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Research Information
Management
Tools for the Humanities
Oxford University Computing Services
You should have...
▪ A copy of the course handbook
▫ Includes more information about the topics
covered in this presentation
▫ Plus step-by-step instructions for the
exercises
▪ Access to the exercise files
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Information management
▪ How you organise all the source
material, notes, and other
documents that relate to your
research
▪ Today’s session introduces
some tools to help do this
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Finding out about useful tools
▪ Research Skills Toolkit:
http://www.skillstoolkit.ox.ac.uk/
▪ Bodleian Libraries WISER sessions
▪ Colleagues and friends
▫ Suggestions of new tools
▫ Tips and tricks for using old ones
▪ Google or other search engines
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Desktop or online?
▪ Do you download the program, or log in
to a website?
▪ Where do you normally work?
▫ How many computers do you use?
▫ Do you always have Internet access?
▪ Some tools offer both desktop and Web
versions, for the best of both worlds
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Data storage and security
▪ Where is your data stored?
▫ On your hard drive?
▫ On a Web service’s server?
▫ On both?
▪ Are there any restrictions on what you
can do with your data?
▫ Confidentiality
▫ Copyright
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Safeguarding your data
▪ Online services are great, but what if...
▫ The service was down for maintenance?
▫ The site announced it was closing down?
▪ Can you export your data in a widely used
format?
▫ The site disappeared overnight?
▪ Do you have back up copies?
▪ Desktop services aren’t totally immune
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Safeguarding yourself
▪ Don’t be paranoid, but do take
reasonable precautions
▪ Check for reviews of unfamiliar software
▪ Keep your anti-virus software up to date
▪ Don’t reveal more personal information
than you’re comfortable with
▫ Consider using an alternative email
address to register with websites
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Organising electronic material
▪ What sort of system do you prefer?
▪ Hierarchical?
▫ Files organised in folders and sub-folders
▪ Tag-based?
▫ Each item has one or more tags or labels
▪ Each has strengths and weaknesses
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Retrieving information
▪ The way we plan to retrieve information
affects how we organise it
▪ Two main methods:
▫ Location-based finding
▫ Use a search function
▪ Greater use of searching may make us
more efficient
▫ Especially if we brush up search technique
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Search utilities
▪ Search emails and Web history as well
as files
▪ Index the contents of your computer for
speedy searching
▫ Though this can slow your computer down
▪ Common utilities include:
▫ Google Desktop
▫ Windows Search 4.0
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Tools for tagging
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Tabbles
TaggedFrog
TaggTool
Gmail
For images:
▫ Flickr
▫ Picasa
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Bibliographic software
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EndNote
RefWorks
Zotero
ColWiz
Mendeley
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Other tools
▪ Diigo
▪ NVivo
▪ AllMyNotes
Organizer
▪ Stickies
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Have a go!
▪ Try one or more of the exercises
▪ Explore some of the tools that
have been mentioned
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Integrating varied material
▪ How many types of information do
you work with?
▪ Integrating material can save time
▫ One collection to search instead of
several
▫ Less likely to miss things
▫ But you should only do it if it’s useful
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Paper and electronic material
▪ No simple solution (sorry!)
▪ Scanning and OCR
▫ Some photocopiers can also scan
▪ Digital pens
▪ Integrated indexing
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Electronic material
▪ One project may require several
types of material
▪ Storing these together makes life
easier
▪ Where this isn’t practical, a good
search utility may still help
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Useful tools
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OneNote
Planz
A.nnotate
Idea Rover
Scrivener
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File synchronisation
▪ Useful for
multiple
computers
▪ Dropbox
▪ SugarSync
▪ Windows Live
Mesh
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Have a go!
▪ Try one or more of the exercises
▪ Explore some of the tools that
have been mentioned
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Databases
▪ Use of structured (and semi-structured)
data growing in the humanities
▪ Databases and/or XML often underpin
websites
▪ Word processors not ideal for every
eventuality
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Spreadsheets
▪ Use to analyse regular sets of
information
▫ Time series; census information; financial
accounts
▪ Useful for
▫ Ordering lists
▫ Numerical analysis
▫ Creating charts and graphs
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Relational databases
▪ Use to analyse complex data involving
different (but connected) objects
▫ Linked tables – each similar to a
spreadsheet
▪ Useful for
▫ Flexibility
▫ Identifying relationships
▫ Structuring information for Web searching
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XML (and XML databases)
▪ A means of tagging information so that it
become machine-readable
▫ Can indicate proper names, parts of
speech, variable readings, or any other
characteristic of a section of text
▫ TEI XML is the standard for the humanities
▪ Useful for
▫ Textual analysis
▫ Preparing and presenting texts on the Web
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RDF metadata
▪ A means of expressing relationships
between data
▫ Used in developing the ‘Semantic Web’
▪ Useful for
▫ Integrating existing databases by mapping
metadata to a common standard
▫ Network analysis
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Useful websites and services
▪ Research Skills Toolkit
▫ http://www.skillstoolkit.ox.ac.uk/
▪ Research Data Management website
▫ http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/rdm/
▪ InfoDev
▫ http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/infodev/
▪ HFS back up service
▫ http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/hfs/
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Have a go!
▪ In small groups, discuss the
various scenarios in Exercise 7
▪ Be ready to feed back to the
whole group at the end
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