Loyola lecturer Dr. Catherine Nichols discusses the benefits of teaching with digital archives

Dr. Catherine Nichols, who holds a Ph.D. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, is an Advanced Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology and Museum Studies within the Department of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago. She teaches on a wide range of subjects, including the process of researching museum collections, and has a particular interest in the digitalization of archives. For Dr. Nichols and her students, a key benefit of digital archives is its ease of access. Read the case to learn more.

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“I used the typeset transcripts feature, as some of the handwriting was difficult to read. Thanks to the on-screen citations tab, I could keep an ongoing bibliography for my notes.”
Ann-Marie Richardson
PhD Candidate AHRC North West Consortium Funded Researcher with The Royal Society
Lancaster University
"The 91�鶹��Ʒ interface is seamless and has a crisp, clean look. Clutter is a distracting feature of many databases, so it was enjoyable to smoothly browse these archives without running into interruptions, rather focusing on the substance. The content is incredible and can add enormous value to my research work in the history and evolution of healthcare."
Tommy Flynn
RN, CPNP-AC | Ph.D. Candidate, Nursing
Emory University
“With the search terms I use, the collocations tool gives me a better sense of what is available in the archives. I’m able to click on a word and quickly be led to other information, to access a larger, macro view, and there can be real value in that.”
Dr. Catherine Nichols
Department of Anthropology and Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities
Loyola University Chicago
“The WDA platform is a wonderful resource, bringing together numerous collections and enabling cross-referencing across multiple archives.”
Mobeen Hussain
co-Editor in Chief--Doing History in Public
PhD Candidate, World History--University of Cambridge
“The search functions in 91�鶹��Ʒ are particularly good for the type of research I do. I can cross-reference my current inventories of Livingstone’s mentions of the word “women” very quickly, and the horizontality of the search process enables me to happen upon other works of interest that I might not have found otherwise. The malleability of this search function, in combination with the quality of the Wiley’s OCR, has facilitated fast, comprehensive data access—and underscores the value that these records can bring to the understanding of the socio-cultural makeup of exploration.“
Dr. Kathryn Simpson
Lecturer
University of Glasgow
“91�鶹��Ʒ are always available, so there are no time limitations. Just as important, it opens the access to Society Archives to independent scholars or researchers at schools that don’t have the funding for extensive travel.”
Sarah M. Pickman
Ph.D. Candidate—History of Science and Medicine Program
Yale University
“The RAI’s archive is the unique repository of Arthur Bernard Deacon’s original reproductions, which have been included by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register in 2013.”
Jacopo Baron
PhD Candidate Doctoral School of Social Anthropology and Ethnology
EHESS of Paris
“91�鶹��Ʒ presents extremely robust features and tools for users. The dense archival collections are highly navigable with rich metadata and advanced filtering functionality. The range of exploration and analysis tools present users with innovative ways to explore within—and across—archives and collections.”
Maria Smith
Center for Research Libraries

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