Janet Delve

Integrating GIS and data warehousing in a Web environment: A case study of the US 1880 Census

While the business intelligence sector, involving data warehouses and online analytical processing (OLAP) technologies, is experiencing strong growth in the IT marketplace, relatively little attention has been devoted to the problem of utilizing such tools in conjunction with GIS. This study contributes to the development of this research area by examining the issues involved in the design and implementation of an integrated data warehouse and GIS system that delivers analytical OLAP and mapping results in real‐time across the Web. The case study chosen utilizes individual records from the US 1880 population census, which have recently been made available by the North Atlantic Population Project. Although historical datasets of this kind present a number of challenges for data warehousing, the results indicate that the integrated approach adopted offers a much more flexible and powerful analytical methodology for this kind of large social science dataset than has hitherto been available.

The College of Preceptors and the Educational Times: Changes for British mathematics education in the mid-nineteenth century

Abstract Founded in Britain in 1846 to standardize the teaching profession, the College of Preceptors is little known today. The College was closely linked to the Educational Times (hereafter ET ), a journal of “Education, Science and Literature” launched in 1847. This paper examines in detail a sample of College examinations, articles on mathematics education, and reviews of mathematics textbooks that appeared in the ET . Key figures in the mathematical discussion were William Whewell, Augustus De Morgan, and Thomas Tate. The paper shows how the discourse on mathematics education led to the introduction of entrance examinations for Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Describing and Preserving Digital Object Environments

A digital object is not usable without a computing environment in which it can be rendered or executed. If we want to ensure the long-term usability of digital objects, so that they can be used in the face of changing formats, software, and hardware, it is necessary to either preserve their computing environments or to, at least, gather enough information, so that the computing environment can be reconstructed or adapted to a changed world. Digital preservation metadata is the information that is needed in order to preserve digital objects successfully in the long-term so that they can be deployed in some form in the future. Information that describes the sufficient components of the digital objects computing environment has to be part of its preservation metadata. Although there are semantic units for recording environment information in the de-facto standard for digital preservation metadata, PREMIS, these semantic units have rarely, if ever, been used. Prompted by increasing interest in the description of computing environments, this article describes requirements and solution proposals for defining an improved metadata description for computing environments.

The Changing Face of the History of Computing: The Role of Emulation in Protecting Our Digital Heritage

It is becoming increasingly common for some source material to arrive on our desks after having been transferred to digital format, but little of the material on which we work was actually born digital. Anyone whose work is being done today is likely to leave behind very little that is not digital. Being digital changes everything. This article discusses the issues involved in the protection of digital objects.

Frederic Calland Williams: the Manchester Baby's chief engineer

This biographical piece examines the life and work of the inventive researcher, memory maker, and electrical engineer par excellence, Frederic Calland Williams, whose contribution to the building of the Manchester Baby—the worlds first electronic stored-program computer—was so invaluable. Williams is commonly, but incorrectly, characterized as the overall leader of the project while his engineering contribution is, equally often, understated. Based on a detailed re-examination of the historical evidence, Williams is resituated in his correct role as the projects chief engineer. Jacques Vaucanson made a significant contribution to the development of the textile industry in the 18th century, particularly with his automatic perforated-cylinder-driven loom, which was later improved upon by Jacquard. His work on automata is also noteworthy. Up until now there have been few reliable biographical details available concerning Jacquard. Recent research by a local Lyons historian has unearthed Jacquards true identity as Joseph Marie Charles, together with a welter of new information about this mysterious but influential figure who developed punched-card looms.

Biographies [F.C. Williams; J. Vaucanson; J.M. Jacquard]

1. This biographical piece examines the life and work of the inventive researcher, memory maker, and electrical engineer par excellence, Frederic Calland Williams, whose contribution to the building of the Manchester Baby—the worlds first electronic stored-program computer—was so invaluable. Williams is commonly, but incorrectly, characterized as the overall leader of the project while his engineering contribution is, equally often, understated. Based on a detailed re-examination of the historical evidence, Williams is resituated in his correct role as the projects chief engineer. 2. Jacques Vaucanson made a significant contribution to the development of the textile industry in the 18th century, particularly with his automatic perforated-cylinder-driven loom, which was later improved upon by Jacquard. His work on automata is also noteworthy. 3. Up until now there have been few reliable biographical details available concerning Jacquard. Recent research by a local Lyons historian has unearthed Jacquards true identity as Joseph Marie Charles, together with a welter of new information about this mysterious but influential figure who developed punched-card looms.

Reimagining the Format Model: Introducing the Work of the NSLA Digital Preservation Technical Registry

In this article we introduce the work of the National and State Libraries Australasia Digital Preservation Technical Registry project. Any technical registry model must allow digital preservation analysts to understand the technical form of the content they are tasked with preserving, understand the capabilities they have in relation to that content, and reflect on the community position in relation to those capabilities. We believe the solution outlined here is well placed to deliver the information required to answer these questions, and in a manner that makes it easy to understand, reference and augment. The primary focus of this article is to describe the format model, which is the most radical part of the Digital Preservation Technical Registry. The flexibility the model provides delivers on all of the requirements outlined by the NSLA partners and project team members; this includes the ability to reference many layers constituting a format, including relationships between specifications and implementations of real-world formats. We seek input from members of the community on the model and suggestions for use cases and requirements that we have not envisaged.

Documenting technical environments for posterity: the TOTEM registry and metadata schema

As digital scenarios become ever more convoluted under both migration and emulation, access is needed to metadata describing the technical environments used to create, render or facilitate some other action for a host of digital objects. After copious research of the state of the art within the KEEP project, Enhanced Entity Relationship models formed the basis of the analysis for eventual implementation in database or RDF format. A suite of data models was then created, and on the practical side these were implemented as a database: the Trustworthy Online Technical Environment Metadata (TOTEM) technical registry. The data models were also mapped onto the Planets OWL ontology for use with Linked data/RDF. On the metadata standards side, a metadata schema was devised which also sets out details of a separate environment entity. Finally, recommendations were put forward to the PREMIS Editorial Committee showing how a separate environment entity would function under both emulation and migration, and how links with technical registries like TOTEM and PRONOM would be made.

E-ARK: Harmony of Social/Cultural Records Across Europe

E-ARK (European Archiving of Records and Knowledge Preservation) is currently introducing standardization, new tools, and infrastructure into pan-European digital archival systems. The results of this pilot project can be applied to higher education where research data centers are required to preserve data for re-use in accordance with new open policies. We elucidate how the E-ARK best practice survey has informed the development of new information packages for ingest, preservation, and re-use, and show how these can be applied to the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences with practical exemplars such as census data.

A Trip down Memory Lane? New Challenges from Other Disciplines

We need to embrace some of the typical historiographical practices of more mature disciplines, such as French history and the history of mathematics, and apply them to the historiography of the history of computing.