For many, what they mean by coding is actually the mark-up coding scheme employed as part of digitising largely textual resources. This section, however, will discuss the issue of actually standardising data values and applying coding schemes to data values as a means of overcoming some of the deficiencies of database packages for historical use. Some historians have always had a rather difficult time dealing with the concept of information standardisation. The entire raison d' tre of such an approach is to keep the source as intact as possible and not hack it to pieces, as is often necessary with standard industry software. For those using standard database applications, however some alteration and editing of the source will almost certainly be necessary in order to prevent the resource being practically unusable.
Standardisation has many benefits if it is carried out with strong principles and sound guidelines.
The nucleus of the problem is that relational database- focused research is best carried out on consistent information. Historical documents are usually rife with inconsistencies and errors and it is natural that in database form these anomalies should be removed. However, the extent of standardisation is an important decision. The rationalisation of obvious spelling variations, date renderings and units of measurement are all justifiable in most cases. Coding data values is probably the ultimate form of data normalisation.