Tools for Digital Research

Text Analysis and Visualization | Online Collections | Research Tools | Blogs and Other Resources | Conferences and Organizations

Text Analysis and Visualization

• TaPoR offers a variety of tools for text analysis and exploration.
  • Need help getting started on your text analysis? Check out the TaPoR recipes page.
• RapidMiner – Data mining and analysis tool.
• TopBraid – Tools to help you model data and work with Semantic Web applications.
• R (The R Project for Statistical Computing) – Statistical computing and graphics tools.
• Visual Understanding Environment – Concept and content mapping.
• Wandora – “General purpose information gathering, management, and publishing appplication.”
• Open Calais – Toolkit for semantic functionality within a blog, content management system, website, etc.
• github - A public code repository.
• Visual Concept Explorer – Visually explore PubMed.
• Readability – Free widget that allows you to control the appearance of a website: change margins, background color, text style, etc.

Online Collections

• Medical Heritage Library – Our own collection at the Internet Archive!
• List of history of medicine digital collections maintained by McGill Library.
• Project Gutenberg – Free fiction and non-fiction texts in a variety of formats.
• The Oxford Text Archive – Text repository (access to some texts is restricted).
• The Women Writers Project (requires subscription) – Text repository for pre-Victorian women writers.
• Hathi Trust – Text repository.
• UVa Scholars’ Lab – Geospatial, text, image, and statistical resources.
• The Proceedings of the Old Bailey – Old Bailey Proceedings and Ordinary of Newgate Accounts.
• Trove – A collection of online resources about Australian history, including newspapers, books, music, and maps.
• CELT – “The Free Digital Humanities Resource for Irish history, literature, and politics.”
• DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals – Search for freely accessible, open access journals on almost any subject.
• Biodiversity Heritage Library – Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions working to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections.
• uBio – Project to create a comprehensive list of names of all living and once-living organisms.
• First World War Poetry Digital Archive – Primary source material from the major poets of the period.
• Turning the Pages – Online books made available by the British Library.
• Discover Yale Digital Commons – Access to a wide variety of items from the collections of Yale’s museums, libraries, and special collections.
• American Memory from the Library of Congress – Materials from the Library of Congress covering a variety of topics in American history.
• The Internet Archive – Huge multi-format archive hosting a wide variety of projects and materials.
• Online Archive of California – Aggregator for finding aids from more than 150 contributing institutions; also allows for digital access to some materials available online.
• Calisphere – Primary sources on the history of California.
• LOUISiana Digital Library – Online collection of material concerning the history of Louisiana, contributed from 22 participating institutions in Louisiana.
• The Embryo Project Encyclopedia – Online encyclopedia developed using Semantic Web tools to help identify agents of change in the history of embryology.
• Images from the History of Medicine – Digitized photographs from the History of Medicine division of the National Library of Medicine.
• Connected Histories – Digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain.
• Darwin Correspondence Project -Transcriptions of Charles’ Darwin’s incoming and outgoing correspondence.
• Transportation Library Menu Collection – Digitized menus from Northwestern University’s Transportation Library Menu Collection.
• Online Books Page - From the University of Pennsylvania, a growing list of online texts.
• History of Vaccines - From the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a project exploring the history and ongoing role of immunization.

Research Tools

• Zotero – Collection of tools to let you collect and organize your research.
• Endnote (for purchase) – Citation tool.
• Omeka – Tool to create collections and present them online using free, open-source software.
• OpenLayers – Allows you to present geospatial information in a website.
• Diigo – Allows you to take notes, add virtual “sticky notes”, or highlight most Webpages.
• Quick Note – Provides you with online scratchpaper; from Diigo.com. Also available for Firefox.
• RefWorks (for purchase) – Online research management, writing, and citation tool.

Blogs and Other Resources

• Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog
• Bill Turkel’s website- a variety of helpful resources on digital research, including tips for programming, and pieces of code.
  • If you’re just getting started, check out his how-to post “A Workflow for Digital Research Using off-the-Shelf Tools“
• Center for History and New Media – Many more blogs and tools can be found here.
• Digital Humanities Now – Crowd-sourced publication on digital humanities.
• DiRT – A digital research tools and resources wiki.
• arts-humanities.net – A guide to digital arts and humanities; includes events, jobs, news, projects, and tools.
• H-Net – Scholarly listservs on (almost) any subject.
• 25 Best Blogs on Biomedicine – List of blogs on biomedical topics by individuals and groups.
• OU History of Science Collections – Blog (and other resources) from the University of Oklahoma Libraries History of Science Collections.
• Digital Humanities Quarterly – Open-access, peer-reviewed journal covering digital media in the humanities.
• Medical Museion – Copenhagen-based medical museum, both virtual and real world.
• The Giant’s Shoulders - Monthly collection of history of science blog posts.
• UCL Museums & Collections Blog - Updates from the University College London.
• Morbid Anatomy - Blog from the Morbid Anatomy Library and Cabinet in New York.
• Guide to Finding Interesting Public Domain Works Online - From the Public Doman Review.

Conferences and Organizations

• THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp)
• HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory)
• Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative
• Humanities Research Institute (at the University of Sheffield, England)
• UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (at University College, London)
• Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations
• American Association for the History of Medicine
• Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences
• History of Science Society
• Society for the History of Technology