Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of interest via a point-in-polygon query. The QVIZ system then provides
access to archival documents from the selected unit.
W hat is relevant here is that this system should not be seen simply
as a response to the specialized needs of archivists. It provides a bet-
ter foundation for a popular online resource for local history than any
mainstream GIS. Even more importantly, it arguably provides a beter
way forward than a conventional GIS in organizing large bodies of de-
mographic data for historical research. Ultimately, archivists, family his-
torians, and historical demographers share a strong interest in historical
censuses and vital registration data and the geographical units used for
reporting them. In England that primarily means parishes and registra-
tion districts, and it is not a coincidence that the main units of interest
to the National Council on Archives had already been mapped by the
Great Britain HGIS with funding from research bodies. Similarly, the
QVIZ project was led by Sweden's Umeå University and drew on work
by its Demographic Database.
However, working with archivists or the heritage sector more gen-
erally does mean basing your work around genuinely open standards
for data and metadata. Digitization funding programs come with strict
rules on standards compliance, and it is possible to avoid following wide-
spread standards that provide inadequate support for geography, such
as Dublin Core and Encoded Archival Context, only by knowing about
and implementing more appropriate alternatives, notably the work of the
Open Geospatial Consortium.
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Claiming that ArcGIS Shapefiles are a
“de facto industry standard” will not do.
Lastly, while this section has discussed working with archivists, with
family historians sometimes the ultimate beneficiaries, the underlying
aim of this work is to make the world's archives searchable by geography.
This would be of immense benefit to academic historians and especially
historical geographers.
Environmental Management
One regretable oddity is that although many environmental historians
now make significant use of GIS technology, this work has developed
separately from HGIS. One reason is that environmental historians have
