Archives/Research

Since most of the project ideas that I thought of already have a digital archive available, I will use an example based on an existing archive. HarpWeek, by John Adler, makes almost any project with a subject from 1857-1903 is easier to research. The Harper’s Weekly and the sister newspaper Harper's Monthly was, and still is, a respected journal that swiftly reported events from around the nation. My specific example is writing a presentation of personalities and events connected with the women’s rights in the mid 19th century. Since Harper’s Weekly, and Monthly, does not have its own index of articles, searching though individual volumes at the library would be long and tedious, and may never yield any useful information. Having a searchable database that contains all of the issues is a definite time and information advantage. One can easily and quickly determine if there is anything of use available. Also, the many subject headings of HarpWeek makes cross referencing very easy. Ideas for expanding on a theme or idea are offered and then supported with significant source material. However, even with all these features, the need to pay, or be connected with a university is a considerable downfall. While I realize why this is necessary, and how it helps with the effectiveness of the site itself, opening it up to the general public could possibly increase the amount of usage on the site. I think this site adds to future research in that it makes research easier and more effective. However, the site only works as long as the site is working. As soon as the site looses support, or a server home, then this resource will be lost to future researchers, and greatly missed by current researchers who have already discovered it. If the world is going to convert important archives and databases for internet use, it would be beneficial to keep a paper version as well. Although this may not be very practical, if the site does go down, then there will still be a paper version of all the helpful informaiton from that site.