Dr Jane Winters Head of Publications & IHR Digital, Institute of Historical Research was involved in the development of the Connected Histories: Sources for Building British History, 1500-1900 website http://www.connectedhistories.org/ which was launched in 2011 and offers a federated search of 15 major databases of primary source economic, social and political history texts and images. She offered insight into the development and content of the site.
British Library engagement with its user communities
Connected Histories: Sources for Building British History, 1500-1900
1. Connected Histories
Building Sources for British History, 1500–1900
Jane Winters (Head of Publications & IHR Digital,
Institute of Historical Research)
ALISS – Open doors, 13 December 2011
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3. • British History Online
• British Museum Images
• British Library Newspapers, 1600–1900
• Cause Papers in the Diocesan Courts of the Archbishopric of
York, 1300–1858
• Charles Booth Online Archive
• Clergy of the Church of England Database, 1540–1835
• Convict Transportation Registers Database
• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
4. • John Foxe’s The Acts and Monuments Online
• John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera
• John Strype’s Survey of London Online
• London Lives, 1690–1800
• Nineteenth-Century British Pamphlets (JSTOR)
• Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online, 1674–1913
• Origins Network
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6. Future additions
• 65,000 19th-century books from the BL via JISC
Historic Books
• Additional 19th-century material from BL
Newspapers
• History of Parliament Online
• Victoria County History
• Lane’s Masonic Records 1717–1894
7. Facts and figures
• Over 4 billion words
• 469,000 publications
• 3.1 million further pages of text
• 87,000 maps and images
• 254,000 individuals in databases
• Over 100 million name instances
8. Challenges I
• Different data types and structure
– Images with metadata only
– Images with metadata and OCRed text
– Structured databases
– Rekeyed text
– OCRed text (the two largest resources fall into this
category)
9. Challenges II
• Different access arrangements
– Subscription only
– Mixture of subscription and free content (British History
Online)
– Free access to UK HEIs (via JISC), but subscription only for
non-UK
– Free access
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20. Contact
Web – www.history.ac.uk
Email – jane.winters@sas.ac.uk
Blog – ihr-history.blogspot.com
Twitter – @ihr_history
Facebook – www.facebook.com/IHRDigital