Arlington, Va. — At what point does the volume of historical scholarship get in the way of our ability to make sense of history?

At The Chronicle Technology Forum on Monday, Andrew J. Torget, director of the digital scholarship lab at the University of Richmond, argued that we have already exceeded that point. He said that if a person were to read one book a day for the rest of his life, he would not even begin to approach the number of books that Google has already scanned into its database from college libraries. There is just too much information out there.

The current model for teaching and learning is based on a relative scarcity of research and writing, not an excess. With that in mind, Mr. Torget and several others have created a Web site called History Engine to help students around the country work together on a shared tool to make sense of history documents online. Students generate brief essays on American history, and the History Engine aggregates the essays and makes them navigable by tags. Call it Wikipedia for students.

Except better. First of all, its content is moderated by professors. Second, while Wikipedia still presents information two-dimensionally, History Engine employs mapping technology to organize scholarship by time period, geographic location, and themes. “When you’ve got too much information to be able to process it all, you’re not sure how to find meaningful patterns within it,” Mr. Torget told The Chronicle. “The idea is to build a digital microscope that allows students to focus in on what’s most useful and relevant for the question they’re asking.”

Also, the essays (called “episodes”) that compose the History Engine database are short in comparison to traditional scholarly essays—typically about 500 words. “The challenge of a digital age is that that writing assignment hasn’t changed since the age of the typewriter,” Mr. Torget said. “The digital medium requires us to rethink how we make those assignments.”

While some academics might groan about the perils of reining in scholarly commentary according to the standards of reader patience established by Twitter and text messaging, Mr. Torget said that the essay-length restrictions help focus students on what is most important and relevant when writing about their research. But the larger aim of the project is to encourage students to create and view their work in context of a larger body of scholarship—one that accounts for a wide community of scholars but is organized in a way that is manageable.

So far, Mr. Torget says that professors at eight colleges have agreed to use and contribute to the History Engine in their classes. The engine is free to any who wish to join. –Steve Kolowich

Categories: Research, Search-Engines