The History Librarian

When Google Base was released, it seemed like a good opportunity to create some sort of open-access database. I was working on a bibliography of Georgia labor history at the time (and still am), so why not put the citations online? I logged in and looked at the interface and it seemed like it would be a reasonably easy proposition. I created new item types for the bibliography: Bibliography-Books, Bibliography-Articles, Bibliography-Theses, and Bibliography-Primary Sources. Using my own item types meant a blank template, rather than the “sell an item” template that appeared when I initially used the item type “book.” For each item record, I added basic metadata – what you would expect to find in any citation – and these are easily added under the category of “Details.” For the “Keyword” section, I created a controlled vocabulary: each item in the bibliography would have the keyword “georgia labor history” plus a number of pre-established (by me) terms: any geographic locations would be included (in the format of either “city/town (Georgia)” or “county name (Georgia)”), plus race, gender, slavery, unions, textiles, agriculture, lumber, strikes, company name. This way, the citation is accompanied by a few terms to give one a sense of what it contains, but, more importantly, Google Base uses keywords as a way to refine a search. If I enter the terms “georgia labor history” in the search box, a list of suggested terms for refining the search appear at the top of the results. I wanted to have “georgia labor history” appear as a keyword in order to tag the entries; this allows a searcher to focus on the Georgia labor history citations that I’ve provided rather than sifting through whatever else might come up using those search terms (job postings, mostly). Lastly, I added what I think is a useful feature – if there is an OpenWorldCat record for a book, I’ve supplied that link (meaning that if you click on the title, you are taken to the OpenWorldCat record rather than the record that I created in Google Base); similarly, I supplied links to finding aids for the primary sources included (clicking on the title takes you to the online finding aid). The articles also include links, if available, to the full-text of the article (done by using database-supplied persistant URLs and/or creating an OpenURL via SFX) – I didn’t make the article title link directly to article full-text and only would if the article were freely available online.

While not quite complete, it has been an interesting experiment. I think the controlled vocabulary helps make the database more useful, but others may vote in favor of a more open taxonomy. I also like the ability to provide a link to the search, so that I could create a web page with links to citations for Georgia labor history, or offer links to the refined searches (such as strikes or race). In general, I think Google Base provides a great opportunity for librarians and other groups to create an open access database. I would love to see someone try to do something similar for local history or perhaps as part of a larger project. If I’ve done Georgia labor history, people in other areas could add citations for labor history materials in their locality (or their research specialty) and over a period of time, Google Base could be turned into (in part) a big U.S. labor history database. I’m sure imaginative readers can come up with a number of different uses.