON on the other end. This would also likely require some tweaking of your front end, but it will A) make it so you can then very easily write multiple other front ends (mobile, TV, etc) without a hitch, and B) 3 years from now, if you decide to change out the DB layer again, it's much easier to then create a new API generator that will offer the same data structures than it is to create an all new backend interface. There are lots of starting point solutions for quickly generating RESTful APIs whether your DB is MySQL, Mongo, or something else. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/have-you-used-mongodb-for-dh-project#post-1850 Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:19:42 +0000 boybot16@gmail.com 1850@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>We have a DH project that's currently uses MySQL for the database, and it works very well.</p> <p>There has been much recent talk about NoSQL databases, particularly MongoDB, promising flexibility and scalability. We're considering re-writing the backend. Is anyone in the DH community seriously using MongoDB?</p> <p>If you have used MongoDB for a DH project, what has been your experience with it? Biggest joy? Gotchas to look out for? Is conversion worth it for libraries and archives open source projects? </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1660 Tue, 22 May 2012 20:34:27 +0000 Kevin Hawkins 1660@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>I recommend <a href="http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/Samples_of_TEI_texts" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/Samples_of_TEI_texts</a> . </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1659 Tue, 22 May 2012 20:27:13 +0000 Kevin Hawkins 1659@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>I recommend <a href="http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/Samples_of_TEI_texts" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/Samples_of_TEI_texts</a> . </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1658 Tue, 22 May 2012 20:01:11 +0000 Arno Bosse 1658@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p><em>Replying to @<a href='/profile/tanyaclement'>tanyaclement</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1656">post</a>:</em></p> <p>There's a fairly massive collection of German literary and broader cultural texts which can be accessed from the <a href="http://www.textgrid.de/en/digitale-bibliothek.html">TextGrid Digital Library</a>. Another good place to look is the <a href="http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/index.html">Oxford Text Archive</a>. This link from <a href="http://tei.oucs.ox.ac.uk/Projects/TEItoePub/">digital.humanities@oxford</a> highlights some more recent conversions. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1657 Tue, 22 May 2012 19:27:03 +0000 Christopher Thomson 1657@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p><a href="http://www.nzetc.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.nzetc.org</a> has a large collection of New Zealand and Pacific texts, including poetry, history, biography, autobiograpjy, periodicals, and lots more. Out of copyright works are generally available on a creative commons licence and the TEI file is available for download as well as epub and other formats in some cases. You'll find lots of great collections here that demonstrate a fairly large scale digital publishing use of TEI (though you might find some examples of more specialised uses in there as well). </p> <p><em>Replying to @<a href='/profile/tanyaclement'>tanyaclement</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1656">post</a>:</em> </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/tei-sample-collections-needed#post-1656 Tue, 22 May 2012 12:59:53 +0000 tanyaclement 1656@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>We'd like to point to freely available, well formatted TEI texts online (poetry, prose). Where is the best URL to send people? TEI By Example doesn't have whole texts. Projects Using TEI (<a href="http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Projects/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Projects/</a>) is somewhat difficult to peruse, can have dead links, and doesn't indicate if the texts are available or not. </p> <p>Any suggestions? </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1473 Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:28:18 +0000 krista.harper@gmail.com 1473@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>The qualitative text analysis program, MAXQDA, allows you to code and annotate pdf, doc, txt, and rtf files--so it's possible later to search and retrieve across photos, website content, interview transcriptions, academic articles, etc. There's also a new web-based software called Dedoose that works in a similar way--definitely a tool that could be used to organize digital humanities and multimedia social sciences projects. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1464 Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:48:02 +0000 Miriam Posner 1464@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>Thanks, everyone! In case anyone's interested, <a href="http://miriamposner.com/blog/?p=982">here's</a> a blog post detailing what I ended up presenting at the workshop. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1373 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:29:03 +0000 Wally Grotophorst 1373@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>I'll mention two pieces of software and give you a link to blog posts I've found that explain their utility in this context:</p> <p>Scrivener - a great research/writing tool for Mac (and now Windows). Even compiles into Epub or Kindle (.mobi) if desired.</p> <p><a href="http://www.organizingcreativity.com/2009/08/scrivener-a-perfect-program-for-dissertation-writing/" rel="nofollow">http://www.organizingcreativity.com/2009/08/scrivener-a-perfect-program-for-dissertation-writing/</a><br /> <a href="http://www.tameri.com/wordpress/2010/06/28/why-i-use-scrivener/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tameri.com/wordpress/2010/06/28/why-i-use-scrivener/</a></p> <p>DevonThink Pro - for storage/retrieval of research materials</p> <p><a href="http://idlethink.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/on-devonthink-and-history-research-i/" rel="nofollow">http://idlethink.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/on-devonthink-and-history-research-i/</a> </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1368 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:10:26 +0000 Micah Vandegrift 1368@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>Someone mentioned this, sort of, but I've become a believer in Evernote as of late. I can save any type of media, and add comments right in the note, then using tags, organize my notes in folders. In addition to Evernote, and keeping with the simplicity theme, Dropbox is as easy as it gets for syncing and keeping things in order, in my opinion. </p> <p>As for a name for the workshop:<br /> Organization is half the Dissertation Battle - Mastering Digital Asset Management </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1365 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:36:10 +0000 Arno Bosse 1365@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p><em>Replying to @Miriam Posner's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1362">post</a>:</em></p> <p>Agreed, manual item by item editing in Omeka is still a drag though it's possible to avoid some of this by keeping one's catalog/metadata in a database or Excel and periodically uploading this to Omeka as CSV. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1364 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:58:10 +0000 Kevin Hawkins 1364@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>If these students are interested not only in attaching metadata to digital objects but also annotating these digitally, I recommend qualitative analysis software like NVivo. (There are surely other options, but this is the one I played around with about eight years ago.) You can add annotations to various file formats and search across them. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/share-your-digital-research-workflow#post-1362 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:07:00 +0000 Miriam Posner 1362@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>Thanks for these excellent answers, y'all! I'm really intrigued by the idea of making your research process public with Omeka, and in a way, it makes a lot of sense, especially with Scripto integration for transcription. But it seems to me that the process of attaching metadata to each archival document individually could be unworkably time-consuming, depending on how much material you have. Plus, maybe it's just my server, but Omeka can be a bit slow to navigate sometimes. </p> <p>Alex, personally, I do use Zotero to organize my sources, and it works great for me. Still, for some things, it's not totally ideal. For example, it doesn't show you a preview of photographs, so if you have a lot of them, it can be difficult to figure out which one you want. Also, while I would be really cool and organized if I attached metadata to each item, I often return from the archives with hundreds or even thousands of photographs. </p> <p>One thing students have been asking me about is just managing file sizes, saving things in proper formats, developing naming conventions, and backing up their data. I'm thinking one place to point them is the Library of Congress's information on personal digital archiving. Without trying to turn these students into professional archivists, I'm very interested in hearing what other helpful information is out there.</p> <p>Thanks! </p>