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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Rapid Fire Post 2: Old Bailey Online

<disclaimer>
 I just gotta start with this:

When I hear or see "Old Bailey," this is what comes to mind.
I'm not British. I'm also not an anarchist. I don't like seeing buildings blown up.
Old Bailey.
</disclaimer>

Rapid Fire Post 2: Old Bailey Online

First impression: BUSY. I see links everywhere. (Okay, maybe not everywhere, but pretty close.) The navigational tabs under the header are ALSO on the left side of the margin. The search box is on the right. Under the search box are THREE other digital resources that allow for searching through the archives. (THIS, I believe, is a poor choice. I understand the desire for intertextuality, supporting others' projects, and giving all possible resources to those researching, but unless these three sites offer something different than the 197,745 criminal proceedings--why lead researchers elsewhere? I want the Old Bailey Online to give me all I need.)

I also don't like the advertisements on the left side. HOWEVER, these obviously bring in revenue, and the user has to scroll down to find them, so I'll forgive the visual discord. I actually liked the links on the bottom to other supporting institutions--they have a good visual presence.

Getting to actual business: one of the best aspects of this site are the tutorial videos. Here's one of them:


For advanced researchers, some of this video might seem redundant, but the effort behind its creation is much appreciated.

Finally, I thought the "Publications that Cite the Old Bailey Proceedings Online" page was intriguing.
I don't know how many publications are cited, but it's a decent amount. This is the "we're being used--keep funding us" page. This was a question that was brought up last class in regards to NINES.org--is the cite we look at worth the time, effort, and money used to create it? Here, the OBPO offers its own evidence of its worth.

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<postscript>
The tools the OBPO have developed (or utilized, I can't tell which) through the Old Bailey API pages are interesting--and are the stuff we're craving, aren't they? The new tools, the new ways through which we can utilize the technology in ways we haven't even thought of before. ALSO!!! The Data Warehouse Interface was developed in part by Geoffrey Rockwell--who co-wrote the article we read for last week. HUA.

</postscript>

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