Q. Name of project
Mortalitetsfallet i Norge ca 1780 til 1920
Q: Name of project IN ENGLISH:
The Mortality Decline in Norway ca 1780 to 1920
Q: Principal researcher(s):
Professors Sølvi Sogner (Oslo), Ståle Dyrvik, William Hubbard (Bergen), Kari Pitkänen (Helsinki), Gunnar Thorvaldsen (Tromsø)
Q. Who can/should be contacted now, and how?
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Name: |
Prof. Gunnar Thorvaldsen |
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Postal Address: |
Norwegian Historical Data Centre |
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E-mail Address: |
gunnarth@sv.uit.no |
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Web site: |
Q. When did research begin?
1998
Q: Is the project still in existence? If it has ended, when did it end? If it still exists, when is it expected to end?
Continuing, no final data set, even if the intensive first year is over.
Q: What institution(s) was/is the project based in?
The Centre for Advance Study, Oslo 1998-9. Now the Universities of Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø
Q: How many people were/are employed, and for how long? Were these people recruited specially for the project, or were they already employed by the institution(s)?
See above, employed by the institutions
Q: How much did the project cost?
It is difficult to estimate the mapping part costs.
Q: Who paid for the project?
The Centre for Advanced Study and the universities
Q: If the project is still underway, has all necessary funding to complete the project been raised?
No special funding raised.
Q: How easy has it been to raise the money?
--
Q: Other than raising the money, what are the biggest problems your project has faced?
Finding time and good software to change the mapping coordinates.
Q: How likely is it that further funding might be raised within your country for a collaborative European project?
Maybe Nordic money could be raised.
Q. What geographical area is covered by the project? What is the MODERN legal status of this area? (i.e. is it a nation state, a province of a nation state, etc). If the area currently lacks a legal definition, when was it defined and by whom?
Norway
Q: Does the project aim to: (a) Reconstruct boundaries at a single date (b) Reconstruct boundaries at a series of dates (c) Construct a continuous record of changing boundaries over a period
B
Q: What is the earliest date covered by the project?
1855. 1837 is covered in principle.
Q: What is the latest date covered by the project?
1920. Current boundaries are available.
Q: What systems of units are included?
Municipalities, in some cases parishes.
Q: What is the project's final product?
Maps to illustrate articles on the mortality decline.
Q: What other publications has your project produced?
"Om grenser og områder i lokalhistorisk forskning". I Kjeldstadli et al (ed): Valg og vitenskap. Oslo 1997.
Q. What base map is/was used to record the information? When was it created, and by whom? Is it published or in an archive?
Official maps created by The Norwegian Mapping Authority.
Q: What scale was this base map on?
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Q: If the base map was not already in digital form and your project created a digital version, how was this done?
Boundaries were changed with Mapinfo based on previous digital versions.
Q: If your project constructed a record of boundary CHANGES, what sources of information were used? How was this information gathered?
Changes of parish boundaries catalogued by the National Archives.
Q: What other maps besides the base map were used? When were they created, and by whom? What scale were they on? What boundaries did they show? How reliable are they?
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Q: Did your project make any use of DESCRIPTIONS of boundaries? Who created these? Where are they preserved? What problems did you have converting this information into lines on maps?
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Q. Please give full publication details (author(s), title, place of publication, date of publication).
Q: What scale(s) are the published maps on?
Country maps in A4 format.
Q: What boundaries do they show?
Parishes / muncipipalities
Q: Do they try to show boundary changes over time? If yes, HOW do they show changing boundaries?
Different maps for different periods. Changes within each period by distributing them proportinately according to shift of populations sizes.
Q: What software was used?
Mapinfo.
Q: What were your reasons for your choice of software? If you started again now, would you use the same software?
User friendliness. A better module for editing the boundaries would be nice to have.
Q: Describe the data files making up the final system:
Mapinfo files.
Q: What map projection is used?
Q: Assess the overall accuracy of your digital mapping:
Good for country maps, to coarse for individual parishes.
Q: From your existing experience, what methodological recommendations do you have for a larger collaborative project?
A better map editor is needed, and more research on the layout of boundaries should be undertaken.
Q: More generally, whatever the resource your project has actually created, and in the light of your experience with the project, what form of output SHOULD a new project have?
A series of maps showing development over time published on the web.
Q. What place-names are built-in to your mapping? Is each point/area (node/polygon) labelled with a single name, or is there some system for linking to different versions of names?
Town names and municipality id numbers.
Q: Does the history/linguistic geography of your area raise special problems with naming places?
Duplicate instances of the same name.
Q: What sources have you used to research place- and area-names for use in your system?
Detailed atlas of Norway
Q: Are there any quite separate projects concerned with the history of place names or of administrative hierarchies in your area? If so, please give details? Are they using computers? Are they aiming to make their results available on-line?
The Norwegian Social Science Data Service (NSD) has a data base with dynamic borders 1837-2000. It is not online (yet).
Q: Was the GIS/digital resource constructed for use by its creators ONLY, or was it intended for wider use?
The NSD maps are to be used by any researcher in conncetion with their Municipality Data Base.
Q: Are you willing to make it available for use by others?
Yes. But there are some copyright restrictions on publications.
Q: Are you willing to make it available for free, or for distribution costs only? If not, what plans have you for commercial distribution?
For free.
Q: Is the resource available NOW? If so, how and from where?
Printed maps or co-ordinate files can be ordered from the NSD.
Q: Are there any limitations on access?
Norwegian Social Scientists mostly for free, others must pay the NSD.
Q: What file format or file formats is the resource available in?
Several mapping coordinate systems. By writing software, any format can be accomodated.
Q: If the resource is available from the researcher/project that created it, what plans are there for distribution after the project ends/the researcher retires?
Q: What plans are there for updating the data files for use with more recent versions of software?
Q: What plans are there for updating the data files to include the results of more recent historical research?
Q: Do you own all intellectual property rights in the resource created by your project? If not, what other rights exist, and who do they belong to? What limitations have they imposed?
The Norwegian Mapping Authority claims copyright.
Q: How have Intellectual Property Rights issues limited your project?
When we publish, they say we must pay. So far no-one has billed me.
© Gunnar Thorvaldsen (Tromsø, May 2000)