Using Digital Sources

Full course description

In this skills course, you will be trained in a critical and responsible use of digital primary sources. Building on period 3 course ‘What is research?’, we will explore how digitalisation changes how we find, select, and use primary sources, and how this affects notions of source criticism, reliability and validity that are well-established in the humanities and the social sciences. Working on topics that are central to the parallel content course, ‘ICT Revolutions’ (namely, the so-called “Computer Revolution”), this skills course focuses on three types of primary digital material: text, structured (numerical) data, and audio-visual material. Through hands-on, in-class assignments, you will learn to find, select, evaluate and interpret your own primary source material, which is an essential part of any academic analysis. The course will make extensive use of resources and databases offered by the University Library.