Digital Humanities: Digital reference works

Digital reference works are forms of authoritative and knowledgeable information that are available online which people can refer to when they want to know about a particular topic. They provide a greater ability to update reference content as well as allowing people to collaborate, discover new knowledge, and make this knowledge available.

• Wikis
  • Wikis are websites about topics worked on by a community of contributors.
• Encyclopedias
  • Encyclopedias are texts containing summarised information on specific topic areas.
• Indexes
  • Indexes are traditionally alphabetical listings of keywords that appear in a text with location details so that you can find where they occur throughout the text. In a database, an index is a data structure for one or more columns of data that makes searching and accessing data faster.
• Blogs
  • A blog is an online journal, log, or series of accounts written by one or more people sharing their views on a topic.
• Dictionaries
  • A dictionary is a listing of words and their definitions.
• Catalogues
  • A catalogue is a listing of items in a collection and/or classification system with details relating to their availability, location and/or other relevant details.

Tools:

• Media Wiki
  • Media Wiki is a free, open source software for making Wiki pages.
  • Used by Distributed Proofreaders, who do crowdsourced transcription and proofreading.
  • Used by Discourse DB, which uses wiki technology to create a database of the opinions of the world's journalists and commentators about ongoing political events and issues.
• WordPress
  • Wordpress is a content management system that enables users to create blogs and webpages. There is a free and open source version of this platform.
  • Used by researcher Tim Sherratt for his research blog.

• Discontents
  • Research blog of digital humanities scholar, historian and hacker, Tim Sherratt
• Dictionary of Sydney
  • A dictionary of historical and cultural information about the city of Sydney