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This paper discusses applications of a revolutionary information technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), in the field of the history of cartography by examples, including assessing accuracy of early maps, establishing a database of places and historical administrative units in history, integrating early maps in GIS or digital images, and analyzing social, political, and economic information related to production of early maps. GIS provides a new mean to evaluate the accuracy of early maps. Four basic steps using GIS for this type of study are discussed. In addition, several historical geographical information systems are introduced. These include China Historical Geographic Information Systems (CHGIS), the United States National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS), and the Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System. GIS also provides digital means to display and analyze the spatial information on the early maps or to layer them with modern spatial data. How GIS relational data structure may be used to analyze social, political, and economic information related to production of early maps is also discussed in this paper. Through discussion on these examples, this paper reveals value of GIS applications in this field.

"Information Technology and the Teaching of History shows how information technology is currently contributing to, and bringing about changes in, the way history is taught and learned. The international selection of the contributions shows that these phenomena are not restricted to just one country. The impact of information technology on history curricula is explored in depth in one section of the book, whilst other sections focus on classroom activities and issues, on the development of software for history and on the relevance of current information technology developments. But the question which lies at the heart of it all remains that of how information technology can enhance the teacher's ability to offer situations in which learners can form and develop a real understanding of the nature of historical processes, and the ways in which they can be studied."--Jacket

Book Review

Today, transparency is a widely heralded value, and the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is often held up as one of the transparency movement's canonical achievements. Yet while many view the law as a powerful tool for journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens to pursue the public good, FOIA is beset by massive backlogs, and corporations and the powerful have become adept at using it for their own interests. Close observers of laws like FOIA have begun to question whether these laws interfere with good governance, display a deleterious anti-public-sector bias, or are otherwise inadequate for the twenty-first century's challenges.Troubling Transparency brings together leading scholars from different disciplines to analyze freedom of information policies in the United States and abroad – how they are working, how they are failing, and how they might be improved. Contributors investigate the creation of FOIA; its day-to-day uses and limitations for the news media and for corporate and citizen requesters; its impact on government agencies; its global influence; recent alternatives to the FOIA model raised by the emergence of "open data" and other approaches to transparency; and the theoretical underpinnings of FOIA and the right to know. In addition to examining the mixed legacy and effectiveness of FOIA, contributors debate how best to move forward to improve access to information and government functioning. Neither romanticizing FOIA nor downplaying its real and symbolic achievements, Troubling Transparency is a timely and comprehensive consideration of laws such as FOIA and the larger project of open government, with wide-ranging lessons for journalism, law, government, and civil society. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1007/thumbnail.jpg

Among the historical and geographical works of the XII century, researchers were less in demand for an anonymous monument, which is dated by scientists to 1126 and is called «Mujmal at-tawarih wa-l-kisas» («a Set of stories and narratives»). Despite the fact that this anonymous work has been known to the scientific world for quite a long time, V. V. Barthold has already given it a detailed description in one of his works, so far we have not seen its translation into European languages, as well as special studies on this monument. Russian and foreign scholars have focused on the description of «Mujmal at-tavarikh» either in the analysis of the corpus of monuments of the XII century, or in General works on the history of Persian literature or Seljuk historiography. In such studies, for obvious reasons, the authors have given «Mujmal at-tawarih» much less attention than it, from our point of view, deserves. At the same time, the anonymous essay, which will be discussed in this article, was analyzed, with rare exceptions, for the content of historical information in it. In the same article, we will be interested in both historical and geographical information that can be found in the framework of «Mujmal at-tavarikh» regarding Dagestan. Note that this kind of research is the first experience, at least we are not aware of other special works of this kind, the analysis of «Mujmal at-tawarih» for the presence of information in this source for the specified region. We will also be interested in possible historiographical connections between this work and earlier Arab-Persian historical and geographical monuments. Given the fact that this monument, as the researchers have already noted, is compiled, it seems to us an important scientific task to identify the above-mentioned connections. We hope that this article will increase the interest of researchers, both directly to «Mujmal at-tavarikh» and to the history of Dagestan in the pre-Mongol period.

Cait McKinney traces how lesbian feminist activists in the United States and Canada between the 1970s and the present developed communication networks, databases, and digital archives to use as a foundation for their feminist, antiracist, and trans-inclusive work.