Page 155 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

154 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.13, 2021

Discovering, reorganizing and storytelling: paths and

methods of archives research on the perspective of
digital humanities

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NIU Li , GAO Chenxiang , ZHANG Yufeng , YAN Shi , XU Yongjun & LI Anrunze 1
1 School of Information Resource Management, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
2 Nanxun District Archives, Huzhou 313009, China
3 Seventh Detachment on Duty of Beijing Armed Police Corps, Beijing 100012, China

Abstract
Digital humanities (DH) aims to solve problems in humanities by using digital ideas and technologies
in the fields of computers and the Internet. Nowadays, DH has a significant impact on the concepts
and models of Library, Archival & Information Science(LIS), expanding the developing space of LIS .
However, compared to Library & Information Science, Archival Science has neither comprehensively
accepted the ideas and technologies from DH nor revealed its value in research paths and methods to
DH. In some DH researches, archives are only the secondary resources or objects while the results or
conclusions of these researches are not related to Archival Science. Thus, it is an essential to promote
in-depth interaction between DH and Archival Science at the level of research methodology and to mine
archives value from the multidimensional perspective.
By integrating the concepts and technologies, this paper puts forward a two-tier framework in
the paths and methods of archives research on the perspective of DH. First, based on theories and
practices of archival science, the authors analyze the theoretical basis and mapping mechanism
of archives research in DH background. On the basis, this paper proposes a new model of archive
research paths with three core primitives called discovering, reorganizing and storytelling, constructing
a methodological system of archival research from DH perspective as well. Second, based on the
perspective of archival value, the operation of the three primitives into a specific technical sequence
is conducted, and a micro-technical system of archival research from the DH perspective is formed.
Finally, this paper selects archives data sets of archivist WU Baokang as research case to validate the
rationality and effectiveness of the paths and methods proposed above.
The new paths and methods of archives research on the perspective of DH could have obvious effects
on archival theory, practice, and deep interaction between disciplines.

Keywords
Digital humanities, Archives data, Archives narrative, Knowledge organization, Knowledge graph

0 Introduction

Digital humanities (DH) concepts, methods and technologies have had an important impact on

* Correspondence should be addressed to GAO Chenxiang, Email: greene_gao@ruc.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-6446-5822.