Reaction Paper #3: Digital Libraries and Archives

Our readings this week dealt largely with the process of designing a web page for a digital library and/or archives, how to reach out to an interested audience, and possible uses of an online archive using the Old Bailey as an example.

In our first Cohen and Rosenzweig chapter for this week entitled Designing for the Digital Web, the authors cover some of the basics of how to design a good web page for a digital library/archive. What is problematic about this chapter is that what amounts to a well designed web page is somewhat based on the opinion of the person looking at the web page.

The main advice of Cohen and Rosenzweig is to make sure that text and images retain the character of the original documents while at the same being easy to view and read. Another equally important issue with a web site representing a digital collection is to make sure the mission and purpose of the website is stated clearly in an easy to find part of the web page for new users. http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/designing/5.php

The second chapter of the digital history book for this week focuses on building an audience for a digital collection. This can be done with both old fashioned methods of promotion as well as new methods of promotion that have emerged with the World Wide Web.

As the authors point out some sites are fortunate enough to automatically get free promotion through their role. Web sites that contain government records will automatically get a certain amount of attention if they contain information that is commonly accessed by the public. The authors mentioned the 9/11 Digital Archives (http://911digitalarchive.org/) which received a lot of publicity from newspapers like USA Today due to its subject matter.   

 

However most digital databases are not lucky enough to receive this kind of publicity. Certainly publicity from a mainstream media outlet (newspaper or TV) would be of enormous benefit, but for historical subject matter this isn't always possible. However the Internet has provided a new outlet for publicity particularly in the form of blogs which allow historical databases to generate their own advertising and connect with like minded people/organizations who might be interested in the material contained in a digital database. http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/audience/index.php http://digitalhistoryhacks.blogspot.com/search?q=a+naive+bayesian+in+old+bailey

The ease of accessing information via the World Wide Web instead of in person at an archive and the advantage of having digital copies of documents/artifacts available in order to reduce handling of the physical copies has led to a large number of online databases for a wide range of material. http://www.arts-humanities.net/project http://oedb.org/library/features/250-plus-killer-digital-libraries-and-archives http://oedb.org/library/features/250-plus-killer-digital-libraries-and-archives

Digital databases can be based around a geographical area or in the case of the Old Bailey archive based around a specific record series. The record series in this case are all the court cases that went through London's central criminal court (Old Bailey) from 1673-1913. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

As both the Digital History from Below and the Teaching with the Old Bailey Article show, the Old Bailey archive alone produces a wealth of potential educational value for classrooms at all levels as well as scholarly research. https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2299/38/1/102846.pdf http://ancarett.com/?p=157

Clothing of the Year 2000

How clothing designers in the 1930s viewed eleven years ago. Warning: This is a little sexist.

Racist Anti-Drug PSA Addendum

I should add that on top of being humorous the Racist PSA is a testament to how the digital age has made it harder for various agencies to keep secrets. Remember this PSA was pulled off the air shortly after it first appeared and an attempt was likely made to destroy most or all of the copies. Nevertheless, here it is.

Racist Anti-Drug PSA

This was a real PSA created by The Partnership for a Drug Free America in the 80s or early 90s. They pulled it fast when they realized what they had inadvertently created, but a somewhat damaged video copy ended up on Youtube.

Reaction Paper #2: Development and Conflicting Technologies

Our reading last week focused on the development of digital databases along with some of the new challenges and rules that they brought into the traditionally paper based history profession. Largely these new challenges and rules had to do with issues of differentiating extensively researched historical content with some of the less professional (sites run by nonprofessional volunteers and/or hobbyists) historical websites on the web; as well as some of the new rules of conduct in the on-line world.

This week our reading dealt with the technologies that have emerged for digitizing text, images, sound, and moving images; as well as the storage of digital information in an on-line database. Since the early 1990s, when easy navigation of the Internet first became possible the variety of software available for the digitization and storage processes has increased exponentially.

Our readings from Daniel J Cohen's and Roy Rosenzweig's show that the greatest number of choices for digitization are in the area of text and images. As the authors show this goes back to the creation of HTML (or Hyper Text Markup Language) early on that provided a digital format for the arrangement of images and text on a web page.

Building off of the HTML software a number of competing programs were invented that allowed for the more complex arrangement of digital information. Some of these programs are the more easy to use packages like Dreamweaver or Adobe that come with a certain amount of per-formatting. Other programs have been created that allow for much more complex custom formatting and more direct manipulation of HTML codes that many professionals need when they are working with a complex database.

With sound and moving images the authors describe a similar pattern where there was an initial pioneer in the field of getting various multimedia on line (RealPlayer by Real Networks). As the technology for digital storage and putting multimedia online became more complex a number of competing software formats have emerged for multimedia. The authors describe the emergence of Windows Media Player, and Quicktime as well as a possible decline of RealPlayer.

What I found most interesting about our readings was the two major digital rivalries (technology wise) that have emerged with the increasing numbers of options available to people in the areas of digital storage and software. 

The first rivalry involves storage of digital information on a single computer vs. storage on a wider online database. Until recently digital information such as email was stored in a database on a computer belonging to the owner of the information and/or the company he/she worked for. The necessary software was generally provided by the same company responsible for the internet connection to a particular computer or by the company that provided the operating system. However with the increasing availability of online storage space companies such as Google, Microsoft (Hotmail), and Yahoo have created large amounts of online storage that can hold email, blogs, and various forms of multimedia; people are increasingly turning to online storage that is not based on a single hard drive. 

 

The other rivalry mentioned in the reading is the rise of free programs (software created by groups that are either nonprofit or get their money through other means besides charging for the program). The reading talked about the challenge of the companies that sell the paying software packages to make sure that their product is noticeably better then their free competition.

However I would have to say that the problem is a little more complicated then that. I use the OpenOffice software package (free) for my word processing needs. Between OpenOffice and Microsoft Office, it is Microsoft that has the better program (in my opinion). Microsoft Office is far less prone to minor glitches and has a better spelling and grammar checker. In spite of this the fact that OpenOffice is free made me choose OpenOffice because in spite of its minor faults I have saved 100+ dollars. If I am representative of other American software users then the makers of the paying programs are also going to have to figure out a way to cut costs or rely solely on their distribution deals with large institutions.

Sources

http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/starting/index.php

http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/digital-humanities-in-2008-ii-scholarly-communication-open-access/

Daily Show Blooper

The cracking up is not scripted.

Reaction Paper #1: What the Heck is Digital History

“The use of Digital Technology to both represent and analyze a store of information.” http://digitalhistory.unl.edu//interviews/alkalimatint1.php

After reading our material for this week I think that the definition of Digital History can be broken down into two sub-definitions. One is the above statement which alludes to the use of digital technology within the field of history, the other is a much more literal definition.

The literal definition of digital history is the history of the digital technology itself. In the case of digital history the two significant inventions are the computer (and its related accessories) and the internet. It is these key inventions that have made digital technology a good medium for historical information.

Our reading for this week completely skipped over the early history of the computer and largely skipped over the early history of the internet (1980s, ARPAnet,etc). Instead the focus was on the development of some of the first easy to use software packages designed for exploring the Internet with ease. This began with Mosaic in the early 90s, largely succeeded by Netscape (as the most popular tool for exploring the internet in the mid to late 90s, before being succeeded my Internet Explorer. It was the development of Internet Exploration Software that made the internet usable to the general public for the first time and expended the use of the web for transmitting historical information. 

 

 

Along with this the background history that we read also focused on the creation of usable and reliable search engines for the internet. In the last fifteen years the amount of historical information and material available through online databases (government, commercial, or private) has increased exponentially. Because of this a complex search engine capable of finding relevant sources for a particular topic is as necessary as a web browser. I found it particularly interesting that a search engine that was once considered state of the art (yahoo), is now rapidly becoming outdated because of its inability to find some of the less organized and cataloged sources on the internet.

With the development of web browsers and search engines the use of digital technology as a tool for store and representing historical information/material became practical as well as viable. Beginning in the early 90s many government and private interests began exploring online digital databases for storing and transmitting historical materials/information.

If you were to ask me who pioneered online projects I would guess either the federal government or a large corporation; essentially some organizational body with a lot of funding available. It was no surprise that the first group to create an online digital archive was the Library of Congress using collections that they had digitized as early as the 1980s. 

 

As digital storage space increased and became more readily available (at an increasingly lower price), digital databases began appearing from smaller government, academic, and even individual sources. A good example of the increasing ease of creating a digital database is the Anti-Imperialism in the United States 1898-1935 online collection. This was a database created by a Syracuse University Graduate Student named Jim Zwick using his dissertation and other materials from his research. In many ways you could argue that Jim Zwick was one of the forerunners of bloggers who publish their personnel interests and projects in an online digital database.

As for the Boilerplate comics, although intended to be silly they are an inadvertent testament to the ease of manipulating digitized information (photographs in Boilerplate's case) and the need to make sure information is produced or reproduced accurately when it is published in an online database.

Sources

http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/exploring/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/business/yourmoney/11archive.html?_r=2&sq=digital%20archives&st=cse&scp=8&pagewanted=all

http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/index.html