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Traditionally historians have acquired their data by visiting libraries and archive collections. On visiting these libraries and archives to carry out their research, the first port of call for most historians upon arrival was usually to seek assistance from the librarian or the archivist, who in turn referred them to a card index or printed guide (Organ et al, 1996). However over the last twenty to thirty years the world has experienced the internet revolution. In this essay we will discuss how has the internet changed the way historians work?
At the start of the information technology revolution, personal computers were the most obvious tool attributed to how historians work, however as the use of internet was still yet to be available widespread, Gorst et al (1997, 139) suggests they have mainly been used simply as replacements for pen and paper, as little more than glorifies type-writers or calculators to manipulate and represent data collected in the archive.
Formerly, research was almost invariably restricted to the material available in-house, or it was necessary to travel to access external collections. As previously mentioned, comprehensive card indexes and listings were compiled for individual holdings and where possible, listings were circulated between institutions (Organ et al, 1996).
The developments in information technology have meant that a growing amount of primary source material has become available to historians desktop computers via the internet (Gorst et al, 1996, 139). This development has significant implications for the researcher in modern British history, as it potentially changes the way historical research will be undertaken. The internet is a tool, which in theory provides access to a storehouse of...

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...es, at least those in in institutions such as academic libraries and museums, mounted websites. A lot of repositories today have digitized primary materials.

Easy and almost universal access is another advantage (Robert, 2012) as academic libraries are increasingly available online as a huge majority of UK and US universities have established their own history sites which now contain valuable information as opposed to the start of the information technology revolution where these sites were merely concerned with advertising the department and its courses, so it is possible to conduct complex searches. And given the the increasing number of history titles being published year on year, this facility is an invaluable aid, both to the construction of preliminary bibliographies and the checking of references in footnotes when writing up research (Gorst et al, 1997, 143)

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