Digital History...Oh the Places You'll Go!

This week's readings delve into the pros and cons of Google Books and the many many research projects that have grown up within and around it. Dan Cohen, the Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America, asked "Is Google good for history?" and answers with a resounding Yes! Without a doubt. Google Books has not only made available previously obscure print books but also enabled further historical research to grow from this online repository. In fact, not only has it enabled new research, it also sheds new light on previous research. The sentiment expressed in Dr. Cebula's blog post Bring Me the Head of Stephen Burroughs! regarding looking back on prior research with newly available material is reiterated by other historians. Cohen describes a similar moment, "Researching in the pre-Google Books era, my textual evidence was limited—I could only read a certain number of treatises. The vastness of Google Books for the first time presents the opportunity to do a more comprehensive scan of [the literature available]."

We also looked at the progression of digital information and its dissemination. To the left here is an example of an early computer, (here being used by the CDC,) but similar to those used within newsrooms in America. In 1981, KRON news channel reported on newspaper companies using this new technology to print and send articles 'online'. The telephone modum and length of time it took to send an entire copy was laughable but in hindsight there is irony in the newspaper team saying they didn't want to profit from it - little did they know that print newspapers would disappear along with vendors and printers just a couple of decades later.