Why digitise with British History Online?
1. Widening access
The online publication of historical sources opens them up to a large potential audience, both in the UK and abroad. A publication, accessible only in a limited number of specialist libraries, can be made freely available.
British History Online receives page view requests from readers in the UK, North America, Europe, Australasia and elsewhere, and from a wide range of academic, personal and business users.
2. Communicating your resource to the historical community
As part of the IHR, we are already actively and constantly engaged in publicising the site, through conference presentations, paper leaflets, and direct mailing to historians, librarians and archivists all over the world. We are linked to from academic libraries and departments in the UK, North America, Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere, and from the Royal Historical Society Bibliography of British and Irish History.
In addition, the use of search engines means that many users find their way to resources that they were previously unaware of. Our resources are consistently well listed in search engine results.
3. Making new connections
The site juxtaposes many different but related resources, which opens up many connections between sources that would be more difficult or impossible in a print environment.
Our site structure allows users to browse our resources by place, subject and period. It is also possible to search within and across different sources, allowing many new and unforeseen connections to be made.
4. Preservation of resources
Many important printed resources are in short supply and in a deteriorating physical condition. Digitisation with us helps to preserve these by creating a digital copy of the resource, and lessening the pressure of use on the physical volume. In addition, our project partners receive a copy of the digital resource in a form convenient to them, which may be used for reprinting.