Browsing/searching functionalities

• Since the source items are manuscripts (with no OCR), there is no full-text searching available. All searches are based on extensive item-level metadata records including fields for title, source, description, theme, topics, places, and names.
• Options for simple and advanced search are provided. Simple search provides a basic single search box. Advanced search allows the user to put together a potentially unlimited number of search strings linked by Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT. From the advanced search, the user can also limit search results by date range, material type (e.g., inclusion or exclusion of visual materials), and word-stemming options. A further useful function is the ability to use a pull-down menu for narrowing the search to specific listed sets of thematic topics pre-selected by the editors. One also can browse the collections under “search topics” by use of a large, clickable set of topic descriptors.
• Brief record results sets from searches or browses can be exported as plain-text files. Individual record results are formatted for compatibility with citation management applications, allowing export of selected records to Refworks or Endnote.
• The document viewing interface is reasonably user-friendly: the user can click on an item in the result set of a search or browse, which pulls up the full bibliographic record and metadata, with links for opening the image browser and page-turner for this document. There is also a very handy link for downloading the entire document as a PDF, or downloading individual page images as PDFs from within the page-turner.
• An “additional information” link goes to a screen of information about the particular sub-collection (e.g. the Stuart Stevenson Papers) from which the given item was drawn.
• Although it takes a bit of unintuitive digging, the user can eventually find an image gallery of paintings, illustrations, and sketches from the collections, which can be organized into a customized selection to present as a slide show; this feature may be particularly helpful for teachers.

Arrangement of Documents

IR&E collections are arranged in three ways: manuscript reference, theme, and date order. Examples of themes include:

• The East India Company: Government and Administration c.1750–1857
• Agriculture and Trade c.1750–1857
• Society, Travel and Leisure c.1750–1857
• The Mysore and Maratha Wars
• Indian Uprising 1857–58
• The Raj:British Government and Administration of India after 1858
• Agriculture and Trade after 1858
• Society, Travel, and Leisure after 1858
• India: Literature, History, and Culture

Under “Search topics” (which is used as a browsing tool or limiter for advanced searches, as above), there is a longer listing of several dozen topics in alphabetical order, ranging from (to name a few): accounts, agriculture; correspondence, cultural; East India Company; Dutch East India Company; French East India Company; health; Indian Uprising of 1857–58; literature; trade; trial; and sports. Documents and brief biographies of Indian personalities such as Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, as well as British administrators and military officers such as Lord Wellesley, Lord Cornwallis, and Sir Achibald Campbell, are included under “Key topics.”

Strengths and Weaknesses

Overall, India, Raj and Empire presents an interesting cache of content representing Scotland’s unique angle on South Asian history, distinct from that of other British sources. As primary sources, this material needs to be supplemented substantially by consulting other complementary sources of greater depth. The IR&E has broad and interesting coverage, but the scope of its thematic collections lack depth and “critical mass” for doing advanced research. On the other hand, one can cherry-pick items from this collection that would be useful in teaching general South Asian history courses. Through the IR&E, undergraduate students can be introduced to an intelligible methodology for finding and making use of primary sources on relevant topics. The content is deployed through a fairly simple interface that does not require any advanced searching skills in order to get relevant results.

Glossary and chronology sections (from the East India Company through 1948) provide contextualization for the archive that might be helpful in teaching beginning students of Indian history.