Oxford University Computing Services Research Information Management Tools for the Humanities

Oxford University Computing Services Today’s arrangements ▪Your teachers are: ▪We finish at: ▪You will have:Course book

Oxford University Computing Services Your safety and comfort are important ▪Where is the fire exit? ▪Please report any equipment faults to us ▪The toilets are along the corridor outside the lecture rooms ▪The rest area is where you registered; it has vending machines and a water cooler ♫♪

Oxford University Computing Services The course handbook ▪Tasks for you to practise during today’s course ▪Work at your own pace! ▪Be selective ▪Follow-up work ▪Continue with exercises after the session ▪Computer-8 drop-in sessions at OUCS

Oxford University Computing Services 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 5

Oxford University Computing Services Finding out about useful tools ▪Research Skills Toolkit: ▪Bodleian Libraries WISER sessions ▪Colleagues and friends ▫Suggestions of new tools ▫Tips and tricks for using old ones ▪Google or other search engines 6

Oxford University Computing Services 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 7

Oxford University Computing Services 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 8

Oxford University Computing Services 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 9

Oxford University Computing Services 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 address to register with websites 10

Oxford University Computing Services 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 11

Oxford University Computing Services 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 12

Oxford University Computing Services Search utilities ▪Search s 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 Windows Search

Oxford University Computing Services Tools for tagging ▪Tabbles ▪TaggedFrog ▪TaggTool ▪Gmail ▪For images: ▫Flickr ▫Picasa 14

Oxford University Computing Services Bibliographic software ▪EndNote ▪RefWorks ▪Zotero ▪ColWiz ▪Mendeley 15

Oxford University Computing Services Other tools ▪Diigo ▪NVivo ▪AllMyNotes Organizer ▪Stickies 16

Oxford University Computing Services Have a go! ▪Try one or more of the exercises ▪Explore some of the tools that have been mentioned ▪Links are in the file called Tool website links – to be found on the network drive: H:\ or \LRx-nn 17

Oxford University Computing Services 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 18

Oxford University Computing Services Paper and electronic material ▪No simple solution (sorry!) ▪Scanning and OCR ▫OUCS Help Centre has scanners ▫Bodleian photocopiers can also scan ▪Digital pens ▪Integrated indexing 19

Oxford University Computing Services 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 20

Oxford University Computing Services Useful tools ▪OneNote ▪Planz ▪A.nnotate ▪Idea Rover ▪Scrivener 21

Oxford University Computing Services File synchronisation ▪Useful for multiple computers ▪Dropbox ▪SugarSync ▪Windows Live Mesh 22

Oxford University Computing Services Have a go! ▪Try one or more of the exercises ▪Explore some of the tools that have been mentioned ▪Links are in the file called Tool website links – to be found on the network drive: H:\ or \LRx-nn 23

Oxford University Computing Services 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 24

Oxford University Computing Services Spreadsheets ▪Use to analyse regular sets of information ▫Time series; census information; financial accounts ▪Useful for ▫Ordering lists ▫Numerical analysis ▫Creating charts and graphs 25

Oxford University Computing Services Spreadsheets 26

Oxford University Computing Services 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 27

Oxford University Computing Services Relational databases 28

Oxford University Computing Services 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 29

Oxford University Computing Services XML 30

Oxford University Computing Services 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 31

Oxford University Computing Services Coming soon – ORDS ▪The Oxford Research Database Service will be launched early in 2012 ▪Based on an online tool called the DaaS (Database as a Service) ▪Will provide a straightforward and inexpensive way of creating research databases (relational and XML) ▪Testing currently underway 32

Oxford University Computing Services The DaaS 33

Oxford University Computing Services Useful websites and services ▪Research Skills Toolkit ▫ ▪Research Data Management website ▫ ▪InfoDev ▫ ▪HFS back up service ▫ 34

Oxford University Computing Services Today, the exercise files are in your network drive H:\