History during the digital age

di Philippe Rygiel
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 35 (2010), p. 163

Conditions under wich historians are working are transforming rapidly in the digital age. Access to archives and printed material, writing techniques and data-processing methods are quickly evolving as well as the ways historical information is accessed by historians and the general public. Traditional definitions of the discipline seem unable to allow us to apprehend the nature of some or most of these changes. By focusing not on the final products of historical activities, but on the actual tasks accomplished by historians, and their social environment, we aim here to provide a conceptual framework that allows us to better understand what is at stake for historians of the digital age.