Assessing hidden savings in using British History Online

During June 2012, we undertook a survey of British History Online's registered user base looking at their opinions towards the issue of sustainability. This is the first in a series of blog posts in which we explore the results and deals specifically with the issue of hidden savings.

We asked our users the following question:

Thinking about when you have used British History Online, has it ever saved you making a journey from your home to a library?

If they replied 'yes', we asked a series of follow-up questions to ascertain how many journeys were saved, their mode of transport, the distance travelled, the duration of the journey and cost of any ticket. By combining these figures, we have estimated the level of saving in terms of time and cost achieved by researchers who use the service.

Our methodology is at an early stage; in its draft form, it shows that, on a conservative estimate, we save the United Kingdom Higher Education community interested in history approximately £1.2 million per annum. This equates to around 71k individuals, just over the average number of users which visit BHO in one week.

The methodology also allows us to look at reducing carbon emissions which have to be reported by universities to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) from 2013. We'll be publishing this methodology in full over the coming weeks.

Journal of the House of Lords: new volumes

We have just published four new volumes of the Journal of House of Lords on British History Online. These are volumes 31-34, which cover the period 1765-76, and thus are a useful source for, among other things, the British reaction to increasing tension and hostility between the American colonies and the British government, as well as the War of Independence itself. As an example of the colourful rhetoric, here is a motion for an address from October 1775

That the Powers which they have assumed, and the arbitrary and oppressive Acts which they have done, leave no Doubt of their traiterous Purpose to induce the Colonies to shake off the Controul of the Supreme Legislature, and to bury in an ungrateful Oblivion the Remembrance of the great Industry with which they have been planted, the softening Care with which they have been nursed, the many Advantages which they have enjoyed, and the Expence of Blood and Treasure with which they have been protected by this Nation.

The publication of these volumes fills a gap in BHO's digitisation of the Lords Journal and we are pleased to say that we now have 42 volumes available in this series, all of them freely available.

Trial Browse Feature

We are trialling a new feature on the browse page of British History Online and would be grateful for any comments from our users on what they think of it. At present the feature does not work with Internet Explorer.

If you select any of the checkboxes under Regions, Subjects or Periods you will now be shown a network diagram of the group-level connections to your choice of topics. Below is an example showing the groups that are connected to the selection Midlands, Economic History, 16th century and 17th century:

Below the diagram you can still find the list of relevant publications that you will probably be familiar with. Please try out the new feature and let us know what you think.

Alumni Oxonienses

The Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714, is now complete on British History Online.

This series lists all known members of Oxford University from 1500 up to 1714. A second series, covering 1715 to 1886, was compiled by the same editor, Joseph Foster: we very much hope to add the later series to British History Online in the future.

Foster painstakingly worked through the University Archives, cross-referencing with other reference sources of the time, such as registers of the Inns of Court, ecclesiastical and political records. The entries vary in length; for example, here is that of Simon Laude:

Laude, Simon, s. Lewis, of Tamerton, Devon, sacerd. Exeter Coll, matric. 18 Feb., 1626-7, aged 16; B.A. 26 Jan., 1629-30.

Whereas the next entry, for Archbishop William Laud, is quite a bit longer. For many obscure people, such as Simon Laude, this is probably the only printed biographical summary of their lives, and so the Alumni is a particularly valuable resource.

We have tried to make it even more useful for users of British History Online by splitting the text into two columns, with names in the left-hand column to make them easier to scan; we have also put occurences of Oxford and Cambridge college names in bold.

New resources for architectural history

We're just about to begin work on a new digitisation project: of the inventory volumes of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. The definition of a monument is widely drawn, to include historic buildings and structures of all kinds, and the volumes give accounts of their history and structure, based on a detailed measured survey. Before 1946 only monuments created before 1718 were recorded, but after 1946 coverage was extended to record all 18th and 19th century sites. The project is generously funded by English Heritage, of which the Royal Commission became part.

The 43 RCHME volumes form the counterpart to the publications of the slightly older Survey of London, which was taken over by the RCHME in 1986, the volumes of which are already on BHO. Together they offer a record of England’s monuments unrivalled in range, coverage, detail and accuracy. They also form a counterpart to the architectural content of the Victoria County History, with which the Commission’s history is intertwined. Architects, such as (Sir) Charles Peers, contributed surveys to the volumes of the VCH published before 1908 and went on to contribute surveys to both series for a short time. But the founding of the RCHME soon led to the VCH abandoning detailed survey and record, and to the two series being seen as complementary, with the VCH concentrating on using built evidence for tracing the history of settlement. Cross-searching all three series (a task often undertaken using the books) will be immeasurably enhanced by having all the volumes of the VCH, Survey of London and RCHME available online.

We expect the first volumes to appear this summer, with the set being complete by August 2013.

An index of sustainability: ISURV

This project will investigate the creation of a sustainability index which will be the product of three variables: unique visitors, their return rate and the number of page requests per visit.

• Unique visitors: this is related to a number of factors, such as the uniqueness of the content, the longevity of the site, how it is promoted, and access fees.
• Rate of repeat visits: a measure of how suited the site is to our visitors' needs, aka loyalty
• Page views per Visit ('stickiness')

Giving: Index of Sustainability = U × R × V

Take the example of a cafe: it can increase its business by getting more people through the doors (U), increasing the amount its customers spend each time (V), and improving the frequency with which each customer comes back (R).

In terms of resource allocation, the cafe has to decide which of these factors it could invest money in to bring it the biggest benefit; advertising to bring more people in (U), changing the product range or ambiance to increase money spent per visit (V), or the more diffuse aspects of loyalty (R) which could include more complicated activities such as taste tests.

This project will mainly focus on improving user experience (V), and refining the effectiveness of ISURV together with a set of orthogonal indicators which can be used to compare the functional performance of sub-site areas, a whole site, or even between separate sites. It will amend discrete areas of content, leaving whole other areas untouched to allow contrast, and communicate its results in a non-specialised language.

Our first set of figures will be published in April 2012.

BHO wins new funding

We are pleased to announce that British History Online has been awarded funding by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) under strand B, 'Enhancing the Sustainability of Digital Collections', of the 16/11 Digital Infrastructure call.

Entitled 'Developing a sustainability index using British History Online (ISURV)', this project will investigate the creation of a sustainability index which can be used to compare the performance of functionality of sub-site areas, a whole site, or even between separate sites.

Its core objectives include:

• giving senior managers a richer set of performance indicators and attempting to better communicate the value of digital products upwards
• use the results to promote service excellence across the field of digital humanities
• large scale user engagement
• encourage (challenge?) historians to adopt new tools and techniques for navigating and locating content
• attempt to communicate to both audiences, i.e. senior managers and users, to create a positive environment for the product

You can keep up to date with the project, and learn how to take part, by following this blog.