Official Course Description
[b]Introduction to Digital Source Criticism (combination of lecture & practical work).[/b]
This entry-level class will introduce historians and other students to the elementary steps of digital source criticism. It will seek to equip students to ask important questions about the accessibility, usability, content, scope, currency and positionality of the digital resources (like web pages, digital archives and other digital sources that they may use during and outside of their university study). Existing knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3 would be useful for this class but this is not a pre-requisite of the class.
By the end of this module students will be able to:
1. define accessibility; articulate its technical, social and legal dimensions; and evaluate the accessibility levels of selected digital resources
2. define usability, discuss why it matters and have gained some familiarity with standard methodologies for accessing the usability levels of digital platforms and other resources
3. discuss the scope and depth of the selection rationale that can underpin digital archives based on an in depth case study of historical newspaper digitisation initiatives to be studied in class.
A core text for this class will be: Hauswedell, T., Nyhan, J., Beals, M.H. et al. Of global reach yet of situated contexts: an examination of the implicit and explicit selection criteria that shape digital archives of historical newspapers. Arch Sci 20, 139165 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-020-09332-1. Other texts will be specified in due course.
This class will be examined by essay only.
[b]Introduction to Digital Source Criticism (combination of lecture & practical work).[/b]
This entry-level class will introduce historians and other students to the elementary steps of digital source criticism. It will seek to equip students to ask important questions about the accessibility, usability, content, scope, currency and positionality of the digital resources (like web pages, digital archives and other digital sources that they may use during and outside of their university study). Existing knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3 would be useful for this class but this is not a pre-requisite of the class.
By the end of this module students will be able to:
1. define accessibility; articulate its technical, social and legal dimensions; and evaluate the accessibility levels of selected digital resources
2. define usability, discuss why it matters and have gained some familiarity with standard methodologies for accessing the usability levels of digital platforms and other resources
3. discuss the scope and depth of the selection rationale that can underpin digital archives based on an in depth case study of historical newspaper digitisation initiatives to be studied in class.
A core text for this class will be: Hauswedell, T., Nyhan, J., Beals, M.H. et al. Of global reach yet of situated contexts: an examination of the implicit and explicit selection criteria that shape digital archives of historical newspapers. Arch Sci 20, 139165 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-020-09332-1. Other texts will be specified in due course.
This class will be examined by essay only.
- Lehrende: Julianne Nyhan
Semester: WT 2021/22