Claudine Chionh gave a presentation on humanities computing and discussed the Founders and Survivors project, which digitizes historical records about Australian convicts. She explained how the project uses open-source tools like Drupal to migrate data from spreadsheets and databases into a digital archive for research and public access. Chionh also addressed challenges of humanities computing and opportunities for future collaboration and linking related digital archives.

1. Humanities computing
Claudine Chionh
University of Melbourne
2 March 2010 / LUV meeting
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2. Overview
The Founders and Survivors project
Humanities computing
Why FOSS?
Challenges
Drupal in action: Data migration
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3. Founders and Survivors
The Claudine
Woolwich 24/aug/1821 to Hobart 15/dec/1821 – 113 days at sea
160 male convicts boarded, 159 survived/landed (not a bad record)
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4. Founders and Survivors
Journal
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5. Founders and Survivors
Conduct registers
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6. Founders and Survivors
Archives of Tasmania convict index
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7. Founders and Survivors
Founders and Survivors
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8. Founders and Survivors
Van Diemen’s Land
Transportation period, 1803-1853
∼ 1 million rows of data
Quantifiable data: conduct registers, BDM. . .
Text: journals, newspaper reports
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9. Founders and Survivors
Genealogists
What happened to convicts after they were freed?
Links with genealogists for lives of convicts and their families.
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10. Founders and Survivors
The ‘factory plan’
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11. Humanities computing
Old questions, new tools?
Digitisation
Analyse large[r] amounts of material
Public access and collaboration
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12. Humanities computing
The Valley of the Shadow
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13. Humanities computing
The Valley of the Shadow
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14. Humanities computing
Old Bailey Online
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15. Humanities computing
Perseus Digital Library
Virgil’s Aeneid
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16. Humanities computing
‘Libraries’: Literary and linguistic applications
Index Thomisticus (1946)
Perseus
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17. Humanities computing
‘Archives’: Historical applications
Digitisation
Data analysis
Collaboration
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18. Humanities computing
Digitisation
Documents
Images
Linked/cross-referenced presentation of sources
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19. Humanities computing
Tasmanian Police Gazette, 1861-1933
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20. Humanities computing
Surgeon’s journals
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21. Humanities computing
Conduct registers
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22. Humanities computing
Data analysis
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23. Humanities computing
GIS
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24. Humanities computing
Collaboration
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25. Why FOSS?
Why FOSS?
Community of developers
Access
Values
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26. Why FOSS?
Community of developers
Mutual support
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Using and adapting tools
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27. Why FOSS?
Access
Make archival sources and research results accessible to general public
Sharing data with other researchers
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28. Why FOSS?
Values
Public interest
Free access, free expression
Dialogue
Public participation
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29. Challenges
The Two Cultures
The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
CP Snow, Rede Lecture, 1959
Literature/humanities vs science/tech
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30. Challenges
Many cultures?
Translating between academics, IT professionals, diverse public audience
Different priorities, research questions
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31. Challenges
Geeks and non-geeks
Non-geeks may not understand the values behind FOSS
Technology as magic
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32. Challenges
Where do developers belong?
Identity crisis
‘Digital humanities professional’ ?
Background – IT or academic?
Autonomy
Career progression
Where do humanities computing projects belong?
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33. Data migration
Screenshot: Index record
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34. Data migration
Why Drupal?
Modular
Define our own content types and views
Define user roles
Workflow
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35. Data migration
Index data
Access –> Excel –> CSV –> Drupal
Database on the web
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36. Data migration
Content Construction Kit
http://drupal.org/project/cck
Define your own data structures in Drupal
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37. Data migration
Rules
http://drupal.org/project/rules
More powerful than core Trigger and Action modules
Generate a title for each node
{index number} | {convict name} ({ship name})
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38. Data migration
Views
http://drupal.org/project/views
Define your own views of content
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39. Data migration
Table Wizard
http://drupal.org/project/tw
Expose a MySQL table or CSV file to Views
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40. Data migration
Table analysis
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41. Data migration
Migrate
http://drupal.org/project/migrate
Map structure of external table to a Drupal data structure
Migrate Extras http://drupal.org/project/migrate_extras to
migrate to CCK fields
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42. Data migration
Content set
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43. Data migration
Migrate dashboard
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44. Data migration
Drush
Web-based dashboard good for testing on small samples
Drush: the Drupal Shell http://drupal.org/project/drush
(out of memory issues)
Run drush migrate-import {content set} from cron
Approx. one week to migrate ∼ 80,000 records
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45. Where to from here?
Next stage of project
(manually) linking official index with public submissions
later life stories
WWI links
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46. Where to from here?
Links
The Valley of the Shadow http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/
Old Bailey Online http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Perseus Digital Library http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Index Thomisticus http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/it/
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47. Where to from here?
Links
Founders and Survivors http://www.foundersandsurvivors.org/
Mapping Our Anzacs http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/
Australian Newspapers (National Library)
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/
Essays in Humanities Computing
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/Essays/
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48. Where to from here?
Questions/advice?
http://claudine.github.com/2010/02/17/
drupal-table-wizard-migrate.html
http://www.slideshare.net/claudinec
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