Primary
Source Directory
The historical study of crime and
criminality is very dependent on access to good, primary resources but these
resources can be found spread throughout a wide variety of archives, museums,
libraries, government bodies, and other institutions. For researchers, locating
these primary sources can be a very time consuming and difficult task. Indeed
this search for primary evidence is a large part of the traditional historical
research process. Some information sources, such as treatises, sessions papers,
legal decisions, and periodical publications are relatively easy to find using
established databases and digital collections. However, the study of crime and
criminality also relies on resources that may only be described or available in
paper form. Frequently, historians will need fragmentary pieces of information
that are typically only found in a variety of different records, fonds,
collections, and institutions. Indeed, given the variety of subjects and
research topics possible in this field, these resources were often created by a
large number of very different institutions including courts, gaols, parishes,
hospitals and asylums, and can be found in a wide variety of institutions
today. For researchers based in Canada, this search for sources is even more
difficult since most of the institutions that may house this information are
located in Britain.
Typically, knowledge about where to search
for information on the history of crime and criminology is passed from
researcher to researcher through networking or supervisory relationships, or,
perhaps more frequently, found through assiduous reading and citation chaining
or by concerted browsing. Online aggregations of digital finding aids from a
variety of institutions can also be helpful, though these descriptions are not
organized or labelled according to possible research topics and often tend to
be very broad.
The Primary Source Directory would provide
researchers in this field with a system where they could share information
about where to find useful primary evidence in the form of descriptions and
links mapped onto current maps of geographical areas, beginning with London.
Researchers and information repositories would be free to share information
about the resources available in repositories, including for example, contact
information for the repository and details about the relevant information found
there.
The York University Library will host a
system which will store this information in a searchable database and map it
onto current maps of the region. It is possible that the system could have many
contributors or that the librarian could input this information directly.
Ideally, this system could be a way of connecting with researchers, expanding
support to new graduate students, increasing the library’s digital services,
and offering support to scholars even when they are working away from the
University.
Some researchers may not want to invest the
time and effort into submitting this information, but it is hoped that at least
some scholars will use this system as a way of passing on knowledge to future
scholars and current students. In terms of use, it would be particularly
helpful to researchers who are looking for institutions to approach about
finding primary resources, especially researchers who are near the beginning of
their projects, who are just entering the field, or who need inspiration or
help finding new or different sources of information. In effect, this GIS
service would likely function as both a planning tool to facilitate research
trips or research requests and a sort of inspirational browsing wherein
researchers can look at available institutions and the types of
subject-specific information that they hold to get new ideas about what sorts
of records they might like to look at (parish registers with entries about
orphans?, inmate letters regarding health and sanitation within the
institution?, etc).
In the future, if this mapping of primary
resources and repositories is successful in both inputting new sources and
institutions and in providing scholars at York with useful, subject specific
information about primary sources, it could be expanded to include historical
maps. By overlaying the data about repositories onto historical maps, the
Primary Source Directory GIS tool may provide information and context about
where that institution or resource was located during different periods. Of
course, this expansion could only be applied to those institutions which had
custody of the records during the period that the map was originally created.
It is also useful to note that the Locating
London’s Past website, a project related to the Old Bailey Online and London
Lives, also includes data mapping of primary evidence (as opposed to
institutional information) to 2 historical maps and this tool can be a very
useful way of visualizing primary sources.[1]
