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I was hoping for a modern book about history and information literacy. As an historian by training, I have been increasingly concerned that history methods and theories are being decentred and erased through the domination of the hard sciences in public discussions of knowledge, discovery and innovation. Therefore, I was hoping that this would be a revisionist monograph that would affirm the singularity and specificity of historical research.
I was disappointed. For a book published in 2013, it felt dated. It probably has value for North American students in a capstone course, or British students completing their third year dissertation. But that is the only level where this book has value.
Most disappointing is the attention to digitization. Considering the title, I thought this would be a post-web 2 discussion of historical sources. Instead, the discussion of primary sources went so far as the "archive of vintage radio broadcasts." Chapter Seven was titled - worryingly "History and the Internet." This chapter could have been written in the late 1990s, with no mention of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. All these applications have incredible value for historians, but require attendant information literacy skills.
Chapter nine moved "Beyond the written word," but not beyond high culture. So many of the biases from 19th and 20th century history and historiography remain that popular culture is still - to poach a cheeky phrase - the undiscovered country.
History is so important. Writing it well - with rigour, clarity and punch - is crucial, particularly in conservative times. Yet with so many sources available to re-write the dominant version of history, we find in this book conventional strategies to evaluate conventional evidence. The quality of information literacy theories - particularly when working with digital sources - remains invisible in this monograph.
I was disappointed. For a book published in 2013, it felt dated. It probably has value for North American students in a capstone course, or British students completing their third year dissertation. But that is the only level where this book has value.
Most disappointing is the attention to digitization. Considering the title, I thought this would be a post-web 2 discussion of historical sources. Instead, the discussion of primary sources went so far as the "archive of vintage radio broadcasts." Chapter Seven was titled - worryingly "History and the Internet." This chapter could have been written in the late 1990s, with no mention of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. All these applications have incredible value for historians, but require attendant information literacy skills.
Chapter nine moved "Beyond the written word," but not beyond high culture. So many of the biases from 19th and 20th century history and historiography remain that popular culture is still - to poach a cheeky phrase - the undiscovered country.
History is so important. Writing it well - with rigour, clarity and punch - is crucial, particularly in conservative times. Yet with so many sources available to re-write the dominant version of history, we find in this book conventional strategies to evaluate conventional evidence. The quality of information literacy theories - particularly when working with digital sources - remains invisible in this monograph.
