Research Information Management: Tools for the Humanities
How to Use This Course Book
This handbook accompanies the taught session for the course. Each section contains a brief overview of a topic for your reference and then one or more exercises.
The Exercises
Exercises are arranged as follows:
0. A title and brief overview of the tasks to be carried out
0. A numbered set of tasks, together with a brief description of each
0. A numbered set of detailed steps that will achieve each task
Your lecturer will direct you to the location of files that are needed for the exercises. If you have any problems with the text or the exercises, please ask the lecturer or one of the demonstrators for help.
This book includes plenty of exercise activities – more than can usually be completed during the hands-on sessions of the course. You should select some to try during the course, while the teacher and demonstrator(s) are around to guide you. Later, you may attend follow-up sessions at OUCS called Computer8, where you can continue work on the exercises, with some support from IT teachers. Other exercises are for you to try on your own, as a reminder or an extension of the work done during the course.
Most of the exercises are intended to give you a flavour of how a particular tool works, and of the sort of thing you could use it for. However, the exercises only cover a fraction of the features the tools have. Each exercise concludes with details of where to find more information: please feel free to explore any other aspects of the tools that interest you. Exercises are only provided for a limited number of tools; if you would prefer to spend part of the hands-on sessions investigating some of the other tools described in this book, you are welcome to do so.
Writing Conventions
A number of conventions are used to help you to be clear about what you need to do in each step of a task.
0. In general, the word press indicates you need to press a key on the keyboard. Click, choose or select refer to using the mouse and clicking on items on the screen (unless you have your own favourite way of operating screen features).
0. Names of keys on the keyboard, for example the Enter (or Return) key, are shown like this Enter.
0. Multiple key names linked by a + (for example, Ctrl+z) indicate that the first key should be held down while the remaining keys are pressed; all keys can then be released together.
0. Words and commands typed in by the user are shown like this.
0. Labels and titles on the screen are shown like this.
0. Drop-down menu options are indicated by the name of the options separated by a vertical bar, for example File|Print. In this example you need to select the option Print from the File menu or tab. To do this, click when the mouse pointer is on the File menu or tab name; move the pointer to Print; when Print is highlighted, click the mouse button again.
0. A button to be clicked will look like this.
0. The names of software packages are identified like this, and the names of files to be used like this.
Software and Web Services Used
Windows XP
Mozilla Firefox
Internet Explorer
Tabbles
Mendeley
Diigo
Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft Word 2007
Planz
A.nnotate
Files Used
Because of its focus on organising information, this course uses a large number of sample files: these can be found in the folders named Exercise 1 to Exercise 5.
An additional file, Tool website links.pdf, provides links to the websites of the tools described, plus additional sites used in the course of the exercises.
Revision Information
|Version |Date |Author |Changes made |
|1.0 |February 2011 |Meriel Patrick and James Wilson|Created |
|2.0 |November 2011 |Meriel Patrick |Revised and updated |
|2.1 |April 2012 |Meriel Patrick |Rights statement updated |
Copyright
The VIDaaS Project makes this document and the accompanying PowerPoint presentation and exercise files available for reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) licence: .
Copyright for the screenshots in this document belongs to the respective software or content providers.
The Oxford University logo is copyright Oxford University, and may only be used by Oxford University members in accordance with the University's branding guidelines.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1. What You Should Already Know 1
1.2. What You Will Learn 1
1.3. Where Can I Get a Copy? 1
2 Selecting Appropriate Tools 2
2.1. Finding Out What’s Available 2
2.2. Desktop Versus Online 2
2.3. Data Storage and Sharing Issues 2
2.4. Security and Sustainability 3
2.5. Safety Concerns 3
3 Organising and Retrieving Electronic Material 5
3.1. Hierarchical versus tag-based organisation 5
3.2. Retrieval Methods 5
3.3. Search Utilities 6
3.4. Tools for Tagging 6
Exercise 1 Using Tabbles to organise files 6
3.5. Bibliographic Software 6
Exercise 2 Managing PDFs using Mendeley 6
3.6. Further Organisational Tools 6
Exercise 3 Annotating a website using Diigo 6
4 Integrating Varied Material 6
4.1. Integrating Paper and Electronic Material 6
4.2. Integrating Electronic Material 6
Exercise 4 Creating an electronic notebook using OneNote 6
Exercise 5 Creating a project plan using Planz 6
Exercise 6 Annotating a document using A.nnotate 6
4.3. File Synchronisation 6
5 Databases and Tools for Structured Data 6
5.1. When a Word Processor is Not Enough 6
5.2. Spreadsheets 6
5.3. Relational Databases 6
5.4. XML Databases 6
5.5. RDF Data 6
5.6. DaaS and ORDS – Database as a Service and the Oxford Research Database Service 6
5.7. Where to Go for More Information 6
Exercise 7 Dealing with different data problems 6
6 Other Resources 6
6.1. Further Research Information Management Courses 6
6.2. Software Courses 6
6.3. Computer8 6
6.4. OUCS Help Centre 6
6.5. Downloadable Course Materials 6
6.6. Useful Websites 6
0. Introduction
This booklet accompanies the course delivered by Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS), IT Learning Programme. Although the exercises are clearly explained so that you can work through them yourselves, you will find that it will help if you also attend the taught session where you can get advice from the lecturers, demonstrators, and even each other!
If at any time you are not clear about any aspect of the course, please make sure you ask your lecturer or demonstrator for some help. If you are away from the class, you can get help by email from your lecturer or from help@oucs.ox.ac.uk
1. What You Should Already Know
This session is one of a series covering aspects of managing the types of material used in humanities research projects.
We will assume that you are familiar with simple file management tasks – opening and closing files, creating new files and folders, and moving files around.
The computer network in OUCS may differ slightly from that which you are used to in your College or Department; if you are confused by the differences, ask for help from the lecturer or demonstrators.
2. What You Will Learn
This course provides an introduction to some software tools for managing research material, with a view to helping you identify those that will work best for you and your research project. You will also have the opportunity to try out some of these tools yourself.
In this session we will cover the following topics:
0. Selecting appropriate tools
0. Organising electronic material
0. Retrieving information
0. Integrating varied material
0. When to consider a database
Some of the software tools mentioned today are covered in more detail in other OUCS ITLP courses. Details are given in Section 6.
3. Where Can I Get a Copy?
The software mentioned in this course includes a mixture of freely available and commercial packages. For most programs, a URL including further information about the software (including how to acquire it) is provided.
0. Selecting Appropriate Tools
4. Finding Out What’s Available
You can’t use what you don’t know about, so the first step to selecting appropriate tools is learning what’s on offer.
This course book describes a number of software packages which may be useful for managing research material, but this is inevitably only a small sample of what’s available. Other ways of finding out about new tools include:
0. The Research Skills Toolkit website: this offers a guide to a range of tools and services for researchers: .
0. WISER (Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources): this is a programme of free sessions run by the Bodleian Libraries. Details are available from:
training/wiser.
0. Colleagues and friends: other people working in your area may be aware of useful tools, or may have helpful hints for getting the most out of those you’re already using.
0. Google or other search engines: try searching for a phrase that describes what you want to do, perhaps with a term like ‘software’ or ‘online service’. If you find there are lots of options, searching for software reviews can help narrow it down.
5. Desktop Versus Online
Desktop applications are those which you download (or perhaps load from a CD-ROM) and install on one specific computer. Online services don’t generally require you to download anything: instead, you use them by visiting the service’s website, and your information is usually stored on the service-provider’s servers, rather than on your hard drive. Some services use a combined model: you download software to use on your own computer, but you can also access an online version of the service (sometimes a more restricted one) via the Web.
The most obvious difference between desktop and online services is whether you need an Internet connection to use them. If you spend long periods of time working without access to the Net, you’re likely to favour desktop applications. On the other hand, if you use multiple computers on a regular basis, or you want to be able to work via a mobile device, online services offer significant advantages.
Combined services often offer the best of both worlds: you can use the desktop application even when you’re offline, but can also use the Web version when you’re away from your own computer (and if you use multiple machines, you may be able to use the online service to keep the contents of these synchronised with each other).
6. Data Storage and Sharing Issues
If you opt to use online services, there are some important issues you need to consider.
First, if you’re working with sensitive or confidential data, there may be restrictions on how you’re permitted to store this. You’ll need to check whether any online service you’re considering meets the necessary requirements.
Even where confidentiality isn’t an issue, you may still need to think about copyright. Some online services encourage you to upload material and share it with other users. While this isn’t a problem if the material is in the public domain or if you own the rights to it, there are some circumstances in which copyright restrictions permit you to download a copy of an item for personal use, but not to make it publicly available – this is likely to be the case for articles downloaded from subscription journals or databases, for example.
7. Security and Sustainability
It’s an unfortunate fact that online services sometimes stop functioning. In many cases, you may decide that the benefits of using an online service outweigh the risks, but if you’re using an online-only service to store a substantial quantity of your research material it’s worth giving some consideration to exactly what the risks are, and how you can safeguard your information for future use. Questions to ask yourself include:
0. Is this service one I can reasonably expect to continue to exist into the indefinite future? Does it have an established track record? Does it seem well maintained? Does it have a sizeable user base?
0. What’s the service’s business model? (For example, is it a subscription service, publicly funded, or paid for by advertising?) Does the model seem likely to be sustainable?
0. If this site was down for several days for maintenance or due to technical problems, how badly would that affect my ability to work?
0. If this site were to announce tomorrow that it was closing down, how easily could I retrieve my data? Does the site allow users to export their information in formats that can be used elsewhere (e.g. as plain text files, or .csv (comma-separated values) files for structured data)?
0. If this site simply disappeared tomorrow, how much of a disaster would that be? Can I make back-up copies of my data (e.g. by exporting the information) and store them on my own computer?
There may sometimes be good reasons to opt to use a service even if you have qualms about its long term sustainability – but then it’s doubly important to ensure your data is backed up elsewhere.
While you have more control over data that’s stored on your own hard drive, desktop applications aren’t entirely exempt from this sort of consideration. If you’re using a program that stores information in an idiosyncratic format, there’s a risk you’ll find yourself unable to access your data if the manufacturers stop producing the program and something happens to your existing copy. Once again, it’s worth checking whether it’s possible to export your information in a more widely used format. And even common file formats aren’t immune to data corruption, accidental loss or damage, or theft – so it’s still important to make regular back-ups.
8. Safety Concerns
While you don’t need to paranoid, it is sensible to exercise reasonable caution when using online services or downloading software from the Internet.
0. If software is from an unfamiliar provider, check whether anyone has written about their experiences of using it.
o Testimonials on the site offering the software can sometimes provide useful information, but an independent source is likely to be more impartial.
o Googling the name of the software plus ‘review’ will often find relevant sites.
0. Ensure that you’re running up-to-date anti-virus and spyware detection software on your computer.
0. Be aware of how much personal information will be displayed on the service’s website (in your user profile, for example), and don’t reveal more than you’re comfortable with.
0. Check the service’s privacy policy. Free services sometimes regard their users’ details as a marketable resource; ensure you know what they may do with your information, and don’t sign up for anything you’re not happy with.
0. If you’re concerned that registering to use an online service may result in unsolicited emails, consider setting up an alternative email address – preferably one which doesn’t include your real name.
0. The OUCS resource Unwelcome to IT provides general advice about staying safe online:
unwelcome.xml
0. Organising and Retrieving Electronic Material
9. Hierarchical versus tag-based organisation
Until relatively recently, the dominant method for organising material was a hierarchical structure: related documents are grouped together into folders, inside which may be sub-folders containing smaller sub-categories, which may themselves contain sub-sub-categories, and so on. This sort of method has been used for paper materials for generations, and has also been widely adopted for electronic storage: for example, the most common operating systems (e.g. Windows and Mac OS) default to this way of organising files.
In recent years, however, another organisational model has gained prominence: the tag-based system. Tags are electronic labels or keywords that are attached to files, which can then be used to sort them in various ways. A key advantage is that each item can have multiple tags, which provides far more flexibility. In a hierarchical system, each item can only go in a single folder (unless a duplicate copy is made, which means there are then two documents to be kept up to date instead of one), but in a tag-based system, an item can be placed in every category it’s relevant to. It’s also much easier to create multiple types of category; instead of having to decide whether to organise your material by project, by author, or by subject matter, you can add tags which relate to all of these. Moreover, it’s possible to add administrative tags: items can be labelled ‘to read’, ‘irrelevant’, ‘draft’, and so on.
There are, of course, also some drawbacks to tag-based systems. While a hierarchical system forces you to decide how to categorise an item when you file it, it’s possible to add an item to a tag-based system without adding all the relevant labels, meaning it may be harder to locate the item again later. If tags aren’t added consistently (for example, if some items are tagged ‘reference’ and others ‘references’), this can also lead to retrieval problems. Additionally, some people find that tag-based systems don’t represent the structure of their information as well as a hierarchical system does, and hence it’s harder to see how the various concepts relate to each other.
The best approach is probably to experiment with systems of both sorts, and see which works for you. If you work with a variety of types of information, you may find that you want to adopt different sorts of system within different contexts.
10. Retrieval Methods
There are two main techniques used to find things within an organisational system:
0. Location-based finding – looking in the folder you think most likely to contain the item you’re after, then the next most likely, and so on
0. Using a search function
Studies indicate that when we look for something in our personal filing systems, most of us tend to default to location-based finding. However, some information management experts have suggested that making greater use of searching (and before we do this, brushing up our search technique) would make our information retrieval faster and more efficient. [1]
The way we plan to retrieve information is something we need to think about when we choose how to file it in the first place. Hierarchical systems are well adapted to location-based finding, although a good search function is often a useful supplement, especially for finding information that hasn’t been used recently. Tag-based systems often include sophisticated search functions which allow you to combine searching by tag with searching for a word or phrase within the document.
Whichever type of system is being used, it’s worth giving some thought to the terms you may later wish to search for, and ensuring these are included – whether in the body of the document, in the file name, or in a tag.
11. Search Utilities
Although most operating systems come with a built-in search function (in Windows, for example, this is usually found on the Start menu), these can be slow, and may not offer many options for more advanced searching.
For more efficient searching, you can download a desktop search application: these index the contents of your computer to speed up the process, and allow you to search your emails and Web browser history in addition to your files and folders.
However, it is worth noting that the indexing process can consume a lot of processor power, and some people find this can slow down their computer. If this occurs, you can temporarily turn the utility off when you need to.
Microsoft’s desktop search utility for Windows XP is Windows Search 4.0. See for more information.
12. Tools for Tagging
Because most common operating systems organise files hierarchically, you can arrange your material this way without acquiring any additional software. Some operating systems are also starting to support tag-based organisation: for example, Windows 7 allows users to add tags to some common file types (e.g. those created in Microsoft Office 2007) when the file is saved. In the Windows 7 version of Windows Explorer, you can add tags to multiple files at the same time, and opt to see all the files in a particular library (where documents, pictures, music, etc. are stored) arranged by tags.
[pic]
0. Windows Explorer in Windows 7, showing
‘Add a tag’ and ‘Arrange by’ features
However, if you’re using an older operating system and favour a tag-based system, you need to find a tool that allows you to create one. Fortunately, a number of programs exist which are designed to do just that.
Tabbles
Tabbles is a file tagging application. The word ‘tabble’ is a combination of ‘tag’ and ‘bubble’, and the program allows you to create ‘tag-bubbles’ or ‘tabbles’, and use these to organise your documents. A tabble is a virtual folder, or a collection of files with a particular tag: your files stay wherever you saved them, but can also be accessed via any tabbles you place them in. It’s also possible to search for a specific combination of tags, or even to view the files that don’t have a particular tag.
If you create a new file or modify an existing one while Tabbles is running, the program will give you the opportunity to add tags when you save it.
The basic version of Tabbles can be downloaded free of charge; premium versions which offer more features are available on payment of a fee.
See for more information.
|Using Tabbles to organise files |
|Download and install Tabbles |
|View files and folders using Tabbles |
|Create tabbles (tag-bubbles) and add files to them |
|Search for files using Tabbles |
|All the files for these exercises have been provided for you on a network drive. The drive is called H:\, and your area |
|of the drive is called \LRx-nn (where x is the Lecture Room number and nn is your computer number). Some software |
|packages will refer to it as one, some as the other. |
|Among the files provided is one called Tool website links.pdf. This provides clickable links to the home pages of the |
|tools described in this course book, to save you from having to type each URL individually. |
| | |
|Download and install Tabbles |Start the computer if necessary. |
| | |
| |Click the Start button on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. Hover the|
| |mouse pointer over All Programs, and select your choice of either Internet |
| |Explorer or Mozilla Firefox from the list of programs. |
| | |
| |Open the file Tool website links.pdf (you can do this via Windows Explorer, |
| |which can be found by clicking the Start button, then going to All Programs ||
| |Accessories). Click on the link for Tabbles. |
| |Alternatively, type
| |in your browser’s address bar, and press Enter. |
| | |
| |Click [pic], then follow the on-screen instructions to download and install |
| |the program. |
| | |
|Launch Tabbles |Click the Start button on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. |
| | |
| |Hover the mouse pointer over All Programs. You should see a program group |
| |called Tabbles: move the mouse pointer over this, and then select the Tabbles|
| |program from the sub-menu which appears . |
| | |
| |When you first launch Tabbles, you may be taken through some first time use |
| |configuration steps. If you are asked which database you wish to use, select |
| |Tabbles Home. (Don’t be alarmed if it seems to be asking for a registration |
| |key: this is only needed for the premium versions of the software.) |
| |On subsequent occasions, Tabbles may open as a background program, meaning |
| |that the main window won’t immediately be visible. An information box in the|
| |lower right-hand corner of the screen will confirm that Tabbles is now |
| |running, and provide a link you can click to show the main window; |
| |alternatively, you can click the Tabbles icon [pic] in the notification area |
| |in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. |
| | |
|View files and folders using Tabbles |When you open Tabbles, you will see the workspace. In the right-hand pane is |
| |a list of tabbles. At present, these are the tabbles the program |
| |automatically creates for you: you’ll add some of your own in a moment. |
| |One of the tabbles in the list is Computer. This allows you to view the files|
| |and folders stored on your computer – much like Windows Explorer or the My |
| |Documents window. |
| |Double click on Computer to view the list of drives, and navigate to the |
| |network drive, which may be called H:\ or \LRx-nn. Double click on the |
| |folder Exercise 1 to open it and view its contents. |
| | |
| |Take a few moments to look at the files in the Exercise 1 folder. |
| |The files could be organised in a number of different ways. For example, you |
| |might want to divide them into ‘British wildlife’ and ‘American wildlife’. Or|
| |you might want to create separate categories for each type of animal. |
| |However, these categories cut across each other: there are resources relating|
| |to both British squirrels and American squirrels, for example. Fortunately, |
| |if you’re using tabbles rather than folders, this isn’t a problem. |
| | |
|Create new tabbles to organise your files |Click New (at the top of the left-hand side of the screen) to create a new |
| |tabble. |
| |Type British wildlife in the dialog box that appears, then click Create. The |
| |new tabble will appear under Workspace in the left-hand panel. |
| | |
| |Repeat this process to create three more tabbles with the following names: |
| |American wildlife |
| |Squirrels |
| |Badgers |
| | |
| |Now we need to put files into the newly created tabbles. The second file in |
| |the list, Badger and squirrel habitats in Britain.pdf, clearly fits into more|
| |than one category. Start by dragging the file onto the British wildlife |
| |tabble in the left-hand panel. The tabble’s name appears in the list |
| |underneath the file name. |
| | |
| |When you put a file into a tabble, an information box appears in the bottom |
| |right-hand corner of the screen. Click Add further tabbles to continue |
| |tagging the file. (If you do nothing, the information box will disappear |
| |after a few seconds. If this happens before you can click Add further |
| |tabbles, simply drag the same file onto another relevant tabble, and the |
| |information box will reappear.) |
| | |
| |The Tag dialog box gives you a list of available tabbles. Click the |
| |appropriate ones (Badgers and Squirrels, in this case), and they will move to|
| |the grey panel towards the top of the box. Click Tag to add them to the file.|
| |[pic] |
| |Tabbles tag dialog box |
| |You can also use this dialog box to remove tags; click the name of the tag |
| |you no longer want, to move it to the grey panel, then click the down arrow |
| |next to the Tag button, and select Untag. |
| | |
| |Use the drag-and-drop method to put the rest of the files into the tabbles |
| |that seem most appropriate. |
| |To speed up the process, you can select and then drag multiple files at once.|
| |To select an adjacent range of files, click the first file, then hold down |
| |Shift and click the last file. To select non-adjacent files, hold down Ctrl |
| |as you click each of them. |
| | |
|Find files using tabbles |To view the files in a particular tabble, click the tabble’s name in the list|
| |in the left-hand panel. For example, click British wildlife to view all files|
| |with this tag. |
| | |
| |At the top of the list of files in the right-hand panel, you’ll see a list of|
| |other tags that files in the list have. In this case, you should see at least|
| |Badgers and Squirrels, and perhaps some others, depending on which tags you |
| |chose to add during the previous task. You’ll probably also see one or more |
| |automatically created tabbles relating to file types. |
| |Click Badgers once. You should now see this tag highlighted wherever it |
| |appears in the list, allowing you to skim through and spot the files with |
| |this tag easily. |
| | |
| |To see only the files which are tagged as both British wildlife and Badgers, |
| |double-click the Badgers tag in the list at the top of the page. |
| |To change the list to include all files tagged Badgers, regardless of whether|
| |they are also tagged British wildlife or not, you can click Badgers in the |
| |tag list in the left-hand panel. |
| |As you view different combinations of tags, notice the bar at the top of the |
| |screen: this indicates what you’re currently looking at. |
| | (optional) |
| |If you right-click one of the tabbles in the bar at the top of the screen, or|
| |in the left-hand panel, a context-specific menu will appear. This allows you |
| |to open and close tabbles, and also provides access to the combine and |
| |subtract functions. Clicking Combine will show you all the files that meet |
| |your existing selection criteria and also have the tag selected; Subtract |
| |will show you those that meet the existing criteria and don’t have the tag |
| |selected. You may wish to experiment with this feature to view different |
| |selections of files. |
|(optional) |
|The Tabbles help tabble (accessible via the Tabbles Workspace or Favorites list) includes a link to the Tabbles manual. |
|You may wish to spend some time browsing this: it provides more detailed information about Tabbles and how to get the |
|most out of the program. In particular, this provides further details of the more sophisticated methods of searching |
|using tabbles, including combining and subtracting. |
|(optional) |
|Explore any further Tabbles features that interest you. |
| |
|Close the Tabbles window by clicking the x in the top right-hand corner. Note that Tabbles continues to run in the |
|background: to exit completely, right-click the Tabbles icon [pic] in the notification area (in the bottom right-hand |
|corner of the screen), and select Exit Tabbles. |
TaggedFrog
TaggedFrog is another free file tagging application for Windows. The interface is fairly straightforward, though it’s worth reading the Quick Start guide to pick up some tips about how to use the program to best effect.
See for further information.
[pic]
0. File tagging programs: TaggedFrog and Tabbles
TaggTool
TaggTool allows you to tag both files and websites, and offers a handy desktop search box to aid swift retrieval. It offers more features than TaggedFrog, but does cost about £10 (although a free trial version is available).
See for further information.
Gmail
Gmail is Google’s email free service. It offers a generous amount of storage (currently over 7GB), and unlike most email systems, allows users to organise message using labels (tags) rather than folders. This combination means that it is possible to use Gmail as a tag-based storage system, by attaching files to messages (which you can then send to yourself). As it’s an online service, your files will be available from any computer with an Internet connection.
You can sign up for a free Gmail account at .
Flickr and Picasa
Flickr and Picasa are tag-based image management applications. They are chiefly designed for photo sharing, but can also be used for other image types. Flickr is an online service; Picasa is a freely downloadable desktop application.
See and for further information.
13. Bibliographic Software
An alternative approach is to use bibliographic software to store your material. Many researchers use bibliographic programs primarily to generate citations and bibliographies, but while this is of course one key function, they can also do far more.
Most packages allow files to be attached to bibliographic records, and also provide a field in which you can type your own notes. As several popular bibliographic programs use tags or keywords to organise items, this means you can use them to create a searchable tag-based library of your research material and notes.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a reference and PDF management application. Like all bibliographic software, it allows you to create records for bibliographic items (journal articles, books, and so forth), and then use these to insert citations and bibliographies in your own documents.
However, Mendeley also includes a number of tools designed to aid researchers working with a large number of PDF files. When you add a PDF to Mendeley, it will attempt to index it automatically, saving you from having to type in the author, title, and publication details manually (though the degree of success with which it is able to extract the information is somewhat variable, and at present is rather better for many science subjects than for the humanities). You can also add keywords (which function as tags) to records to allow easy searching and sorting.
Mendeley allows users to annotate PDFs on the screen. Also offered is an automatic renaming function, which will replace the arbitrary string of letters and numbers which often forms the title of downloaded PDFs with something more meaningful.
The Mendeley desktop application can be downloaded free of charge, although registration is required. Once you have a Mendeley account, you can also access the Web version of the service, which allows you to access your papers from any computer with Internet access. If you use multiple computers, you can also use the Web version to synchronise the contents of the desktop application on your various machines.
See for more information.
|Managing PDFs using Mendeley |
|Register with and download Mendeley |
|Create a watched folder |
|Use Mendeley’s automatic indexing and renaming functions |
|Annotate a file |
| | |
|Register with Mendeley, then download and |Start the computer if necessary. |
|install the desktop application | |
| | |
| |If you do not already have a Web browser open, click the Start button on the |
| |Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. Hover the mouse pointer over All |
| |Programs, and select your choice of either Internet Explorer or Mozilla |
| |Firefox from the list of programs. |
| | |
| |If it is not already open, open the file Tool website links.pdf (you can do |
| |this via Windows Explorer, which can be found by clicking the Start button, |
| |then going to All Programs | Accessories). Click on the link for Mendeley. |
| |Alternatively, type in your browser’s address bar, |
| |and press Enter. |
| | |
| |Click Sign up for free (in the top right-hand corner of the screen) follow |
| |the on-screen instructions to register, verify your account, and download the|
| |Mendeley desktop application. |
| |(If you prefer not to use your usual email address, you could create an |
| |alternative email account using a free service such as Gmail, Yahoo!, or |
| |Hotmail – but do ensure you make a note of which email address you use for |
| |future reference.) |
| | |
|If Mendeley does not start automatically, |Click the Start button on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. |
|launch the desktop application | |
| | |
| |Hover the mouse pointer over All Programs, and then select Mendeley Desktop ||
| |Mendeley Desktop from the menu. |
| | |
|Set up a watched folder |You can tell Mendeley to watch a particular folder on your computer, so that |
| |every time you save a file there, it will automatically be added to your |
| |Mendeley library, saving you time and effort. |
| |To do this, click File | Watch folder... on the menu bar at the top of the |
| |screen. |
| | |
| |When the dialog box appears, locate the network drive in the list (this may |
| |be called H: or \LRx-nn), and if necessary click the plus sign [pic] to see |
| |the folders. Click the box next to the Exercise 2 folder to tick it, then |
| |click OK |
| | |
|Set up Mendeley’s file renaming function |Click Tools | Options... on the menu bar at the top of the screen. |
| | |
| |When the dialog box appears, click the File Organizer tab. |
| | |
| |Click the box next to Organize my files (towards the top of the dialog box) |
| |to tick it. |
| | |
| |Now click the box next to Rename document files. |
| | |
| |Underneath this there are two boxes: Unused fields and File name, containing |
| |bubbles with four file name elements: Journal, Author, Year, and Title. You |
| |can drag these bubbles around to set the file name format you’d like to use. |
| |Drag the bubbles up and down as required until the File name box contains the|
| |bubbles Author, Year, and Title. |
| |[pic] |
| |A pull-down menu on the right-hand side of the dialog box allows you to |
| |decide how the file name elements are separated: check that this is set to |
| |Hyphen-separated. |
| |Click OK |
| | |
|Add a file to your watched folder |Now let’s add a PDF to Mendeley. Return to your Web browser, and open a new |
| |tab or window. Type in the address|
| |bar and press Enter (or click the link in Tool website links.pdf) . This will|
| |take you to the online version of Isaac Stephen’s paper ‘Confessional |
| |Identity in Early Stuart England’ on JSTOR. (If you are using a computer |
| |outside the university network, you will need to log in using your SSO |
| |credentials to see the full text.) |
| |Click View PDF, and then Proceed to PDF to accept JSTOR’s terms and |
| |conditions. |
| | |
| |The PDF will open in another window. Click the save icon [pic] , or File | |
| |Save Page As... towards the top of the screen. When the dialog box appears, |
| |navigate to the Exercise 2 folder, then click Save. |
| |Note that the PDF file name is currently a meaningless string of numbers. But|
| |you don’t need to change this: Mendeley will do it for you. |
| | |
| |Return to the Mendeley desktop application. The article will have appeared in|
| |your Mendeley library, and Mendeley will have attempted to extract the key |
| |details from the PDF. |
| |Check these details by looking at the information in the right-hand panel, |
| |and correct or add anything as seems necessary (for example, you may find you|
| |need to add the journal title: click the Journal field, and type The Journal |
| |of British Studies). |
| |If you choose, you can also add tags or keywords to help you find this item |
| |again later. |
| | |
| |Towards the bottom of the right-hand panel, you’ll see the heading Files:, |
| |and underneath this the PDF of the article: note that Mendeley has renamed it|
| |in accordance with the preferences you specified in Task 4 above. |
| |If you edit the author’s name, the publication year, or the article title, |
| |Mendeley will automatically update the file name to match. |
| |Click the file name to view it. |
| | |
|Annotate a PDF |Mendeley allows you to highlight or add notes to PDFs. |
| |Scroll down to view the main text of the article. To highlight text, click |
| |[pic] on the toolbar at the top of the screen, then drag the mouse pointer |
| |over the text you want to highlight while holding down the left-hand mouse |
| |button. |
| |To turn off the highlighting tool, click [pic]. |
| | |
| |To add a note, click [pic], then click the place on the screen where you’d |
| |like the note to be positioned. When the note appears, type This is a note |
| |(or something more imaginative, if you prefer!), and then click anywhere else|
| |on the screen to hide the note. |
| |Its position will be indicated by a small note icon: [pic] You can drag this |
| |to wherever you like in the PDF. Click the note icon to view its content. |
|(optional) |
|When you download the Mendeley desktop application, a document called Getting started with Mendeley is automatically |
|added to your library. You may wish to spend some time looking through this: it provides a more detailed overview of |
|Mendeley and its features. |
|(optional) |
|Explore any further Mendeley features that interest you. |
| |
|Log out of the Mendeley website by clicking the down arrow beside My Account in the top right-hand corner of the screen, |
|then clicking Logout. |
EndNote
EndNote is a high-performance commercial software package. Members of Oxford University can obtain a copy for about £90 through the OUCS shop: (some staff members may be able to get the software free of charge through their college or department). If you’d like to try it before purchasing, it’s available on the computers in the OUCS help centre and training rooms, and there are regular ITLP training courses.
See for further information about the program.
RefWorks
RefWorks is a Web-based reference manager, and is available free of charge to members of Oxford University. The ITLP also offers regular courses on RefWorks.
See for more information.
Zotero
Zotero is a free reference management add-on for the Firefox browser (although your references are saved on your computer, and it can also be used in offline mode). It automatically detects when you’re viewing an online article, book, or bibliographic record, and provides an icon in the address bar which you can click to harvest the bibliographic information.
See for more information.
Colwiz
Colwiz is a relatively new research management application, offering both desktop and online versions. In addition to reference management functions (including features such as the ability to annotate PDFs), it also offers tools to aid collaboration and productivity (e.g. calendars and to do lists). Developed by a team of Oxford researchers, it is free of charge, and users who sign up with an academic email address automatically get 2GB of cloud-based storage.
See for more information.
14. Further Organisational Tools
Diigo
Diigo is an online bookmarking and annotation tool. It allows you to highlight sections of Web pages, or add notes, much as you would on a printed document. Your annotations are saved in your Diigo library, and you can access them from any computer (or from a mobile device) by logging in to your Diigo account. You can also archive a snapshot of the page, reducing the worry that online resources will disappear. If you choose, you can share your bookmarks and annotations with friends and colleagues.
Although Diigo is an online service, to use the highlighting and annotation features it is necessary either to install the Diigo toolbar or add a Diigo bookmarklet (the ‘Diigolet’) to your bookmarks toolbar.
Diigo offers a basic free service, with more features available for a yearly fee.
See for more information.
[pic]
0. The Diigolet – Web annotation tools
|Annotating a website using Diigo |
|Create a Diigo account and add the Diigo bookmarklet to your browser |
|Annotate a Web page |
|View your annotations |
| | |
|Create a free Diigo account. |Start the computer if necessary. |
| | |
| |If you do not already have a Web browser open, click the Start button on the |
| |Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. Hover the mouse pointer over All |
| |Programs, and select your choice of either Internet Explorer or Mozilla |
| |Firefox from the list of programs. |
| | |
| |If it is not already open, open the file Tool website links.pdf (you can do |
| |this via Windows Explorer, which can be found by clicking the Start button, |
| |then going to All Programs | Accessories). Click on the link for Diigo. |
| |Alternatively, type in your browser’s address bar, and|
| |press Enter. |
| | |
| |Click Join Diigo (at the top right-hand side of the screen), and follow the |
| |on-screen instructions to create an account. |
| |Alternatively, if you already have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Google,|
| |or Yahoo!, you can join Diigo via this. |
| |(If you prefer not to use your usual email address or login details, you |
| |could create an alternative email account using a free service such as Gmail |
| |or Yahoo! – but do ensure you make a note of which account you use for future|
| |reference.) |
| | |
|Add the Diigo bookmarklet to your browser. |For ease and speed, this exercise uses the Diigo bookmarklet. If you continue|
| |using Diigo later on your own computer, you may wish to install the full |
| |toolbar, which has more features. |
| |To get the bookmarklet, click Tools (on the navigation bar at the top of the |
| |screen), then select Diigolet from the list of options. |
| | |
| |Follow the on-screen instructions for whichever browser you’re using. |
| | |
| |Once you have the Diigolet button on your browser’s bookmark/favourites bar, |
| |click it. The Diigolet toolbar will appear at the top of your browser window.|
| |(If the toolbar hides itself at any point in the exercise , simply click the |
| |button again to restore it.) |
| | |
|Annotate a Web page |In your browser’s address bar, type |
| |, and press Enter (or click |
| |the link in Tool website links.pdf). |
| |(This is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry for the |
| |Enlightenment: you can visit another website of your choice if you prefer.) |
| | |
| |Add a floating sticky note: this is a note that is attached to the page, but |
| |not to any specific part of it. |
| |Click Sticky Note on the Diigolet toolbar. In the note that appears, type |
| |This article covers the 17th and 18th centuries. Then click Post. |
| |The note will be replaced by a numbered note icon like this: [pic]. You can |
| |drag this to a location of your choice on the screen. To view the note’s |
| |content, hover the mouse pointer over the note icon. |
| | |
| |Now let’s highlight some text. Select a sentence or two, and a small pop-up |
| |menu will appear. Click Highlight, and the text will be highlighted in |
| |yellow. |
| |You can change the colour of the highlighting by clicking the down arrow next|
| |to the word Highlight on the Diigolet toolbar. |
| | |
| |Scroll to the bibliography at the bottom of the article. Pick a few |
| |references that look interesting, and highlight these using the same method. |
| |Try adding a sticky note to one of your highlighted sections: after selecting|
| |the text, click Highlight and Sticky Note. Add some text to the note (perhaps|
| |a reminder to yourself to Check whether the Bodleian has a copy), and click |
| |Post. |
| |This time a different sort of note icon will appear: [pic], indicating that |
| |the note is anchored to a particular section of text. |
| | |
|View your annotations via Diigo |Hover the mouse pointer over Diigo on the Diigolet toolbar, and then click My|
| |Library. |
| | |
| |The My Library page shows you a list of your sticky notes (both floating and |
| |anchored) and the sections of text you highlighted. |
| |This can provide a useful way of compiling a collection of key quotations, or|
| |a set of references to follow up. |
| |You can view your annotations in context by returning to the website (the My |
| |Library page provides a link). If your annotations do not appear immediately,|
| |ensure that you are signed in to Diigo, and then click the Diigolet button. |
|(optional) |
|The Diigo help pages provide a more detailed overview of how to get the most out of the service: you may wish to spend |
|some time looking through them. |
|(optional) |
|Explore any further Diigo features that interest you. |
| |
|Finish by returning to the Diigo website, and logging out of your account using the Sign Out link in the top right-hand |
|corner of the screen. (To see the link, you may need to hide the Diigolet, by clicking the x at the right-hand end of |
|the toolbar.) |
NVivo
NVivo is a commercial software package for organising and analysing qualitative research data – it offers tools for sorting, searching, and annotating material such as interview transcripts, survey results, images, videos, and sound files. Members of Oxford University can obtain the software for a nominal fee (about £10) through the OUCS shop: . The ITLP offers regular training courses on NVivo.
See for more information.
AllMyNotes Organizer
The AllMyNotes Organizer is a personal information management application for Windows. It allows you to arrange your notes (plus quotations, links, contact information, and more or less anything else you might want to record in a text file) in a customisable, easily searchable hierarchical folder structure. The basic version is free of charge; the Deluxe Edition, which costs about £20, offers additional features, such as colour coding, alarms and reminders, and the option of password protection.
See for more information.
Stickies
Stickies is a free downloadable Windows application which allows you to create virtual sticky notes on your computer screen – ideal for taking quick notes or writing to-do lists. Notes can be made to remain on top of other windows to aid visibility, or to reappear at a set time to act as a reminder. You can also attach a sticky to a particular program or document, so it will appear every time you open it.
See for more information.
[pic]
0. On-screen to do list created using Stickies
0. Integrating Varied Material
While all researchers work with a variety of types of material, this is perhaps particularly true in the humanities: you may be working with textual sources in multiple formats, images, databases, historical records or artefacts, audio and video files, and possibly much more – plus of course your own notes and everything else that forms part of the process of producing your research outputs.
Whether you’re thinking about how best to store it, or how to retrieve information from a diverse collection, integration is a key consideration – and in some cases can feel like an ongoing headache. While unfortunately there’s no simple single solution, there are some tools which can make life easier.
The first question to address is how integrated you need your collection of research material to be. Storing everything you have in one system can offer significant benefits, the most obvious of which is that a single search should locate everything that relates to a particular topic. This means all the material relevant to a particular task will be easily accessible, meaning you can work more efficiently. You’re also far less likely to overlook (or simply forget about) useful resources, or to waste time hunting for something in one place when it turns out you’d actually put it somewhere else.
However, while an integrated organisational system can save a lot of time and effort, it’s worth noting that such a system may also be time consuming to maintain. If parts of your collection are relatively discrete, it’s possible that the benefits of integrating them won’t repay the investment needed. Additionally, if you use different materials in different ways, it may also make sense to store and access them in different ways. In short, remember that integration isn’t a goal in itself: it’s a means to more efficient research. It can be a very helpful means, but is only something to strive for to the extent that it’s actually useful.
15. Integrating Paper and Electronic Material
Most of us find ourselves with a mixture of digital information and old-fashioned hard-copy documents. The paperless office has not yet materialised, and even if it were practical to achieve it, it’s not necessarily desirable: many of us still prefer (and find it easier on the eye) to read from paper rather than a screen. But having research material in a mixture of formats can make it harder to keep track of what you have, and to locate it when it’s needed – especially given that paper material isn’t searchable in the way that electronic texts are.
Scanning and OCR
If you have a collection of printed notes, handouts, or articles which you’d like to have available in electronic form, scanning them and then using OCR (optical character recognition) software to transform them into searchable text documents is an option worth considering, although the results will inevitably vary depending on the clarity of the source material.
Although OCR software for scanners is not generally sophisticated enough to recognise handwritten texts, it is still possible to scan these and create an image file: while this won’t be searchable, it does mean you can store a copy of your notes in the same place as electronic material on the same subject.
The OUCS Help Centre has three flatbed scanners available for use with either OCR or image software: you can book one of these via the diary which is kept next to each machine (though in practice booking is not always necessary). The Help Centre’s OCR software offers helpful additional features such as automatic scanning at preset intervals (useful if you are working through a large number of pages) and the opportunity to proofread your text and correct any errors before saving it. There is no charge for using the scanners.
Although they do not usually include OCR, many photocopiers (including those in the Bodleian Library) now offer a scanning function, allowing you to make an electronic copy of a book chapter or journal article and send it to yourself by email. If the copy is clear enough, you have the option of later using an OCR program to transform this into searchable text. As with all photocopying, please ensure that you are aware of and abide by any relevant copyright restrictions.
Digital Pens
If you prefer to take notes by hand, but would like to have an electronic version of your notes to refer back to, a digital pen (also known as a smart pen) may provide a solution. These use a tiny camera to record the movement of the pen as you’re writing, and often also offer the option of making an audio recording (ideal for lectures or meetings where you may find it hard to write down every word). OCR for handwriting is better developed in this area, so some software for digital pens offers the ability to search the electronic version of your notes (though clearly the accuracy of the search will depend on the neatness of your handwriting!). Some also allow you to play back the relevant section of the audio recording by simply tapping on the corresponding place in your notes.
With a starting price of around £100, smart pens require a substantial initial investment (and most models also require you to purchase or print special paper), but may be worth investigating if you make extensive use of handwritten notes.
The current leader in the digital pen market is Livescribe. See for more information.
Integrated Indexing
Although it may not be practical to store all your research material in the same format, it may nevertheless be possible to maintain a single index which tells you where to find everything. For many types of research material, bibliographic software is ideally suited to the task. As noted in section 3.5 above, you can attach digital files to each record; you can also add a link to online material, or use the notes field to record the location of a hard copy (‘In second drawer of filing cabinet’, for example, or a library shelf-mark for works you don’t own). Also note that this isn’t limited to textual material: there’s no intrinsic reason why you shouldn’t create records for images, audio recordings, or other types of resource – indeed, many packages include built-in reference types for some or all of these.
16. Integrating Electronic Material
Even within the electronic sphere, the wide variety of material types, file formats, and software packages many of us use can mean that integration is far from straightforward. This section describes some tools which may help.
In cases where more thorough integration isn’t practical, a good search utility can be invaluable for speedy location of diverse types of material: see section 3.3 above for more details.
Microsoft OneNote
OneNote is a Microsoft application for storing and organising notes. Although it comes as part of a number of Microsoft Office packages, it’s often overlooked: many people find that they already have it on their computer, but have never used it.
A OneNote notebook can be used to store or link to a diverse collection of material: textual notes, quotations, images, audio and video material, other files, and Web pages, for example. It can thus be used to draw together all the material relevant to a particular project. The different elements stored in a notebook can easily be rearranged.
Notes are fully searchable (you can choose whether to search a particular notebook or notebook section, or your whole collection). One particularly noteworthy feature is the ability to search text in images – such as a scanned text document or a clear photograph of an inscription, for example.
See for more information.
[pic]
0. OneNote notebook page, showing file and email shortcuts,
textual notes, and an image
|Creating an electronic notebook using OneNote |
|Launch and explore Microsoft OneNote |
|Add a textual note, an image, and quotations to a notebook page |
| | |
|Launch Microsoft OneNote and note some key |Start the computer if necessary. |
|navigation features | |
| | |
| |Click the Start button on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. |
| | |
| |Hover the mouse pointer over All Programs, and then select Microsoft Office ||
| |Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 from the menu that appears. |
| | |
| |Spend a few minutes familiarising yourself with the screen layout. |
| |On the left-hand side of the screen is a navigation bar which lists your |
| |collection of electronic notebooks. OneNote offers a few suggested notebook |
| |titles to get you started: Personal, Work and so on. To move to a notebook |
| |and see its contents, click the appropriate button on this navigation bar. |
| |Each notebook can have multiple sections, which are shown in tabs across the |
| |top of the screen. Click on a section tab to see its contents. |
| |Each section can have multiple pages and subpages, which are listed on the |
| |right-hand side of the screen. Click a page title to move to it. |
| |You can create new notebooks, sections, pages, and subpages by clicking the |
| |down arrow on the [pic] button, located in the toolbar at the top of the |
| |screen. |
| | |
|Give a page in your notebook a name, and |Click the Work notebook in the left-hand navigation bar, then click the |
|then add your first note |Research tab. Create a new page using the [pic] button as described above, or|
| |by clicking the New Page button at the top of the page list on the right-hand|
| |side of the screen. |
| | |
| |Towards the top of the page, you’ll see an oval shape made up of dotted |
| |lines. Click inside this, and give your page a title by typing William |
| |Shakespeare. Note that this title now also appears in the page list on the |
| |right-hand side of the screen. |
| | |
| |Click anywhere else on the page, and type William Shakespeare was born in |
| |1564. As you type, your note is automatically enclosed in a box. You can drag|
| |this note to anywhere on the page – try doing so. You can also resize a note,|
| |by dragging its right-hand edge. |
| | |
|Insert an image in your notebook |Click Insert on the menu bar at the top of the screen, then click Pictures | |
| |From files... Navigate to the network drive \LRx-nn, and open the folder |
| |Exercise 4. Click the image Shakespeare Chandos portrait.jpg to select it, |
| |and then click Insert. |
| | |
| |The image will appear in your notebook. If you hover the mouse pointer over |
| |it, a four headed arrow [pic] will appear next to it: clicking this allows |
| |you to move or resize the image. Move it to the location of your choice. |
| | |
|Add a quotation from a Word document to |It’s often helpful to include references to other works. You can add a link |
|your notebook |to a whole file using the Insert menu, but sometimes it’s more useful just to|
| |include a relevant extract, with a link back to the original. If you copy and|
| |paste material from Microsoft Office documents or Web pages, OneNote will |
| |create the links for you automatically. |
| |Open Microsoft Word by clicking the Start button on the Task Bar at the |
| |bottom of the screen, hovering the mouse pointer over All Programs, and then |
| |select Microsoft Office | Microsoft Office Word 2007 from the menu that |
| |appears. |
| | |
| |In Word, click the Office button [pic], then [pic]. Navigate to the network |
| |drive \LRx-nn, and open the folder Exercise 4. Double-click the file Sonnet |
| |18.doc to open it. |
| | |
| |Select the first two lines of the sonnet, and press Ctrl + C to copy the |
| |text. |
| | |
| |Return to OneNote. Click the place on the page where you’d like the quotation|
| |to appear, and press Ctrl + V to paste the copied text into the notebook. |
| |The text will appear, complete with a link back to the file it was taken |
| |from. |
| | |
|Add a quotation from a website to your |If you do not already have a Web browser open, click the Start button on the |
|notebook |Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. Hover the mouse pointer over All |
| |Programs, and select your choice of either Internet Explorer or Mozilla |
| |Firefox from the list of programs |
| | |
| |Type into the address bar (or click the |
| |link in Tool website links.pdf) , and press Enter. This will take you to an |
| |online version of Shakespeare’s sonnets: click on the sonnet number of your |
| |choice to see the text. |
| | |
| |Use the mouse to select the first two lines of your chosen sonnet, and press |
| |Ctrl + C to copy the text. |
| | |
| |Return to OneNote. Click the place on the page where you’d like the quotation|
| |to appear, and press Ctrl + V to paste the copied text into the notebook. |
| |The text will appear, complete with a link back to the page it was taken |
| |from. |
|(optional) |
|The final notebook listed in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the screen is the OneNote 2007 Guide. This |
|provides more detailed information about the ways you can use OneNote: you may wish to spend some time looking through |
|it. |
|(optional) |
|Explore any further OneNote features that interest you. |
| |
|Exit OneNote by clicking the x in the top right-hand corner of the window. |
Planz
Planz is a prototype personal information management tool, developed by the Keeping Found Things Found project at the University of Washington. It provides a straightforward means of organising notes and sources for a project in a single integrated document. The word-processor-like interface allows notes to be structured hierarchically using headings and subheadings. Links can be added to files (including MS Office and Open Office documents), and Web pages. If a quotation is dragged and dropped into the plan, a link back to the source item is automatically created. If you use MS Outlook, you can also link to emails, and you can add items to your Outlook calendar from within Planz.
NB. Because Planz is a prototype application rather than a finished product, you may occasionally find some rough edges. If a feature doesn’t seem to be working as it should, closing and reopening the application can sometimes help. As Planz is still being developed, it is also likely to change from time to time (if any of the instructions below seem to be out of date, please let us know).
|Creating a project plan using Planz |
|Download and install Planz |
|Create a project plan |
|Add links from the plan to relevant materials |
| | |
|Download and install Planz |Start the computer if necessary. |
| | |
| |If you do not already have a Web browser open, click the Start button on the |
| |Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. Hover the mouse pointer over All |
| |Programs, and select your choice of either Internet Explorer or Mozilla |
| |Firefox from the list of programs. |
| | |
| |If it is not already open, open the file Tool website links.pdf (you can do |
| |this via Windows Explorer, which can be found by clicking the Start button, |
| |then going to All Programs | Accessories). Click on the link for Planz. |
| |Alternatively, type in|
| |your browser’s address bar, and press Enter. |
| | |
| |Click [pic], then follow the on-screen instructions to download and install |
| |the program. |
| |NB. The Planz website says Windows Vista or 7 is needed to run the program; |
| |nevertheless, it seems also to work without problems in Windows XP. |
| | |
|Open Planz |Click the Start button on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. |
| | |
| |Hover the mouse pointer over All Programs. You should see a program group |
| |called Planz: move the mouse pointer over this, and then select the Planz |
| |program from the sub-menu which appears. |
| | |
|Collapse the contents of a heading |When Planz opens, you will see a number of headings (in blue text), and under|
| |them notes (in smaller black text). When you hover the mouse pointer over a |
| |heading, either [pic] or [pic] will appear. Clicking this will expand or |
| |collapse the heading, to show or hide the sub-headings and notes under it. |
| |You can also do this by clicking on a heading, then clicking [pic] or [pic] |
| |on the toolbar at the top of the screen. |
| |At the top of the main work area, you’ll see the heading Today+, with |
| |sub-headings The Days Ahead and Notes. This section can be used to create |
| |task lists, but we won’t be using it in this exercise. To give yourself more |
| |space to work, hover the mouse pointer over Today+, then click the [pic] that|
| |appears to collapse the heading. |
| | |
|Add a new heading and notes, and convert a |Underneath Today+, you will see another heading: My first project. Replace |
|note into a sub-heading |this by selecting the text using the mouse, and then typing ABC Conference. |
| | |
| |When you press Enter, Planz will create a new blank note under the heading. |
| |Type Conference programme, and then press Enter again to get another new |
| |note. |
| | |
| |Add the following notes, pressing Enter at the end of each line: |
| |Call for papers |
| |Arrange accommodation |
| |Investigate on-site accommodation |
| |Contact tourist information office |
| | |
| |Click on or select Arrange accommodation, then click [pic] on the toolbar at |
| |the top of the screen to convert this into a sub-heading: the text will |
| |become slightly larger and change colour. |
| | |
| |Now click on or select Investigate on-site accommodation and click [pic]. |
| |This converts the note into a sub-note under the sub-heading you’ve just |
| |created. Repeat for Contact tourist information office. You can now expand or|
| |collapse this section of your plan by clicking the [pic] or [pic] next to |
| |Arrange accommodation. |
| | |
|Add a document link to a note |Open Windows Explorer by clicking the Start button on the Task Bar at the |
| |bottom of the screen, hovering the mouse pointer over All Programs, then |
| |Accessories, and selecting Windows Explorer from the list of programs. |
| | |
| |Find My Computer in the left-hand pane. If necessary, click the plus sign |
| |[pic] beside it to reveal the list of drives. Click the network drive \LRx-nn|
| |in the list. This will show its contents in the right-hand pane. Find the |
| |folder Exercise 5, and double click the icon to open it. |
| | |
| |Find the file Final conference programme.doc. While holding down the left |
| |mouse button, drag the file icon down to the Planz button on the Task Bar at |
| |the bottom of the screen (keep the mouse button depressed). After a second or|
| |two, your Planz window will reappear. Drag the icon to the Conference |
| |programme note, and then release the mouse button. |
| |A shortcut icon will appear at the right-hand end of the line. You can click |
| |this to open the file. |
| |(optional) |
| |The Exercise 5 folder also contains files called Call for papers.doc and |
| |Accommodation information.doc. If you wish, you can also drag these onto the |
| |relevant notes in your plan to create links to the files. |
| | |
|Create a note and document link by dragging|Position the cursor at the end of the Call for papers note, and press Enter |
|text into a plan |to create a new blank note beneath it. |
| | |
| |Return to Windows Explorer, and double click on the file Registration |
| |form.doc to open it. |
| | |
| |Use the mouse to select the text Registration closes on March 15th. Holding |
| |down the left-hand mouse button, drag the selected text to the Planz button |
| |on the Task Bar. When the Planz window reappears, drag the text to the blank |
| |note you have just created, and release the mouse button. |
| |A copy of the text dragged from the Word document will appear in the note, |
| |and a link to the file will appear at the end of the line. |
| | |
|Add a Web link to a note |Return to your browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox), or reopen it if you |
| |have closed it. Type into the address bar, |
| |and press Enter (or click the link in Tool website links.pdf). This will take|
| |you to the Birmingham tourist information website. |
| | |
| |Select the URL, and drag it to the Planz button on the Task Bar while holding|
| |down the left-hand mouse button. When the Planz window reappears, drag the |
| |URL to the Contact tourist information office note, and then release the |
| |mouse button. |
| |An Internet Explorer icon will appear at the right-hand end of the line (the |
| |icon is the same regardless of the browser you are using). You can open the |
| |website by clicking this. |
| | |
|Add a folder to the plan, and reorganise |Position the cursor at the end of the Contact tourist information office |
|the folder’s contents |note, and press Enter to create a new note. Type Conference presentation. Now|
| |click [pic] twice: the first click converts the new note into a heading, and |
| |the second click promotes it in the hierarchy, so it’s now on the same level |
| |as Arrange accommodation. |
| | |
| |Return to Windows Explorer. Holding down the left-hand mouse button, drag the|
| |folder Conference presentation to the Planz button on the Task Bar. When the |
| |Planz window reappears, drag the folder to the new heading, and release the |
| |mouse button. |
| | |
| |A folder icon will appear at the right-hand end of the line. You can open the|
| |folder by clicking this, but Planz also automatically inserts the contents of|
| |any folders you add as items in the plan. Click the [pic] to the left of |
| |Conference presentation to see a list of the files, each with its own link. |
| |NB. When you add a link to an individual file by dragging and dropping it |
| |into a plan, Planz creates a shortcut: this can safely be deleted without |
| |affecting the original file. However, when you add a whole folder, deleting |
| |any of the files it contains within Planz will also delete the original, so |
| |only do this if you are certain the file is no longer needed. |
| | |
| |At present, the files under the heading are not in a logical order. |
| |Fortunately, Planz allows to you rearrange them. |
| |Click on or select Initial ideas in the file list, then click [pic] on the |
| |toolbar at the top of the screen until it’s at the top of the list. Click on |
| |or select Abstract, and move it to immediately underneath Initial ideas. Use |
| |the [pic] and [pic] buttons to rearrange the rest of files until you’re happy|
| |with them. |
| |These buttons can also be used to reorder notes or headings within the rest |
| |of the plan. |
|(optional) |
|At the bottom of the document which appears when you first open the program, there is a link to the Planz user manual. |
|You may wish to spend some time looking through this: it provides a more detailed overview of Planz and its features. |
|(optional) |
|Explore any further Planz features that interest you. |
| |
|Exit Planz by clicking the x in the top right-hand corner of the window. |
A.nnotate
A.nnotate is an online service which allows you to upload and annotate documents. You can upload files in a wide range of formats, including PDFs, Microsoft Office and Open Office documents, and images; these are then converted to PDFs by A.nnotate. You can also make and annotate snapshots of Web pages.
Documents can be organised using folders and tags, and can also be shared with other users, which may be useful in collaborative projects – for example, for suggesting revisions that need to be made to a co-authored document.
Using the service requires only a Web browser: there’s no need to download any software or add-ons. Registering for an A.nnotate account (which is quick and easy) permits you to upload approximately thirty pages each month. Those who wish to upload more can purchase additional credits, on either a pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription basis.
See for more information.
|Annotating a document using A.nnotate |
|Register for an account with A.nnotate |
|Annotate a document |
| | |
|Register for a free account with A.nnotate |Start the computer if necessary. |
| | |
| |If you do not already have a Web browser open, click the Start button on the |
| |Task Bar at the bottom of the screen. Hover the mouse pointer over All |
| |Programs, and select your choice of either Internet Explorer or Mozilla |
| |Firefox from the list of programs. |
| | |
| |If it is not already open, open the file Tool website links.pdf (you can do |
| |this via Windows Explorer, which can be found by clicking the Start button, |
| |then going to All Programs | Accessories). Click on the link for A.nnotate. |
| |Alternatively, type in your browser’s address bar, and|
| |press Enter. |
| | |
| |Click [pic] (towards the top right-hand corner of the screen), and follow the|
| |on-screen instructions to register and verify your account. |
| |During this process, you will be sent an email containing a link which you |
| |need to click on to verify your account. This email also includes a password |
| |that you will need to log back in to A.nnotate on future occasions. |
| |(If you prefer not to use your usual email address, you could create an |
| |alternative email account using a free service such as Gmail, Yahoo!, or |
| |Hotmail – but do ensure you make a note of which email address you use for |
| |future reference.) |
| | |
|View and annotate a document |A.nnotate provides a sample document which explains some of the basics and |
| |allows you to experiment with its features. Because the free account only |
| |allows a limited number of uploads, we’ll use this during this exercise |
| |rather than uploading a new document. |
| |Open the document by clicking Sample document. |
| | |
| |To annotate a section of text, use the mouse to select it. A comment box will|
| |appear: type in it This is a comment (or if you prefer, something more |
| |imaginative!), then click Save. |
| |Your comment appears in a bubble floating above the text. You can move it |
| |around by dragging it, or hide it by clicking the small x in the top |
| |right-hand corner of the bubble. To view the note again, click on the text |
| |it’s associated with. |
| | |
| |To highlight or strikethrough text, select a section of text as above. When |
| |the comment box appears, click the Aa button at the top of the box, select |
| |your desired option, then click Save. (Note that the appearance of this |
| |button changes, depending on which option you currently have selected.) |
| | |
| |You can also flag text with one or more tags: to indicate that there’s a typo|
| |that needs fixing, for example, or to query the wording. Select a section of |
| |text, and when the comment box appears, either click on a tag from the list |
| |in the bottom half of the box, or add your own tag by typing it into the New |
| |tag box and pressing Enter. Click Save to finish the process. |
| | |
| |To annotate part of an image, place the mouse pointer at the top left-hand |
| |corner of the section you wish to annotate. Holding down the left-hand mouse |
| |button, drag the pointer to the bottom right-hand corner of your chosen |
| |section, and release the button. Type your comment, and click Save. |
| | |
| |To view a handy summary of your annotations and highlighted sections, click |
| |Notes on the navigation bar at the top of the screen. |
| |Clicking on a note provides some information about its context, and a link |
| |which will take you back to the relevant section of the original document. |
|(optional) |
|The A.nnotate sample document offers some further information about ways to use A.nnotate: you may wish to spend some |
|time reading this (note that it has two pages: you can view the second page by using the navigation tool which appears in|
|the top left-hand corner of the document window when the mouse pointer is over part of the document) . |
|(optional) |
|Explore any further A.nnotate features that interest you. You are welcome to try uploading a document, but note that the |
|free version only allows you to upload a limited number of documents per month, and that anything you upload today will |
|count towards this allowance. |
|If you wish to upload your own documents (now or later), this is straightforward: on the Documents page (this is the page|
|you see when you first load A.nnotate), simply click the Upload button, which is just underneath the main navigation bar |
|at the top of the screen, then click Browse. Find the file you want to upload, click Open, and then Upload. |
| |
|Log out of A.nnotate using the button on the navigation bar at the top of the screen. |
Idea Rover
Idea Rover describes itself as offering ‘PhD thesis research automation’. The software is designed to allow you to construct an outline (for a thesis, research paper, literature review, or any other substantial piece of writing), and then save Web pages, PDFs, and text documents (.rtf or .txt files) in the appropriate section. It thus allows you to keep your research sources and your own notes together, organised in a way that makes sense for your project. This is commercial software, costing about £60, but a free trial version can be downloaded from the website.
See for more information.
Scrivener
Scrivener is a word processing and project management tool, designed for structuring and writing long documents. A split screen mode allows a variety of types of research materials to be viewed alongside the current document. Also offered are tools for outlining and keeping track of progress. Scrivener was originally written for the Mac, but a Windows version is now also available. An educational licence (for scholars, educators, and students) for Scrivener costs around £25, and a free 30 day trial is available.
See for more information.
17. File Synchronisation
If you regularly work on multiple computers – a laptop and a desktop, for example, or one machine in your college or department and another at home – a file synchronisation (or ‘syncing’) service will help ensure you always have access to the latest version of all your material, without the hassle of emailing files to yourself or saving them to a flash drive.
File syncing services generally also store a copy of your files on their server. This provides you with an extra back-up copy, and means you can access your material from any computer (or mobile device) with an Internet connection by logging in. Most services also offer the ability to share files with other people.
Dropbox
When you install the Dropbox software, a folder called My Dropbox is created on your hard drive. Dropbox will automatically update its contents on every computer you’ve installed the software on – so if you add or edit a file on one machine, those changes will be copied to your other machine(s) next time you connect to the Web. Dropbox offers 2GB of storage free of charge, with more available for a monthly fee. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Dropbox is very straightforward and user friendly. Its chief disadvantage is that only the My Dropbox folder is synchronised, which may be inconvenient for those with more elaborate folder structures.
See for more information.
SugarSync
The SugarSync File Manager allows you to map folders on different computers to each other (which is particularly handy if you want to give folders different names on different machines, or to synchronise only selected sub-folders), while the ‘Magic Briefcase’ feature allows you to synchronise individual files. The user interface is slightly more complex than Dropbox’s, but in return you gain significantly more control and flexibility.
SugarSync offers synchronisation of up to 5GB of material free of charge. More storage is available for a monthly fee. It’s compatible with Windows and Mac.
See for more information.
Windows Live Mesh
Live Mesh (which is part of the Windows Live Essentials software suite) allows you to specify which folders you want to keep synchronised. In addition to syncing files, Live Mesh also allows users to synchronise program settings for Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.
Up to 5GB of data can be saved and synchronised free of charge using Windows SkyDrive (online storage), and it’s also possible to synchronise much larger folders directly (though this requires both machines to be connected to the Internet at the same time). However, Live Mesh is currently only available to users of Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS X.
See for more information.
0. Databases and Tools for Structured Data
Although traditionally less amenable to data-driven approaches than other academic areas, more and more people in the humanities are working with structured data as funding agencies and senior researchers look to explore the possibilities opened up by new technologies.
Even if you have no intention of producing a website or presenting your data publicly, there are situations where you might be able to better organise the information you gather by using databases and database-like tools. The trick is knowing which sort of tool is most appropriate for the kind of information being gathered, and what you intend to do with that information.
18. When a Word Processor is Not Enough
Almost all researchers in the humanities will use a word processor for a considerable portion of their work, particularly when writing books, papers, theses, and notes. Because of this familiarity, it can be tempting to use a word processor for everything.
This approach does of course save time which would otherwise need to be invested in learning new software and methods, but it all too often leads to people generating extremely long Word files from which it is a struggle to retrieve useful information in any meaningful manner.
This chapter suggests other approaches which you may find more appropriate to your research.
One word of warning: it’s worth bearing in mind that deciding how best to structure your data and learning to use the software that will enable you to do this are two separate (though clearly related) skill sets. Giving some thought to the former before plunging into the latter will often prevent a lot of wasted effort. Learning how to use Access or XML may be an invaluable tool in achieving your goals once you’ve established what they are, but isn’t enough by itself – any more than being a proficient Word user automatically enables you to write prize-winning scholarly literature.
19. Spreadsheets
If you are working with information consisting of a number of discrete objects, each of which shares essentially the same limited set of characteristics, then a spreadsheet may be the ideal means by which to structure your data. Historical surveys, such as censuses, and bureaucratic records are often most clearly set out in the form of a spreadsheet; a list of the bibliographic details of a set of books might be another example, or a list of financial returns from a publishing house.
Spreadsheet software is well adapted to sort and re-sort records alphabetically or numerically, and is ideal if you wish to conduct numerical analysis – to establish means and medians in a particular dataset for instance, or visualise information in the form of charts and graphs.
[pic]
0. Example of information in a spreadsheet
Useful for:
0. Ordering simple records
0. Numerical analysis
0. Generating charts and graphs
Disadvantages:
0. Not as good at handling complex relationships as relational databases
Popular software packages:
0. Microsoft Excel
0. OpenOffice Calc
20. Relational Databases
Whilst a spreadsheet is likely to be fine for a lot of basic data organisation and analysis, there are times when you may be better off using a relational database instead. If you are working with information or sources that have relationships with other objects, which in turn have interesting properties or relationships, using a relational database is probably a good idea.
When you construct a relational database, you can create separate tables (which individually tend to look much like spreadsheets) and link fields within each table to other tables. So, for instance, you could create a table of bibliographic details about books, including the names of the authors, and link this to a separate table of authors, containing information about when they were born and died, where they were educated, and so forth. If you wished, you could link the information about where they were educated to another table, providing information about the size and location of the school or university they attended. Relational databases cater for one-to-many relationships, or even many-to-many.
Relational databases can be designed to enable quite complex cross-searching, for instance, listing all the books published by authors who attended a particular university during a given period. Searches of databases are called queries, and need to be constructed using a query-language. SQL (standing for Structured Query Language) is a common format – though many database software packages include a query-building function which will automatically convert your instructions to SQL for you. Learning to construct queries is not difficult, but there are various clever tricks that one can pick up to perform complex but efficient searches.
[pic]
0. Example of a relational database structure
Useful for:
0. Situations where you are not sure in advance how you (or others) will want to query your data, and wish to keep your options open and flexible
0. Spotting unexpected relationships between things
0. Hosting information on the Web and allowing others to search it
Disadvantages:
0. Efficiently structuring large databases can be a challenge
Popular software packages:
0. Microsoft Access
0. Filemaker Pro
0. MySQL (particularly for databases hosted on the Web)
0. PostgreSQL (particularly for databases hosted on the Web)
21. XML Databases
Spreadsheets and relational databases can be very useful if you are working with essentially consistent data – where there are a limited number of shared characteristics common to each record in a given table. If the information you wish to analyse is difficult to characterise in such a way, however, you may wish to take a different approach.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a standard for tagging information in order to render it machine-readable. It is often used to assist textual analysis, as it can be used to indicate particular characteristics that apply to particular sections in a text.
For instance, you may have a number of texts which cover very different subjects, but you want to be able to find all instances where a particular individual or event is mentioned. You could surround each personal name with tags indicating that part of the text is question is a personal name – Christopher Columbus. You could then search your texts for all the people named in them, or index each occurrence of a specific name. You could also use XML to create a standardised version of a name that occurs in many different variants, in order to render it searchable but without altering the original spellings in the document itself.
Other tags can be used to indicate how a text should be displayed. Enclosing a piece of text between two emphasis tags, for instance, will indicate to a Web browser or some other XML reader that it should be displayed as bold, or italic. The precise interpretation of how an XML file should be displayed can be customised – the important thing to note is that XML separates content from its representation, ensuring that the document does not become unreadable just because the technology used to display it has changed.
As is the case when working with relational databases, it is possible to create quite complicated queries when working with XML-tagged documents. XQuery is one popular language for searching XML databases. As with SQL and its equivalents, it is fairly straightforward to learn how to return results from simple searches, but complex queries can also be constructed with a little more knowledge and experience.
XML is not only used to indicate textual content, but is also widely used in linguistics to indicate parts of speech or features of spoken language. It is also popular amongst those working with manuscripts or multiple editions, to indicate variations, alternative translations, and so forth.
TEI XML
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) XML is a schema established to aid consistency and interoperability between digital humanities projects. Essentially, the TEI has defined a number of labels (about 500) for use when tagging texts, so that people do not end up having to create their own definitions every time they want to make a text machine-readable. The TEI guidelines are available from .
The University of Oxford is a centre of expertise in TEI XML. OUCS runs an annual summer school, and members of the University can email tei@oucs.ox.ac.uk at any time for free advice.
Figure 9 shows part of the play ‘The Raigne of King Edvvard the Third’ marked up into XML. Some of the tags instruct the Web browser how to display the text, whereas others are ‘invisible’, but can assist searching and analysis of the text. For instance, homographs are indicated in the XML, but are not flagged up in the text displayed in the browser. One can see here that the browser has not been instructed to recognise all of the rendering information in the XML original, as it is not displaying the names of the speakers or the stage directions in italic.
0. Example of a text with TEI XML mark-up, rendered into simple HTML
Useful for:
0. Working with texts
0. Providing access to textual databases via the Web
0. Textual and linguistic analysis
Disadvantages:
0. Tagging documents is time-consuming
0. You need to ensure that you tag elements consistently
Popular software packages:
0. Oxygen XML Editor is useful for editing and tagging XML documents and checking that they meet TEI standards
0. eXist is a free, open source, native XML database management system
22. RDF Data
Although not yet as widespread as other means of structuring data, the use of RDF (Resource Description Framework) metadata (data that describes other data) is increasingly being seen in the humanities as a means of linking together data from disparate sources, so it may be useful to understand what it is.
RDF represents relationships between things in the form of subject-predicate-object expressions. Any given subject (a particular book, for instance) may have a particular relationship (such as being published by) with a particular object (a given publisher). The book will have other relationships and properties as well, such as being published in (a relationship/property) a particular year (object); or being published as (relationship/property) a paperback (object). In RDF terms, such subject-predicate-object expressions are called ‘triples’, and a database containing them is called a ‘triplestore’.
RDF data is used especially to describe the relationships between resources on the Web in a machine-readable manner, and as such is a key component in what is known as the ‘Semantic Web’. The idea behind the Semantic Web is essentially to evolve the Web from a linked document store to a database of interlinked information. This may not be the easiest concept to envisage, but it basically means enriching data by merging data from different sources together.
RDF data is often written using XML tags to describe the relationship being expressed. Some sort of standard ontology will need to be chosen to ensure a degree of consistency between descriptions.
The predominant query language for RDF data is SPARQL, which as its name suggests has certain similarities to the SQL-type languages used to query relational databases.
Useful for:
0. Integrating existing data from disparate sources
0. Network analysis
Disadvantages:
0. Can be tricky to conceptualise at first
0. Coding RDF relationships by hand would be time-consuming. It is often therefore generated automatically from SQL or various XML formats.
0. Most triplestore software is at present aimed more at developers than ‘ordinary’ users – you will almost certainly need technical help
Popular software packages:
0. Jena
0. Sesame
23. DaaS and ORDS – Database as a Service and the Oxford Research Database Service
Currently under development in Oxford is a research tool known as the DaaS (Database as a Service). This will provide a straightforward and inexpensive way of creating customised research databases to store and work with text, images, and GIS data. Existing databases (for example, those created in Microsoft Access) can be imported, or new ones created from scratch.
The DaaS is an online application, using cloud-based storage, which means data can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection, and makes it easy to share data securely with colleagues in Oxford and elsewhere. Those who wish to make their dataset publicly available via a website will also be able to use the system to do this.
[pic]
0. DaaS database creation dialog box
The system is designed to accommodate both relational and XML databases. For relational database users, the system offers a drag-and-drop graphical design interface, which allows tables and the relations between them to be created and rearranged. Other tools include a custom form builder and an advanced query builder.
[pic]
0. Screenshot of the SQL designer from the DaaS pilot version
Testing is currently underway, and the system will become widely available early in 2012. From spring 2012 onwards, the DaaS system will form the basis of a new service for researchers, to be known as the Oxford Research Database Service.
This service is being developed by the VIDaaS Project, based at OUCS. If you’d like to know more, or would be interested in finding out about becoming an early adopter (which comes with the incentive of getting to use the service free of charge for the duration of one research project), please visit the VIDaaS website: , or email vidaas@oucs.ox.ac.uk.
24. Where to Go for More Information
Most good bookshops will have a selection of introductory guides to database design and XML. Additionally, the IT Learning Programme at OUCS offers a number of courses that may be of interest: see section 6.2 below for a list, or check the ITLP courses page at for information about when the next courses are scheduled to run.
If you have an idea for a research database and want to talk it through with a technical expert, you may find it helpful to speak to a member of the Infodev team at OUCS: see for more information. Infodev can also help with other aspects of research support, including data manipulation and website building.
|Dealing with different data problems |
|In small groups, read the following scenarios and decide which tools you would use to address the problem described in |
|the most efficient manner |
|There are no straightforwardly right or wrong answers, but it may be easier to justify some approaches rather than |
|others! |
|You are writing a book and wish to keep track of any interesting quotations you come across in such a way as you can find|
|them again quickly as you write each chapter. |
|You are preparing an edition of somebody’s correspondence and you are particularly interested in countering (or |
|confirming) the assumption that the man in question was very parochial, having had few contacts beyond his own county. |
|You have been awarded funding to create a public website that allows people to locate where various Neolithic tools were |
|found in Britain, searching by location and/or the period when the tool was created. |
|You are looking at variant manuscripts of a particular poem, and wish to create a Web resource that will illustrate the |
|differences, with editorial comments. |
|You have received funding to create a searchable online consolidated bibliography of critical works relating to Hegel. |
|You wish to survey representations of saints in English church architecture to see if there are significant regional |
|differences. |
0. Other Resources
Courses offering training in research information management and related topics are described below. In all cases, please refer to the OUCS IT Learning Programme Web page () for further details.
25. Further Research Information Management Courses
Research Information Management: Organising Humanities Material
26. Software Courses
Access: Fundamentals of Using a Database
Access: Database Structure
Database: Design Essentials
EndNote: An Introduction
Excel: Lists and Querying Data
FileMaker Pro: Introduction (taught using Max OS X)
NVivo 9: Working with Qualitative Data
Programming: MySQL Introduction
RefWorks for Humanities
WISER: Tech Tools – Reference Management
Word: Managing Your Thesis
This is just a selection of the courses available. More advanced training is also available for many of the software tools listed above.
27. Computer8
We encourage everyone to work at their own pace. This may mean that you don’t manage to finish all of the exercises for this session. If this is the case, and you would like to complete the exercises while someone is on hand to help you, come along to one of the Computer8 sessions that run during term time. More details are available from
28. OUCS Help Centre
The OUCS Help centre is open from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm, Monday to Friday. You can use the facilities to work through the exercises in this booklet, or use any of the applications that are available.
The Help Centre is also a good place to get advice about any aspect of using computer software or hardware. You can contact the Help Centre on (2)73200 or by email on help@oucs.ox.ac.uk
29. Downloadable Course Materials
These course materials, plus the files you need to complete the exercises, are available through WebLearn, the University’s virtual learning environment.
You can enter WebLearn at . You should log in to WebLearn using your Oxford (SSO) username and password. Then navigate among the menus to find OUCS (part of UAS) and the IT Learning Programme.
Alternatively, follow this direct link: .
The entry relating to the present course is among the Portfolio of Course Materials, where it is included in the group Research Information Management. Here you can download the course handbook in PDF form and a set of exercise files.
30. Useful Websites
Oxford Resources
The Research Skills Toolkit website provides information about a range of software tools, University services, and other resources which may be useful to researchers:
The University’s Research Data Management website gives advice on data management planning, data security, and sharing and archiving:
InfoDev is an OUCS service offering a range of services to University research staff. They can help with the technical aspects of research projects, from the initial planning stages through to ensuring that data is preserved at the end of the project. More details are available from their website:
OUCS’s HFS Backup Service offers free secure data backup to Oxford University staff and postgraduates:
The OUCS Shop provides software for University members. Special University licensing agreements mean that prices are often much more attractive than those charged by commercial vendors:
Online Research Data Management Training
Support for Managing Research Data is a University of Cambridge website providing guidance on creating, organising, accessing, and looking after data:
Research Data MANTRA is an online course designed for doctoral students and others engaged in research using digital data. While the course content is chiefly focused on social and political sciences, geosciences, and clinical psychology, many of the issues covered are relevant to researchers from all disciplines:
The DataTrain Project also provides training material aimed at postgraduates, particularly those in social anthropology and archaeology:
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[1] For more on this subject, see Douglas C. Merrill, Getting Organized in the Google Era (Broadway Books, 2010), Chapter 5.
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|Research Information Management: |
|Tools for the Humanities |
Oxford University
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