Humbul
Encyclopedia
Humbul was an online service that reviewed and catalogued websites of interest to academics and students in the humanities
. It was founded as a humanities communications service in 1985. In July 2006 Humbul was merged into the Intute
service, as one half of the Intute Arts and Humanities Group.
and the Joint Information Systems Committee
(JISC). The Intute humanities staff are still based within the Research Technologies Service, although many of the management and technical decisions for the new service are now taken centrally at Mimas
, part of Manchester University. The website reviews and information that Humbul catalogued have been imported wholesale into the Intute database, and many have been revised and updated.
Humbul also developed collections of website records relating to online peer-reviewed e-journals for the humanities and also a collection of websites relating to research projects funded by the AHRC.
Humbul also offered a personalisation service that included email alerting (based on saved searches or saved subject areas) and the My Humbul Include function which enabled the re-presentation of catalogue records within a personal website (using javascript technology). For each subject covered there was also a freely available RSS
newsfeed which contains news of the latest websites reviewed by Humbul. It was also possible to search Humbul via Z39.50
-conformant clients, such as the Endnote personal bibliographic database application. All these functions have been transferred to the new Intute system.
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
. It was founded as a humanities communications service in 1985. In July 2006 Humbul was merged into the Intute
Intute
Intute is a free Web service aimed at students, teachers, and researchers in UK further education and higher education. Intute provides access to online resources, via a large database of resources...
service, as one half of the Intute Arts and Humanities Group.
History
After its foundation Humbul evolved into a Web-based service and, in 1999, became the Humbul Humanities Hub, part of the UK's national Resource Discovery Network(RDN). Humbul was based at Oxford University within the Research Technologies Service and received grant funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Arts and Humanities Research Council
Established in April 2005 as successor to the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Arts and Humanities Research Council is a British Research Council and non-departmental public body that provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the...
and the Joint Information Systems Committee
Joint Information Systems Committee
JISC is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body whose role is to support post-16 and higher education and research by providing leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration...
(JISC). The Intute humanities staff are still based within the Research Technologies Service, although many of the management and technical decisions for the new service are now taken centrally at Mimas
Mimas (data centre)
Mimas is a nationally designated academic data centre based at The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Its role is to support the advancement of knowledge, powering world-class research and teaching....
, part of Manchester University. The website reviews and information that Humbul catalogued have been imported wholesale into the Intute database, and many have been revised and updated.
Subject coverage
Humbul covered over thirty subject areas within the humanities, including:- ArchaeologyArchaeologyArchaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
- ClassicsClassicsClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
- HistoryHistoryHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
- Religious studiesReligious studiesReligious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
and theologyTheologyTheology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo... - PhilosophyPhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
- History of scienceHistory of scienceThe history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
and philosophy of sciencePhilosophy of scienceThe philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth... - European languages, literatureLiteratureLiterature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and cultureCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions... - AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
tic, AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n, AmericanAmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
and AustralasiaAustralasiaAustralasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
n Languages, Literature and Culture - Manuscript studies
- Humanities computing
Humbul also developed collections of website records relating to online peer-reviewed e-journals for the humanities and also a collection of websites relating to research projects funded by the AHRC.
Functionality
The primary method of accessing Humbul's database of resource descriptions was over the World Wide Web using a standard Web browser. The online database contained over 10,000 reviews of academic websites by July 2006, which could be accessed through search and browse interfaces. Browsing by subject, for example, was possible as was restricting searches to a particular subject or type of resource.Humbul also offered a personalisation service that included email alerting (based on saved searches or saved subject areas) and the My Humbul Include function which enabled the re-presentation of catalogue records within a personal website (using javascript technology). For each subject covered there was also a freely available RSS
RSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
newsfeed which contains news of the latest websites reviewed by Humbul. It was also possible to search Humbul via Z39.50
Z39.50
Z39.50 is a client–server protocol for searching and retrieving information from remote computer databases. It is covered by ANSI/NISO standard Z39.50, and ISO standard 23950. The standard's maintenance agency is the Library of Congress....
-conformant clients, such as the Endnote personal bibliographic database application. All these functions have been transferred to the new Intute system.