Below is a schedule of the project and how it will progress. Each stage will typically be accompanied by a release of our findings.
Stage 1: Pilot Analysis of Sample Databases
As a preliminary effort, project contributors will research basic characteristics of five digital humanities databases. These databases include the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, the Beazley Archive Pottery Database, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, the Epigrafik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby, and the London Stage Database. The intention of this pilot analysis is to be transparent in our orientation towards the contextualization of databases.
Stage 2: Literature Review
In this stage, the project will study current humanities literature which surrounds digital humanities databases. Using a systematic-literature-review approach, researchers will determine whether these databases are mentioned, the extent to which the databases are mentioned throughout the literature, and if the databases are mentioned, how they are referenced (for instance, a digital database may only be mentioned by name, may include the URL of the database, or may have a citation dedicated to it).
Stage 3: Identification of Descriptive Attributes for Describing Databases
Coinciding with the literature review, project researchers will identify essential attributes which can be used to describe and document databases. The end goal is to use these attributes in the construction of “biographies” for any digital database.
Stage 4: Identification of Key Datasets
We will create criteria for selecting key datasets in our further analyses. We will also create a form for external researchers to nominate datasets that the project should consider.
Stage 5: Describing 30 Datasets
Using criteria in the previous stage, the project contributors will select 30 desirable datasets. Biographies will be constructed for the datasets that are determined to be of interest.
Stage 6: REB Proposal for Interviews
As a final aspect of the Jackman Scholars-in-Residence (SiR) Program 2023, the project contributors will write an REB proposal to obtain permission for interviews of stakeholders involved in digital databases.
At this stage, our current findings will be presented during the Scholars-in-Residence Program’s program-end colloquium.
Stage 7: Interviews of Stakeholders
Following the preliminary work done within the Jackman Scholars-in-Residence (SiR) Program 2023, the project contributors will interview multiple stakeholders who are relevant to digital databases under study. These stakeholders may include the managers of databases, researchers who have cited databases in their scholarly work, and researchers who do not use digital humanities databases. An important goal will be to contextualize these databases in the professional experiences of scholars. By doing so, the project hopes to discover qualitative evidence for how digital humanities databases have shaped the work of humanities scholars.
Stage 8: Coding and Analysis of Interviews
After interviews of databases’ stakeholders are conducted, the research team will produce transcriptions of the interviews for coding. A coding scheme will be decided upon a conceptualization of the effects that databases may have produced on humanities scholarship. Then, this coding scheme will be used and augmented to classify different parts of the interviews.
Following the coding of interviews, researchers will analyze the interviews for trends and outstanding details. Findings will be published by the project.
Stage 9: Digital Database Biography Construction
In a stage which draws from all previous insights, the project will construct a template to itemize databases in the digital humanities. By identifying fundamental metadata about these databases, researchers hope to create a “biography” of each database. Relevant information may include the contents and scope of a database, the major contributors of a database (in terms of funding and content), and the features of the database (including legacy search features, accessibility features, and non-standard database functionality).
This template for a “digital humanities biography” will be important; a larger goal of the project is to compile a database whose items are digital humanities databases. Such a database would serve as a gateway for future research into the effect of digital humanities database on humanities scholarship.
The results of the project will be released through our website and through research colloquiums.
Humanities Database Biographies 