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29.2 - Historical Information Science

HSR Vol. 29 (2004) No. 2: Focus: Historical Information Science

Onno Boonstra, Leen Breure & Peter Doorn (Eds.): Past, Present and Future of Historical Information Science

This HSR Focus evaluates the impact of two decades of research within the framework of history and computing, and sets out a research paradigm and research infrastructure for future historical information science. It is good to see that there has been a lot of historical information research done in the past; much of it has been done, however, outside the field of history and computing, and not within a community like the Association for History and Computing (AHC). The reason for this is that the AHC never made a clear statement about what audience to address: historians with an interest in computing, or historical information scientists? As a result, neither party has been accommodated, and communications between ‘traditional’ history and ‘information science’ have not been established. A proper research program, based on new developments in information science, is proposed, along with an unambiguous scientific research infrastructure.