Abstract: The article presents the potential of information technologies and descriptive statistics in solving research problems aimed at revealing the possibility of assessing the effectiveness of accumulated historical experience in such an important area as social work. The purpose of the work is to create tools for a descriptive analysis of historical data on charity institutions in Eastern Siberia XIX century. The methods of research are: data previously collected from diverse archival sources; descriptive statistics in the form of contingency tables and diagrams. The article presents visualized generalized data that allows one to evaluate and interpret the volume, structure and dynamics of charitable assistance in XIX century Eastern Siberia.
The subject of the research is institutions of public charity in Eastern Siberia in the 19th century. The novelty and value of the research lies in the original structure of the database, the purpose of which is to systematize and summarize the main characteristics (organizational, financial, socio-demographic) of charitable institutions in their dynamic development and based on a wide range of written sources: office documentation; reference and statistical materials; annals. The specifics of the source base and the goals of the study determined the use of an interdisciplinary approach, which was built primarily on the basis of a synthesis of historical, sociological and information knowledge. Using methods, descriptive statistics and visualization of historical data, the capabilities of the database for systematization, analysis, synthesis and grouping of information are characterized. The study contributes to the elimination of territorial and problematic imbalances in the study of the network of charitable institutions in the Russian Empire, ensures effective systematization of primary information into a database, which is an information product of multi-purpose use, the structure of which is not related to the structure of source documents, and its value as an integral source lies in the subordination content of a specific research problem.