Rethinking Tradition: The loss of serendipity and the impact of technology on the historical research process

摘要

The move towards the digital humanities will see a growing interest in tools such as Ebooks. This study examines how historians feel Ebooks and other technologies are impacting their research process. Findings indicate that historians feel the digital environment makes chances of a serendipitous encounter with a text unlikely. They continue to try to recreate an atmosphere that encourages serendipity within their field, and would readily welcome a method to make this possible.