History Guide

Sourcery, developed by the University of Connecticut, provides a solution for researchers who cannot visit archival repositories in-person. With the Sourcery app installed on a phone or laptop, a researcher seeking a document can type the required document’s location information into the Sourcery application and other researchers in place near those documents can retrieve them. The app finds Sourcery-registered researchers currently working in and around the repository where the document sits. One of these remote researchers (the “Sourcerer”) claims the job, calls the document from the archives, takes a picture of it from within the Sourcery application, and sends it directly to the Sourcery requesting researcher. The requesting researcher pays a fee based on the scope of the request, the number of local Sourcerers available at the time, the urgency, and other variables.

Transkribus is a platform for the automated recognition, transcription and searching of historical documents. The main objective of Transkribus is to support users who are engaged in the transcription of printed or handwritten documents. Transkribus offers a number of tools for the automated processing of documents, such as: Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), Layout Analysis, Document Understanding, Keyword Spotting, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Free download.

Take control of your research photos with Tropy, a tool that shortens the path from finding archival sources to writing about them. Tropy provides researchers with a common-sense way to organize and describe their research. Use Tropy to create an adaptable organization system where it’s easy to find any photo.

BigDIVA (Big Data Infrastructure Visualization Application) is a dynamic environment for browsing, searching, and interacting with the Advanced Research Consortium catalog.This interface allows users to view all their search results at once rather than paging through endless lists of returns and hoping the search engine has put the most relevant items towards the top. BigDIVA is a force directed graph that uses color and node (or circle) size to provide information about the items being visualized. Colors represent different facets within the catalog: Resource, Genre, Discipline, and Format. Most nodes are sized according to the relative number of items each represents.

Watch and read thousands of fascinating timelines, or create your own. Complete with text, video and pictures to create a dynamic timeline mashup. Using myHistro, you can combine maps and timelines seamlessly into one presentation, convert any public timeline into a personal pdf file, or export it into Google Earth format for offline storage.

Mapinseconds.com turns your spreadsheet data into maps. The site automatically chooses your map, from its database of 600 regions around the world, based on the district names you provide in your data. If it guesses wrong, you can manually select a different regional map. The smart legend adjusts to account for outliers and categorical vs numerical data. You can pick from a number of map-safe color schemes and with one click download your image. Use Google Chrome for best results.