Edytorstwo wobec masowości źródeł najnowszych
Editing in the Face of Mass Character of the Contemporary Sources
Contributor(s): Jolanta Sikorska-Kulesza (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Cultural history, Social history
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: mass sources; source editing; digitization of mass sources; databases; oral history
Summary/Abstract: The authors present an important issue, especially for the historians of the 19th and 20th centuries, that is the abundance of sources and the problems in processing, editing and providing access to these materials, resulting from their mass character. The authors explore different editorial concepts and challenges connected to the editing of certain types of mass sources, for example heterogenous sources or those written in different languages. They pinpoint the difficulties involved in creating databases or archiving and providing access to oral records. The authors discuss tools used for the digitization and digital editing of mass sources.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-3794-6
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-3786-1
- Page Count: 224
- Publication Year: 2018
- Language: Polish
Obfitość źródeł jako problem edytorski
Obfitość źródeł jako problem edytorski
(The abundance of sources as an editorial problem. How to help the researcher?)
- Author(s):Jolanta Sikorska-Kulesza
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:7-20
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:editing of 19th and 20th century sources; large editorial projects; mass sources; mass of sources; databases; repositories; social archives; oral history
- Summary/Abstract:The abundance of sources created in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is one of the most characteristic features of the source basis for the study of the last two centuries, and also a problem for the researcher and source editor. The article draws attention to the lack of structural learning solutions that facilitate the undertaking of large editorial projects requiring years of work (excluding grants). It also presents various methods that have been developed in the editing of 19th and 20th century sources over the last half century in relation to sources appearing in large numbers. The author distinguishes between the over-abundance of sources, that is their huge amount, and the mass sources with an even larger volume, but with a homogeneous repetitive information structure, enabling (not always) the use of shortened forms of editing and databases. At the same time, the author points out that editions are not the only form (and not always the best one) of facilitating these types of sources, especially nowadays in the age of digital technologies. The article shows other methods of facilitating the sources for the researcher: repositories with digital reproductions of sources and tools that allow quick access to information; above all, it empahsizes the development of databases. The author draws attention to non-university initiatives of making sources available, often social (social archives) collecting oral sources (oral history).
- Price: 4.50 €
Ludzie i wydarzenia z 1863 r. Prace badawcze i dokumentacyjne nad materiałami zgromadzonymi przez Augusta Kręckiego
Ludzie i wydarzenia z 1863 r. Prace badawcze i dokumentacyjne nad materiałami zgromadzonymi przez Augusta Kręckiego
(People and events of 1863. Research and documentation of the materials collected by August Kręcki)
- Author(s):Jarosław Kita
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:21-31
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:August Kręcki; January Uprising; January Insurgents; Siberian Deportees; Polish Army Museum
- Summary/Abstract:The Collection of August Kręcki is kept in the archives of the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw. This participant of the January Uprising and a Siberian exile, after returning from Siberia undertook the intensive task of gathering information about the participants of the 1863 insurrection and their post-uprising fate. Within a few decades he gathered a large amount of source material containing lists of insurgents, commanders of insurgent parties, Siberian exiles, descriptions of their participation in the uprising and post-uprising fates, including their time in exile and their time in gulags, which are included in the letters sent or in the memoirs. An important part of the collection are death announcements and obituaries of the participants of the January insurrection. The Museum’s collections also contain thousands of photographs of January insurgents. The collections of August Kręcki are little known even to the researchers of the January Uprising and thus only sporadically used. The condition of the materials is quite diverse – some of them were written in pencil or poor quality ink, hence the passage of time makes them less and less readable. This extremely interesting collection should be made available to the wider audience by digitizing the documents; the most valuable letters, memories and death announcements / obituaries – edited and commented on by an appropriate team of researchers – should be published in the form of source publications.
- Price: 4.50 €
Problemy z publikowaniem źródeł masowych z Archiwum Wojny w Wiedniu na przykładzie edycji akt cenzury austriackiej z lat 1914–1918
Problemy z publikowaniem źródeł masowych z Archiwum Wojny w Wiedniu na przykładzie edycji akt cenzury austriackiej z lat 1914–1918
(The Problems with the publication of mass sources in the War Archive in Vienna on the example of the edition of the Austrian censorship records of 1914–1918)
- Author(s):Paweł Brudek, Jan Molenda, Jerzy Z. Pająk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:33-55
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:First World War; Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; Central Joint Registry Office of the Red Cross – Information Department; austro-hungarian censorship; correspondence of the prisoners of war
- Summary/Abstract:During the First World War in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy special institution for the prisoners of war affairs – Gemeinsames Zentralnachweisebureau des Roten Kreuzes – Auskunftstelle für Kriegsgefangene (Central Joint Registry Office of the Red Cross – Information Department for prisoners of war, GZNB) was established. Its Department of the censorship (Zensurabteilung) was responsible for the censorship of incoming and outgoing mail of Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war. Officially it was a Red Cross facility but in fact it became an intelligence unit that made reports for state authorities, based on the analysis of the letters. The source publication The Great War in Polish correspondence retained by the Austro-Hungarian censorship focused on the Polish-language correspondence of the prisoners of war. Correspondence in Polish was written mainly by Poles, but also in the smaller part by Ukrainians and Jews. Not all Poles wrote letters in Polish, some of them wrote in German and French, to confuse censors. The main goal of the publication is documentation of the fate of Poles fighting on all fronts of World War I, and civilians writing to them. The vast collection of correspondence is an invaluable source for characterizing Poles attitudes towards main political, social and economic issues at the time. It also highlights the problems of everyday life and the customs of various social strata.
- Price: 4.50 €
Edycja dokumentów na temat Powszechnej Wystawy Krajowej w Poznaniu w 1929 roku. Problemy i wyzwania
Edycja dokumentów na temat Powszechnej Wystawy Krajowej w Poznaniu w 1929 roku. Problemy i wyzwania
(Edition of the documents on the Universal National Exhibition in Poznań in 1929. Problems and challenges)
- Author(s):Magdalena Heruday-Kiełczewska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:57-68
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Universal National Exhibition; Pewuka; Poznań; City of Poznań Acts; interwar period
- Summary/Abstract:The Universal National Exhibition was organized in Poznań in 1929 in order to show the achievements of the reborn Poland. The exhibition drew 4.5 million guests and all branches of industry; the activity of the Polish government, as well as arts and culture were presented. Currently a study is being prepared, which is the source edition of documents from the Poznań City Acts. The magistrate of Poznań, as one of the organizers, collected a large number of files regarding the construction, running and closing of the exhibition. The study is also divided according to these categories. The main problem was the selection of documents due to their high quantity. The ones that were considered the most important were chosen because it was impossible to edit all the files available. The second problem was completing of the photo captions. Ultimately it was possible to identify some of the exhibits and select fragments of memoirs and press articles as commentary. The print publication is planned for the spring 2019, in order to honor the 90th anniversary of the Exhibition.
- Price: 4.50 €
Edycja dokumentów z Archiwum Ringelbluma – między teorią a praktyką
Edycja dokumentów z Archiwum Ringelbluma – między teorią a praktyką
(Edition of the documents from the Ringelblum Archive – theory and practice)
- Author(s):Tadeusz Epsztein
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:69-84
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:The Ringelblum Archive; Emanuel Ringelblum; the Warsaw Ghetto; the Jewish Historical Institute
- Summary/Abstract:The Ringelblum Archive, also referred to as the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto (ARG), is one of the most important testimonies of the history of the Holocaust of Jews in Poland during World War II. The collection was started in Warsaw in 1940 by an underground group called “Oneg Szabat”, founded and led by Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum (1900–1944), a historian and a social activist as well as a student of Marceli Handelsman. After the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in the summer of 1942 the first part of the archive was hidden in the cellars at 68 Nowolipki St., and the second part was buried in the same place in early February 1943. In September 1946 the first part was found; the second part of the archive was unearthed by accident only in December 1950. They are stored in the collections of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (JHI). The entire Archive contains several thousand documents (manuscripts, prints and photographs). A large part of the materials collected in the Ringelblum Archive are unique sources: testimonies, letters flowing into the Warsaw ghetto, studies prepared by the Oneg Szabat team, underground prints from the ghetto, texts of literary works created there, private documents (legacy), etc. The need to publish the ARG has been discussed since 1946. In 1948 printing of the first documents from the collection – Emanuel Ringelblum’s notes – started. In the following decades editorial work continued, but until the end of the 1970s no broader measures could be taken. Foreign editions of ARG documents from this period are equally modest. It was only at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s that some revival took place, mainly in Israel, thanks to the initiative of Josef Kermish. At the same time Dr. Ruta Sakowska in the Jewish Historical Institute undertook work in this field in Poland. Thanks to her work, in 1997 a series in Polish began to be published, titled “The Ringelblum Archive: The Conspiracy Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto” (ŻIH). The publication was led by Eleonora Bergman and Tadeusz Epsztein when it got to volume 4. In 2019 the last fragments of the series, totaling 39 volumes, will be released. In 2017 the English edition of the series in the Jewish Historical Institute was begun.
- Price: 4.50 €
Analiza i sposób prezentacji masowych źródeł podatkowych z obszaru Galicji – na przykładzie katastru józefińskiego i franciszkańskiego
Analiza i sposób prezentacji masowych źródeł podatkowych z obszaru Galicji – na przykładzie katastru józefińskiego i franciszkańskiego
(A presentation and analysis of mass tax sources from the Galicia area – using the example of the Josephian and Franciscan Cadastre)
- Author(s):Krzysztof Ślusarek
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:85-104
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:mass tax sources; Galicia; Josephian Cadastre; Franciscan Cadastre
- Summary/Abstract:The article discusses documentation created during the cadastral measurements carried out in Galicia, which form the basis for calculating the amount of land tax. The title issue is presented using the example of a Josephian cadastre established in the 1780s and a Franciscan cadastre from the second decade of the 19th century. For this purpose, documents included in cadastral registers were thoroughly analyzed and their usefulness for historical research was discussed. A separate problem that has been addressed in the article concerns the method of preparing source publications presenting mass tax documentation.
- Price: 4.50 €
W stronę cyfryzacji. Uwagi na marginesie edycji testamentów galicyjskich
W stronę cyfryzacji. Uwagi na marginesie edycji testamentów galicyjskich
(Towards digitization: some notes on the Galician wills publication)
- Author(s):Szczepan Kozak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:105-119
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:mass sources; Galician wills; digital editions; digitization of historical research
- Summary/Abstract:The article discusses the problem of sharing mass sources with a heterogeneous content structure using the example of Galician wills. Despite the undoubted advantages, the previous book publications do not solve the problem of the enormity of these materials, which, in conjunction with their narrative nature, constitutes a serious barrier to both their use and quantification. Digital editions that allow management of fragments of a large number of wills – using appropriate software – seem to be more convenient. The adoption of such a formula requires the modification of the editor’s activities (including the standardization of the metadata description), while at the same time constituting the inclusion of editing in the process of digitization of the historian’s workshop.
- Price: 4.50 €
Nieznośne natręctwo nikomu niepotrzebnych papierów – karty pomiarowe poborowych
Nieznośne natręctwo nikomu niepotrzebnych papierów – karty pomiarowe poborowych
(The unbearable compulsion of redundant papers: the measuring cards of soldiers and draftees to the Polish Army, 1921–1939)
- Author(s):Michał Kopczyński
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:121-143
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:measuring cards of soldiers; draftees to the Polish Army; interwar period; race structure of the Second Republic of Poland; body dimensions; database
- Summary/Abstract:Historical sources are often divided into two broad categories: individual and occurring on a mass scale. Individual sources, like annals, chronicles, privileges or treaties, have always been made in view of the present and posterity. In contradistinction, mass sources are utilitarian in character; they are made for here-and-now. As a result, archivists and editors of historical sources often treat mass sources with neglect. The only way to regain identity leads through individualisation, like it sometimes happens with birth, marriage or death certificates found in the archives by genealogists. The subjects described in the present paper, i.e. soldiers and draftees measured by conscription authorities between 1921 and 1939, have no chance to be individualised. Nobody would look for the ancestors in such haphazard documents. The purpose for the creation of the measuring cards of draftees and soldiers analysed in the present paper has been twofold. The practical aspect was to collect body dimensions for military tailors and shoemakers; the scientific one was, in turn, to characterise the population of the Second Republic of Poland for the race structure. Both purposes are outdated, in terms of today’s perspective. Nonetheless, the documents contain important information, unavailable in other sources. The young men’s height and body mass data render us better acquainted with the standard of living in the Second Republic, a problem that still awaits research. A classical, printed, edition of the cards in question seems pointless: a single card has no cognitive value. It seems, instead, that a proper editorial approach would be to compile a database comprising all 60,000 cards.
- Price: 4.50 €
Międzywojenne akta personalne więźniów i policyjne arkusze dossier. Źródła do badań „milczących” warstw historycznych
Międzywojenne akta personalne więźniów i policyjne arkusze dossier. Źródła do badań „milczących” warstw historycznych
(Interwar personnel files of prisoners and police dossier sheets. Sources for the study of “silent” strata of history)
- Author(s):Mateusz Rodak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:145-161
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:interwar period; prisoners’ personnel files; police dossiers; digitalization of files; online databases
- Summary/Abstract:The author tries to answer the question about the desirability and aim of digitizing personnel files of convicted prisoners imprisoned during the interwar period, and dossier sheets created as a result of the activities of the then police structures. There are at least 40,000 of these types of documents in Polish archives. These documents are excellent sources for the study of “non-historic” social strata, i.e. those that did not generate written sources themselves (criminals, beggars, prostitutes, etc.). Currently, due to their dispersion, as well as the volume of material, only exogenous research is possible. The author argues for the purpose of digitizing these collections. This process cannot be completed as traditionally understood editing is done. However, the nature of the information contained in the files allows the creation of generally accessible databases; through them the access to digitized originals placed on the Internet is enabled. The article presents the possible structure of such databases and the specificity of information that should be included therein. The critical edition of a source was also done in the article.
- Price: 4.50 €
Genealogia masowa – metodologia tworzenia i publikacji bazy danych
Genealogia masowa – metodologia tworzenia i publikacji bazy danych
(Mass genealogy – methodology of creating and publication of database)
- Author(s):Marek Jerzy Minakowski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:163-180
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:genealogical database; mass genealogy; network of family connections
- Summary/Abstract:The article describes the process of creation and publication of great genealogical databases in the framework of mass genealogy: analyzing the network of family connections within whole societies or populations. The focus and starting point is on the network (individuals are secondary) and not on individuals or families (and their relations), as usually was in “classic” genealogy and biography. It is said that mass genealogy is mainly about identification of appearances (similar names mentioned in different documents). There are many practical issues arising when the accessible corpora are counted in millions and identification cannot be done manually. In the end, four main direction of applying mass genealogy are discussed (facts, bibliography, analysis of social network and of people’s behavior).
- Price: 4.50 €
Czy historycy śnią o źródłach w Internecie? „Zapisy Terroru” jako nowoczesne narzędzie pracy historyka
Czy historycy śnią o źródłach w Internecie? „Zapisy Terroru” jako nowoczesne narzędzie pracy historyka
(Do the historians dream of the sources on the Internet? The “Chronicles of Terror” as a modern tool in the historian’s workshop)
- Author(s):Krzysztof Wiśniewski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:181-190
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:Chronicles of Terror; Pilecki Institute; digital archives
- Summary/Abstract:Research into sources continues to be the primary area of work of historians. To this end they must frequently conduct wide-ranging preliminary archival studies. Thanks to the development of new technologies, researchers can utilize a host of modern tools, with advanced digital archives being chief among them. One such tool is the “Chronicles of Terror” portal, which is administered and developed by the Pilecki Institute. The objective of the article is on the one hand to present this website as a product of the current trend of establishing digital archives, and – on the other – to draw attention to its collections and numerous user-oriented functionalities. The introduction gives a broad outline of the background to the digitization of archival records as such, profiling the dynamics of development of digital repositories in the 2 1st century and emphasizing the significant role which they will in all probability play in the humanities in the not-too-distant future. This is followed by a description of the archival materials available in the portal, with a brief reference to the collections from which they originate. Further, I have explained the methodology according to which documents are processed for inclusion in the portal, starting with preliminary archival research and proceeding through indepth analyses and editing, right up to the authoring of translations and the preparation of materials suitable for internet publication. The paper ends with a presentation of “Chronicles of Terror” as a modern tool that augments the historian’s workshop by offering numerous helpful and comprehensive functionalities, which together assist users in rapidly locating the content which they specifically need.
- Price: 4.50 €
Udostępnianie i edycja źródeł oral history przez Archiwum Historii Mówionej Domu Spotkań z Historią
Udostępnianie i edycja źródeł oral history przez Archiwum Historii Mówionej Domu Spotkań z Historią
(Sharing and editing oral history resources by the Oral History Archive of the History Meeting House)
- Author(s):Maria Buko
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:191-204
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:oral history; Oral History Archive; History Meeting House; KARTA Foundation
- Summary/Abstract:The text presents resources of the Oral History Archive of the History Meeting House and the KARTA Foundation. It describes the gradual evolution of the methodology both of recording the interviews and the development of these recordings. The main websites where the OHA resources are presented are also described, where the transcripts are pointed as the most helpful resource during the query. The editing of oral history resources in publications made by the OHA is also discussed, however it seems that nothing can replace the actual listening of the testimonies collected.
- Price: 4.50 €
Nowoczesne metody automatycznej eksploracji źródeł masowych
Nowoczesne metody automatycznej eksploracji źródeł masowych
(Modern methods of automatic exploration of mass sources)
- Author(s):Krzysztof Kotowski, Zygfryd Wieszok, Maciej Wojsyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:205-222
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:computer mass source exploration; computer image analysis; machine learning; Adaptive Vision Studio; automatic text recognition; Google Tesseract
- Summary/Abstract:The text presents the capabilities of modern computer image analysis and machine learning methods in tasks related to the exploration of mass sources. The first part briefly discusses ways of digitizing data, the basics of machine learning and the specification of the Adaptive Vision Studio tool with Deep Learning Add-on. Furthermore, a proprietary tool for supporting manual image analysis was proposed. The main part is the case study of measurement cards of soldiers from years 1921–1935. It presents examples of effective automatic segmentation and location of elements like of the image as underlining or stamps. The recognition of machine text using the Google Tesseract library was shown to be equally effective. However, automatic recognition of handwritten text was recognized as an open problem, usually requiring a dedicated solution. At the end, current trends in the field of computer-aided mass source exploration are presented.
- Price: 4.50 €