[okfn-discuss] Local History Portal

Mon Jul 13 12:22:35 UTC 2009

Thanks to Rufus for the suggestion to start a registry (rather than repository) of local history information - and a local history blog that could be scaled up as more people became involved.
I started this thread in response to the seriously disappointing British Local History website - http://www.britishlocalhistory.co.uk/british_local_history.html
I wondered if there were other local historians who might want to collaborate on building a better local history portal. 
I was conscious that there must be excellent local history resources on the web that I had yet to find and was sure that the history 'establishment' would be planning improved portals. I learned last week that the Institute of Historical Research http://www.history.ac.uk/ has a couple of funding bids ongoing that, if successful, would possibly allow the creation of a British Local History site to partner the existing British History site http://www.british-history.ac.uk/. The IHR and British History already have very good registries of history sources.
In addition, I hear that the people behind Local History Online http://www.local-history.co.uk/ have plans to develop the site into a more comprehensive local history portal. 
I don't know details but I think that any effort put into a registry of local history resources at OKF may be 'overtaken by events' before too long and therefore possibly wasted. There may, however, still be some value  in looking closely at the marketplace for "raw local history data". This may not be high on the agenda of the above mentioned organizations.
My call to participation, suggested by Rufus, is therefore for a small team to consider the quality, quantity, types and whereabouts of datasets useful to local historians that can be freely downloaded now - and perhaps devise some sort of strategy for increasing the availibility as a means of inspiring local historians of all levels of ability to pursue new lines of inquiry. Oh, and to blog about datasets, standards, copyright and other relevant stuff. 

Ian
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