Abstract: The article discusses topical issues of the development of methodological tools of historical research in the light of the “digital turn”. The current agenda is formed today in the framework of international conferences and round tables. In the first part of the article the authors characterize the interdisciplinary discussion that took place at the Helsinki conference in 2019. The discussion focused on the role of digital data and tools in historians' research practices and forms of cooperation. Special attention is paid to the question of the extent to which the “digital turn” affects the fundamental aspects of historical research and its results. In the second part of the article it is noted that the answer to this question can be obtained through concrete historical research projects. The characteristic of a number of the latest works of Russian and foreign historians using digital resources and technologies in concrete historical research is given.

Abstract: The second 2017 issue of Historical Information Science journal is characterized. The main sections of the issue are presented. These are “Databases and Data Retrieval Systems”, “Quantitative History”, “Digital Resources”, “Information Technologies in Archives and Museums”, “Information Technologies in Historical Education”. The basic content of the articles is analyzed. Emphasis is laid on the articles describing the use of geoinformation systems in historical studies. The authors of these articles emphasize the necessity to modernize opportunities of spatial historical processes dynamics analysis on the basis of GIS-technologies. In this respect, they suggest the use of available GIS-packages as well as their own software. The editorial board plans to publish at least two issues of the journal and focus on research in this domain in one of them. The second issue is likely to address the analysis of historical texts based on modern software application.

Abstract: The authors mainly focus on the aims and goals of Historical Information Science journal that continues to publish articles within the frames of this interdisciplinary domain as it originally did 5 years ago in a different format though. In Russia this domain has been related to computer technologies and mathematical methods use in history and education for 25 years already. The authors state that its basis is a complex of theoretical and applied knowledge needed to develop, process and analyze electronic versions of various historical sources. Characterizing methods and technologies of historical information science the authors note the broadening of their potential due to the “microcomputer revolution” of 1980-1990s and two decades that followed. The conclusion is that the main issue addressed by historical information science specialists is the question: How do new methods and technologies enrich historical studies? This question is sure to be the key one in new issues of Historical Information Science journal.