Hacking
cultural heritage collections

to understand the limits of access

Tim Sherratt ⚬ @wragge

play along

a hack can be elegant or kludgy, authored from scratch or patched together and remixed — the important thing is getting things done, pushing the boundaries of what the humanities can do, what effects it can have in the world, and where.

Mark J Olson, 'Hacking the humanities: Twenty-first-Century literacies and the ‘becoming other’ of the humanities'

search engines lie

searching for 'white australia policy'

  • Advanced search for series
  • Exact phrase 'white australia policy'
  • Include notes!

try it yourself

A classic hack

HANSARD BLACK HOLE

TBE

Try it yourself

  • search for 'tbe'
  • play with the facets

NOT everything is digitised

They're just different

ARTICLES PER YEAR

try it yourself

  • Go to QueryPic
  • Click on 'Create'
  • Click on 'Query url'
  • Copy & paste this url:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=+

functions by quantity

functions by items digitised

access is not always open

Try it yourself

  • Advanced search for items
  • Optionally enter a series ID
  • Select 'Closed' from 'Access status'

comparing harvests

Hack or be hacked

bots for everyone

QueryPic deconstructed

Hacking cultural heritage collections to understand the limits of access

By Tim Sherratt

Hacking cultural heritage collections to understand the limits of access

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