Paper details
August Sedláček in the Age of Digital Technologies
Author
Eva Doležalová, Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
Co-authors
PhDr. Robert Šimůnek, Ph.D. (Institute of History, AS CR ), Ing. Tomáš Psohlavec (AiP Beroun), Olga Čiperová (AiP Beroun)
Documents to download
Abstract
The Czech historian August Sedláček (1843–1926) created two extensive collections, a genealogical one and a topographical one, of card files related to Bohemia and Moravia. He needed them for his own further work. These files contain about 450 000 cards, sorted according to the names of noble families and localities. The information recorded on particular cards is partly a product of August Sedláček’s own investigations in archives and libraries, partly it comes from secondary literature or other information sources (such as personal communication with other researchers). Remaining unsurmounted to this day, the August Sedláček’s card files make a unique body of knowledge on the history of the Czech lands and their inhabitants. Its systematic processing is, however, a complicated task. Therefore, an original methodology and original software, designed to fulfil this task and capable of processing other similar collections of historical data, have been developed. A specific feature of Sedláček’s card files is that the records are of uneven extent and quality; no unified form of records was adhered to. Special tools were developed to transcribe the texts from particular cards and to sort them into distinct categories. The basic information processed in this way is then being made accessible to the professional and general public on the web site www.augustsedlacek.cz. Besides searching, the system enables the investigators to work in a comfortable user’s environment and build their own files (collections), according to their own parameters, from the data of the two Sedláček’s collections.
Author's professional CV
PhDr. Eva Doležalová, Ph.D. Institute of History AS CR head of the Department of Medieval History Specialization: church history of the Late and High Middle Ages, coexistence of Jews and Christians in medieval Bohemia and Moravia, cultural history, prosopography, digital humanities
