Section 1: What is Humanities Data?
Let's Begin
In this tutorial, you'll:- learn what is considered data in humanities research;
- learn about the "data journey" within in the research lifecycle;
- define data management and discover it's many components;
- learn how to apply file naming best practices;
- gain an understanding of data documentation and metadata best practices; and
- discover data storage, backup, and sharing options.
Section 1: What is Humanities Data?
Let's first consider how humanities data has been defined and explained by information professionals and experts in the field of digital humanities.Dr. Trevor Owens, Head of Digital Content Management, Library of Congress explains:
We can choose to treat data as different kinds of things. First, as constructed things, data are a species of artifact. Second, as authored objects created for particular audiences, data can be interpreted as texts. Third, as computer-processable information, data can be computed in a whole host of ways to generate novel artifacts and texts which are then open to subsequent interpretation and analysis. Which brings us to evidence. Each of these approaches—data as text, artifact, and processable information—allow one to produce or uncover evidence that can support particular claims and arguments. Data is not in and of itself a kind of evidence but a multifaceted object which can be mobilized as evidence in support of an argument.
Owens, Trevor. “Defining Data for Humanists: Text, Artifact, Information or Evidence?” Journal of Digital Humanities 1, no. 1 (Winter 2011).
Dr. Johanna Drucker, Department of Information Studies, UCLA considers:
Drucker, Johanna. “Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2011).To overturn the assumptions that structure conventions acquired from other domains requires that we re-examine the intellectual foundations of digital humanities, putting techniques of graphical display on a foundation that is humanistic at its base. This requires first and foremost that we reconceive all data as capta. Differences in the etymological roots of the terms data and capta make the distinction between constructivist and realist approaches clear. Capta is “taken” actively while data is assumed to be a “given” able to be recorded and observed. From this distinction, a world of differences arises. Humanistic inquiry acknowledges the situated, partial, and constitutive character of knowledge production, the recognition that knowledge is constructed, taken, not simply given as a natural representation of pre-existing fact.
And finally, The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Office of Digital Humanities states:
Data Management Plans for NEH Office of Digital Humanities Proposals and Awards“Data” is defined as materials generated or collected during the course of conducting research.
Examples of humanities data could include citations, software code, algorithms, digital tools, documentation, databases, geospatial coordinates (for example, from archaeological digs), reports, and articles.
Activity: Given these definitions and examples of data, what do you think it means to manage data in the humanities? What activities do you think would be included in managing your data?