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Digitising History: A Guide to Creating Digital Resources from  
Historical Documents   
 
The History Data Service is pleased to announce that this guide to  
creating, documenting and preserving digital is now available in print  
from Oxbow Books (ISBN 1-900188-91-0). Please contact Oxbow  
Books, email: [log in to unmask], telephone: +44 (0) 1865  
241249, fax: ++44 (0) 1865 794449 for details.   
 
The web version of this guide, which was published in April, is still  
available at http://hds.essex.ac.uk/g2gp/digitising_history/index.html   
 
The guide is intended as a reference work for individuals and  
organisations involved with, or planning, the computerisation of  
historical source documents. It aims to recommend good practice and  
standards that are generic and relevant to a range of data creation  
situations, from student projects through to large-scale research  
projects. The guide focuses on the creation of tabular data which can  
be used in databases, spreadsheets or statistics packages, however,  
many of the guidelines are more widely applicable.   
 
The guide includes a glossary and a bibliography of recommended  
reading, and offers guidance about:   
 
* Effectively designing and managing a data creation project.   
 
* Transferring historical source documents into digital form and  
designing a database.   
 
* Choosing appropriate data formats and ensuring that a digital  
resource can be preserved without significant information loss.   
 
* Documenting a data creation project.   
 
The guide has been commissioned by the History Data Service as part  
of the Arts and Humanities Data Service publication series Guides to  
Good Practice in the Creation and Use of Digital Resources. The series  
aims to provide guidance about applying recognised good practice and  
standards to the creation and use of digital resources in the arts and  
humanities.   
 
Cressida Chappell, History Data Service, Data Archive, University of  
Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, Phone +44 (0)1206  
873984, Fax +44 (0)1206 872003, email [log in to unmask],  
http://hds.essex.ac.uk/   
 
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