1. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History An introduction to AHDS History Mark Merry Collections Officer

2. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The History Data Service National service funded by UK tertiary education sector –Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) http://www.jisc.ac.uk –Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) http://www.ahrb.ac.uk Founded in 1993 Based in the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex http://www.data-archive.ac.uk Part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) http://ahds.ac.uk Team of four historians and IT specialists

3. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History AHDS History Arts and Humanities Data Service comprises: –Managing Executive (Kings College London) –AHDS Archaeology (University of York) –AHDS History (University of Essex) –AHDS Literature, Language and Linguistics (University of Oxford) –AHDS Performing Arts (University of Glasgow) –AHDS Visual Arts (Surrey Institute of Art and Design) The AHDS is evolving: –Process of integration of subject specific service providers –Name change from History Data Service to AHDS History –Same old service… only better!

4. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History What do we do? AHDS History collects, preserves, provides access to and promotes the use of digital resources, which result from or support historical research, learning and teaching.

5. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History What do we actually do? Provide advice and training about creating, describing, using and preserving historical digital resources We collect and preserve historical digital resources Provide access to a wide-ranging collection of historical digital resources including resources held by other repositories Develop online data and metadata delivery systems to enhance access to this collection Establish thematic special collections, and enrich and enhance selected data collections Promote standards and best practice in the creation, description, use and preservation of historical digital resources

6. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Over 600 data collections transcribed, scanned or compiled from original historical sources Databases, spreadsheets, digitized maps, transcribed texts, digital photographs, GIS data Covering the period from the 7th century through to the mid-20th century Primary focus is in UK data, with a significant body of cross-national and non-UK data collections

7. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Particularly strong in 19th and 20th century economic and social history Census data (1881 100% sample; 1851 2% sample; lots of local census returns) Great Britain Historical Database online Taxation materials Large scale datasets of Welsh and Irish historical statistics Electoral data (poll books for Westminster, Sandwich, Colchester, Ashford and other places) Criminal court records (e.g. a collection of datasets on violent crimes 1600-1900) Agricultural statistics (prices, output) Surveys of Scottish witchcraft State finance data Economic indicators/industrial production data

8. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Transcribed texts Violence in Early Modern England: a Regional Survey, 1600-1800; Cheshire The aim of this project was to carry out a systematic analysis of crimes of violence tried in the courts of the county of Cheshire, in the period 1601-1800 Statistics relating to homicides prosecuted at the Court of Great Sessions at Chester Supplementary data dealing with non- homicidal violence from the County Quarter Sessions of Cheshire and the Chester City Sessions Transcription of depositions and an account of a murder case in 1648 allows the reconstruction of insights into the qualitative and attitudinal aspects of the history of violence

9. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Statistical data Parish Register Aggregate Analyses, 1662- 1811; 404 Data (Population History of England, 1541-1871) Vital statistics taken from parish registers as part of the work of Schofield and Wrigley and the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure An important set of historical data generated by volunteers Work being done by AHDS History to increase its usefulness

10. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Regional studies Town and Countryside in West Berkshire, c.1400-1600 Textual data and numerical statistics drawn from a variety of local, regional and national sources pertaining to this area in the period 1400-1600 Similar projects drawing on variety of often disparate sources for other communities and periods

11. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Maps/data about maps Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata Enclosure, Rating, Drainage and Sanitary Maps of England and Wales in Public Archives, 1598-1936

12. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History The AHDS History collection Photographs Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850-1998 Statistics, photographs, transcribed interviews, and a transcribed field journal

13. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History Access to AHDS History collection Funded to provide access to researchers in HE/FE environment… … but not exclusively Access to collection via: UK Data Archive registration AHDS History Download service

14. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History Who deposits data with AHDS History? Research projects funded by academic funding bodies Academics who generate digital data during the course of their research Anybody who has a digital resource derived from historical sources which may be of use to another researcher All of these need to meet specific criteria before we accession the data (quality, documentation, format)

15. Archives Awareness 2003 - © AHDS History Further Information AHDS History website: http://hds.essex.ac.uk Browse collection/download data: http://hds.essex.ac.uk/studybrowse/index.asp Search catalogue: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/search/searchStart.asp Advice on creating digital resources: http://hds.essex.ac.uk/create.asp Depositing data with AHDS History: http://hds.essex.ac.uk/deposit.asp Email hds@essex.ac.uk Tel. 01206 872326 AHDS History UK Data Archive University of Essex Colchester CO4 3SQ