"Feed. Grab some text or link to your personal library. Whirl. Magically compare your research with major collections. Marvel! Be amazed by what turns up."
Oh boy was I amazed by
what turned up. The quote above comes from an online resource tool called Serendip-o-matic.
Based off the term serendipity, a happy surprise or accident, this online
resource is used for linking users to digital materials in libraries, museums
and archives. The system will use key words or phrases of your research
interest and search major databases to find images or other primary sources
that they believe will benefit you.
I was particularly
interested in Serendip-o-matic as in my final year I had to create a museum
exhibit around an obscure Near Eastern deity and had struggled to find sources
pertaining to my research. The prospect of having primary sources gathered for
me was exciting and slightly aggravating knowing that I could have used it
during my time of need. However, after using Serendip-o-matic I was glad that I
hadn’t put too much stock in the website.
Following the steps I
plugged in relevant information about my deity. His name (Baal), what he was
god of (fertility, agriculture, storms), where he was from (Near East), who his
sister was (Anat, goddess of war and love), and a brief synopsis of his
mythology. Plugging in all this information and clicking “Make some magic!”
revealed nothing that I would have expected. Not only did it take words out of
context (separating Near East into two words) but there wasn’t a single picture
of Baal to be found. A small plaque of what could have been his sister Anat was
surrounded by images of farmers, Greek gods, and one link to a book on a temple
in Syria. To say the least, I was not impressed.
What Serendip-o-matic should have found: Baal with Thunderbolts.
View this stele at the Louvre
However, I should not be
overly critical of the site. Once I tried searching just “Baal” I was able to
see more archival records on archaeological digs and a few images that could
have been to some use. Serendip-o-matic uses the basic technology it was
created with and attempts to create a fuller scope of resource material based
on a selection of words, regardless of the context of the words. The purpose of
the site is to broaden the scope of the resources but this proves to be of
little use to those with a specific query.
In short, Serendip-o-matic
could be so much than it is. With such a deep pool of resources to pull from,
the site could become a hub for searching topics on the Internet. For researchers to only need one website instead of searching for the best primary sources at different online archival databases, research could be conducted in a timelier fashion. However, based on the organization of the site at the moment I would suggest it not be used as a hard and fast resource tool. Although it
would be an interesting tool to play around with for entertainment sake, its
academic use is limited due to the formulation of its results.
Resources:
serendipomatic.org
louvre.fr
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