scratchdig
Scratchdig is a lightweight, open-source framework and methodology for exploratory data analysis and annotation of digitized text collections. It combines a search-centric interface with an integrated scratchpad workspace to facilitate rapid extraction of insights from archival documents, newspapers, or other large text corpora.
Origin and naming: Conceptualized in 2014 by researchers at the Open Archivist Foundation; first released as
Architecture and features: Core is a modular server that provides full-text search, faceted filtering, and a
Workflow: researchers perform queries, inspect results, select relevant items, and record observations in the scratchpad. Annotations
Impact and reception: Scratchdig is noted for lowering the barrier to performing exploratory analysis for non-programmers