Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Taking these sources and analyzing them is complex, but it also
opens new opportunities. The authors of all three essays point to the po-
tential of studies that lie well beyond traditional social science history,
including modern medical research (Southall), environmental change
(Southall and Meeks and Mostern), and film studies (Hallam and Rob-
erts). Beyond finding these new academic audiences, two of the essays
also explore the potential with engaging with nonacademic groups, in-
cluding the commercial sector, environment managers (Southall), and
the heritage sector in the form of museums (Hallam and Roberts).
The final issue returns us to the introduction to the first set of chap-
ters, where we noted that HGIS projects start with a database construc-
tion phase that is expensive in terms of time and money and for which
there is litle if any direct academic credit. his being the case, it is in-
cumbent on researchers, and perhaps the wider academic community,
to make best use of this investment, in part to prevent the resource
from being lost and in part to enhance it in new ways that enable as
much benefit as possible to be derived from it. All three essays explore
this use in different ways. Southall also points to the need to develop
revenue streams to simply keep complex resources such as websites with
complex functionality operating. This is a valid point as any database or
website will rapidly become obsolete. Even keeping files in open-source
formats that are likely to be stable in the long term (and it is debatable
whether any of these exist for GIS data) will not preserve them, as hard-
ware will go out of date, and complex functionality simply cannot be
preserved through choice of file format. Often the only preservation
option is for researchers themselves to bear the effort and costs of look-
ing after the data.
The emphasis of these essays is thus not on developing the histori-
ography but instead on broadening the technology by applying it in new
and innovative ways to develop more general humanities GIS approaches.
hese essays also atempt to make HGIS relevant both to subjects that are
not centered on the study of the past and beyond the academy.
