Databases in Historical Research: Theory, Methods and Applications

347 Pages·1996·59.188 MB·English

by  Charles Harvey, Jon Press (auth.)

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Charles Harvey and Jon Press
palgrave
macmillan
* © Charles Harvey and jon Press 1996
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-56843-9
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ISBN 978-0-333-56844-6 ISBN 978-1-349-24392-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24392-1
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Contents
List ojFigures viii
Preface xi
1. Databases in Historical Research 1
1.1 The Processes of Historical Research 2
1.2 Databases in Historical Research 5
1.3 Types of Historical Databases 10
Case Study A: Investigating Regional Economies:
The Gloucester Portbooks Database (Peter Wakelin
and David Hussey) 14
2. Database Conceptsand Terminology 22
2.1 Database Concepts 22
2.2 Evolution of Database Systems 25
2.3 Features of Database Systems 33
2.4 Conclusion 39
Case Study B: The Register of Music in London
Newspapers, 1660-1800 (Catherine Harbor) 40
3. Database Management Software 47
3.1 Flat File Managers 49
3.2 Database Management Systems 50
3.3 Textual Information Management Systems 53
3.4 Integrated Systems 61
3.5 Multimedia and Hypermedia 62
3.6 Conclusion 67
Case Study C: Hypermedia Database Management Systems:
Microcosm as a Research Tool (Frank Colson) 69
4. The Database ProjectLife-Cycle 73
4.1 Project Management 73
4.2 Project Planning 76
4.3 Source Analysis 80
4.4 Database Design 82
v
vi Contents
4.5 Database Implementation 84
4.6 Data Entry and Validation 85
4.7 Database Administration 94
4.8 Conclusion 97
Case Study D: Creating a Machine-Readable Version of the
1881 Census of England and Wales (Matthew Woollard) 98
5. Database Design and Implementation 102
5.1 Approaches to Database Design 102
5.2 Entity-Relationship Modelling 103
5.3 Relational Data Analysis 119
5.4 Creating a Database 130
5.5 Conclusion 137
Case Study E: Indicators of Regional Economic Disparity:
The Geography of Economic Distress in Britain before 1914
(David Gilbert and Humphrey Southall) 140
6. Information Retrieval 147
6.1 Query-by-Example 147
6.2 SQL 153
6.3 Querying a Textbase 166
6.4 Reports 176
6.5 Conclusion 184
Case Study F: Analysing Social Structure and Political
Behaviour using Poll and Rate Books: The Westminster
Historical Database (Edmund Green) 185
7. Source-Oriented Database Systems 188
7.1 Source-Oriented Data Processing 190
7.2 Multimedia and Hypermedia Databases 198
7.3 Object-Oriented Databases 203
7.4 Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems and
Knowledge Bases 208
7.5 Conclusion 217
Case Study G: Community Reconstruction and the
Viana Do Castelo Database (jean Colson) 218
8. Coding and Record Linkage 222
8.1 Coding 222
Contents
Vll
8.2 Record Linkage 234
8.3 Conclusion 252
Case Study H: Researching the Population History of
England (Kevin Schfirer) 253
9. Conclusion:Databases and the Future ofHistorical
Computing 257
Notes and References 261
Glossary 283
Bibliography 297
Index 320
List of Figures
1.1 The processes of historical research 3
1.2 Computing and the processes of historical research 7
1.3 Centrality of databases to historical computing 9
A.1 A typical page from the Port Books 15
A.2 Sample data entry form 17
A.3 Data item list for the Portbooks Database 18
A.4 Recorded downstream salt shipments from Gloucester,
1660-1760 21
2.1 Database terminology 25
2.2 Data processing: data and meaningful information 26
2.3 Applications-centred approach to data processing 27
2.4 The database-centred approach 28
2.5 Representation of the hierarchical model 30
2.6 Representation of the network model 31
2.7 A query in Structured Query Language (SQL) 36
B.1 Numbers of references, 1660-1720 46
3.1 The ORACLE relational database system 53
3.2 Other types of text retrieval systems 59
4.1 Stages in project development 76
4.2 Music-related items in London newspapers, 1660-1745 79
4.3 Newspaper content analysis 82
4.4 Schemas 83
4.5 Stages in date preparation and entry 88
5.1 One-to-one relationship 104
5.2 One-to-many relationship 104
5.3 Many-to-many relationship 104
5.4 Six-stage approach to entity-relationship modelling 109
5.5 Initial entity-relationship diagram 111
5.6 Redundant relationships 113
5.7 Redundant link entities 113
5.8 Tables before dissolution of many-to-many relationship 114
5.9 Tables after dissolution of many-to-many relationship 115
5.10 Final entity-relationship diagram 117
5.11 Entity description form for the entity Membership 118
5.12 Normalisation 120
5.13 Removal of repeating groups 121
5.14 Removal of partial dependency 122
viii
List ojFigures ix
5.15 Removal of indirect (transitive) dependency 123
5.16 Unnormalised data item list 125
5.17 Transformation to first normal form through removal
of repeating groups 126
5.18 Dependency diagram for the Seaman table 127
5.19 Transformation to second normal form through
removal of partial dependency 127
5.20 Dependency diagram for the Seaman_Voyage table 129
5.21 Transformation to third normal form through removal
of indirect (transitive) dependency 129
5.22 Microsoft Access: the database window 135
5.23 Microsoft Access: table definition 136
5.24 Microsoft Access: form definition 138
E.l Contents of QMW Labour Markets Database 142
E.2 A screen from the Labour Markets Database 146
6.1 Guidelines for interrogating a database or textbase 148
6.2 Microsoft Access: The Indgroup database window 150
6.3 Microsoft Access: The Seat form 150
6.4 Microsoft Access: single table query - design view 151
6.5 Microsoft Access: single table query - datasheet view 151
6.6 Microsoft Access: using OR in querying 152
6.7 Microsoft Access: query form for the multitable query 153
6.8 Microsoft Access: result of the multitable query 153
6.9 Using SQL in Microsoft Access 166
6.10 SQL*TextRetrieval: using the thesaurus 169
6.11 SQL*TextRetrieval: the synonym ring for'Handel' 170
6.12 SQL*TextRetrieval: other thesaurus links relating to
'Handel' 170
6.13 SQL*TextRetrieval: using LIST TABLES 172
6.14 SQL*TextRetrieval: the hitlist resulting from a query 173
6.15 SQL*TextRetrieval: narrowing down the search 174
6.16 Steps in developing a report 177
6.17 Sample printout of the completed report 181
6.18 Microsoft Access: prompt screens in the Report Wizard 182
6.19 Microsoft Access: the design view of the report 183
6.20 Microsoft Access: an extract from the printed report 183
7.1 Relationship between the user and 1CA.£1.00 193
7.2 lCA.e1.00 - user view 194
7.3 lCA.e1.00 - technical description 195
7.4 Lists of datasets which may be mapped on to regions 201
7.5 Mapping unemployment data 202
7.6 Generating graphs from data held in the underlying
database table 203
x List ofFigures
7.7 Object orientation concepts 206
7.8 Components of an expert system 209
7.9 Confidence factors 211
7.10 Strength of set membership 211
8.1 The United Kingdom Standard Industrial Classification
System (extract) 226
8.2 Soundex coding 230
8.3 Examples of Soundex coding 230
8.4 Weights for linkage keys 245
8.5 Point scoring of algorithms 1-30 246
8.6 Algorithms ranked by relative confidence 247
8.7 SQL record linkage query 248
8.8 Linkage rates achieved 249
8.9 Regression residuals 250