[DanaC]

Quick side step: what's your area of research and scholarship Glinda?

I toyed with being an academic historian - bachelors, masters and doctorate - but in the end it required way too much of a commitment to pursue as a serious career option (not many jobs come up in universities annually and those that do are rarely within a commutable distance so would mean relocation) and wasn't great for my mental health - I need way more externally imposed structure in my working day or I'll do fuck all and end up desperately chasing deadlines.

The research though was really good fun.

Connecting back to your point about the internet: I went back into education in 2005/6 and the internet was really starting to make itself felt as a study and research tool. But it was still second place to physical books in studying. By the time I exited academia in 2015 online study and research had hit about 50/50 and for some of the students I taught, it was probably 60/40 in favour of online sources.

The information I had easily available to me for my dissertation in 2008/9 was great, but the information available for my thesis in 2014/15 was staggering. Still a lot of tramping about in archives, but the digital versions of 19th century soldiers' journals, for example, or contemporary legal studies and medical reviews made for a vast and searchable resource. Curated collections like the Old Bailey trial records, or early women's writings, all fully searchable, are a major boon to researchers and bring proper historical research fully within reach at even the early stages of study, back in high school.