Introducing the Bibliomatrix
Henry Fagan
The Bibliomatrix is an experimental research tool, early components of which are featured in a presentation on FHYA’s EMANDULO platform, which is currently in a testing phase. The Bibliomatrix experiments with novel ways of engaging with historical data and materials in a digital setting. It does so by illuminating networks of production and reproduction amongst historical materials and scholarship about them. The materials include those viewed as sources, as commentary on sources, and as synthesised historical accounts.
The Bibliomatrix is composed of “bibliograms”. Each bibliogram consists of research notes that are hyperlinked to a series of connected blocks that appear as a clickable web-like tool. The features of bibliograms vary. Some focus on materials, some on particular producers, while others focus on historical topics. Each bibliogram helps visualise how seemingly disconnected people and materials interact across time to shape the production of historical knowledge. Where possible, hyperlinks also connect researchers directly to the underlying materials. This includes links to the websites of journals or museums that are external to EMANDULO, but also with materials which are housed in EMANDULO’s repositories.
Eventually, the Bibliomatrix will draw its composite bibliograms together into a single overarching network. The goal is to produce a dynamic matrix: one that responds to a user’s cursor and allows that user to determine their own focal point for the Bibliomatrix. This will provide a multitude of entry points into the Bibliomatrix and thus enable users to approach the materials in a largely unstructured way. Because the Bibliomatrix is an ongoing, endlessly expansive endeavour, it is anticipated that many new bibliograms will be added over time.
At present, the software required for linking the bibliograms together in a dynamic rather than a static way is still in development. It is anticipated that Computer Science students supervised by Prof Hussein Suleman, working closely with the FHYA, will be able to produce solutions by the end of the year. A further feature still to be introduced, once again with the assistance of Computer Science students, is light-up blocks. Blocks that illuminate relationships with other blocks when hovered over by the cursor will help users visually recognise how diverse materials and scholarships interact.
The Bibliomatrix project was conceived by Henry Fagan and Carolyn Hamilton in 2019. Fagan developed the bibliogram templates and the initial series of bibliograms using research undertaken for his 2019 MA thesis. To date, bibliograms for the James Stuart Papers and the works of AT Bryant have been completed. Work on a bibliogram providing an overview of Julian Cobbing’s 1988 “The Mfecane as Alibi” paper and the debates that followed its publication is currently in preparation.