War Diaries Talk

Tagging placenames in lefthand column

  • deehar by deehar

    Quite often, when a unit is in two places in the same day, the final destination often appears at the head of the lefthand column. If you
    tag it there the events in the tagging display are out of order. I try to correct this by inserting the departure place at the head of the column
    and shifting the arrival place to the foot of the column.
    Question 1: Does anyone understand my problem?
    Question 2: Should I stop doing this?

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Yes, I understand what you're talking about. You're referring to diaries where the name under the Place column indicates where the unit was at the end of the day.

    Your desire to get the tags in chronological order is commendable. However, there are a couple of reasons why you should tag a place where it appears on the page. One is that the aims of this project direct us to "tag what we see." I know that there are times when I think a tag really ought to go somewhere else, but an historical document is what it is. We cannot change it. So if the author of a diary states the unit's location at the end of the day at the beginning of the entry, that is what he did. By tagging it that way, we confirm what this document contains.

    The other reason has to do with the fact that you are not the only volunteer tagging any given page. A total of five people tag each page before it is considered finished. Then experts at the National Archives enter the data from our tags in a database. But rather than entering all five tags for a place name, they choose the one that the majority of taggers used. So, if all five tag the city of Arras as Arras, all five tags contribute to the data, but if only four say Arras and one says Neuville-Saint-Vaast (another town near Arras), that one outlier doesn't count. Another way to put it is that if you are tagging the place with the name of a different location, your tag will likely be disregarded.

    To set your mind at ease a bit, all tags under a date are described as being connected to that date. That is why there is a line that runs across the page from the date tag. It sort of collects all the tags under it until there is another line or the end of the page.

    I hope this is clear. You've asked a good question. If you have more, or I have confused you, we always welcome any and all questions.

    Posted

  • deehar by deehar

    Many thanks @cyngast for the detailed reply. I was indeed worried that my tags would be considered the "odd man out". What was doubly misleading is that the last place tagged (with its box checked and no intervening tags) on a certain date gets automatically entered into the date line of the next day anyway. I was only trying to emulate what the software generally does! Anyway it will be easier to tag "as seen" - although trying to adjust the tag display will be more difficult.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I'm not sure what you mean by adjusting the tag display. Can you explain that?

    If you check the box in the Place tag for a location that is in the body of text on a diary page, it does jump to the next date. The check box was really designed only to be used for places in the column on the left side of the page. I realize that there are many diaries where no place is ever entered in that column, but it is probably better not to check the box unless the tag is in the column. It will still be recorded in the data as a place connected to the unit.

    Remember that we are not trying to create a record. We're trying to make information in an existing record more accessible, sort of like we're creating a giant index of all the diaries.

    Posted

  • deehar by deehar

    By adjusting the tag display I meant making small adjustments to the position of the tags so that the tags were in the right place in the display - ie not jumping to the next day or appearing in the wrong sequence, both of which occur when the writing is small or sloping.. I try to make sure a list of placenames on a march appears in the order of the narrative. This may be overkill but it helps me to check the tagging! I also tick the check box if the diary body text says "the Bn billetted in PLOEGSTEERT"' and avoid making double entries.

    Posted