The King James Bible Virtual Exhibit : The King James Bible

The King James Bible Virtual Exhibit : The King James Bible.

Here is an interesting DH project from Ohio State libraries about the King James Bible. It was developed as part of a pilot project, as the developer describes below:

The exhibits pilot innovation grant project was a partnership of three departments, Digital Content Services (formerly SRI), Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Web Implementation Team (nowApplications, Development and Support). The Preservation and Reformatting Department (Amy McCrory) and the Copyright Resources Center (Sandra Enimil) were also heavily involved. The grant was “to develop a new model for creating and delivering digital exhibits at the Libraries.” The project was developmental in scope, and the specific goals were to create a polished digital version of a physical exhibit, and to gather information about what would be required to develop an exhibits program in the Libraries.

The King James Bible exhibit, curated by Eric Johnson, is indeed a polished exhibit.  We learned a great deal from working on it, such as the need to create a glossary of terms as reference for all people on the project.  We also identified the strengths and weaknesses of the Omeka software for our environment. The research into what it would take to build a sustainable program took many forms.  We looked at existing digital exhibits at OSUL, as well as curator expectations for exhibit functionality, and the use of Omeka at other institutions.  We tracked information on the time it took to create the exhibit.

What’s next?  The report is done and has been given to the Executive Committee.  The suggestions in the report are just that – suggestions.  We were not charged to develop a program.  We applied for funding to explore the possibilities; the report is what we discovered.  It is also worth noting that the environment has changed since the report was written.  Most important, is that the Libraries have hired an Exhibits Coordinator.  However, many of you have expressed interest in our results.

Read Report Here (docx).

 

 

Aaron Swartz, a Data Crusader and Now, a Cause – NYTimes.com

Aaron Swartz, a Data Crusader and Now, a Cause – NYTimes.com.

More about the career, and legacy, of Aaron Swartz.

Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26 – NYTimes.com

Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26 – NYTimes.com.

The death of Mr. Swartz, apparently by suicide, is a tragic loss to the open access movement, and indeed to the world at large. He is perhaps most famously known for having hacked into the computer network at M.I.T. and then downloading most of the articles available on JSTOR in an attempt to make them free to the public. He was facing charges for that act that could have netted him years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

JSTOR itself, it should be noted, declined to press charges. It was the State Prosecutor for Massachusetts* who pursued Mr. Swartz (to his death, some would argue).

As an academic who participates in the process of scholarly information production and exchange, I have some understanding of the time, money, and effort it takes to conduct research, write and publish articles, run an academic journal, collect and curate said articles, and archive them in ways that make them available to others in a useful form. That work deserves fair compensation. But at the same time, corporations have become gatekeepers to that information (which is often produced at public expense at public universities, funded by public grants) and are charging what appear to be exorbitant amounts of money for access.

The Open Access model of information production and distribution requires a fundamental restructuring of the way information is produced, circulated, and valued in our culture. The current model is deeply entrenched, and will not change without significant buy-in from stakeholders who are currently highly resistant. Thus some activists are taking back their power by circumventing the system and forming alternate systems outside the current publishing structure. Mr. Swartz was one of those. He did so, not for any gain of his own, but because of his passionate conviction that the producers and users of information need to take back control of their intellectual property and make it freely available (or as free as possible). The entire system of scholarly production and exchange is changing, and the sooner the corporations that tie up intellectual information in proprietary databases realize this, the better.

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*Correction: an earlier version of this post said it was the federal government that pursued prosecution of Mr. Swartz. The corrected information is above.

Secret Reading Lives, Revealed – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Secret Reading Lives, Revealed – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

 

Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America

Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America.

WARNING: THE IMAGES IN THIS ARCHIVE ARE VIOLENT AND DISTURBING.

This is an archive of postcards of lynchings (yes they made postcards) that I have used with my university students to educate them about lynching, to provide context to some of the literature we study, and to provoke discussion about the fetishistic nature of violence (who makes postcards of these events? who buys them, sends them, collects them, and why?). Obviously, images like these must be used with care; my students inevitably find them traumatizing (I don’t require them to look at the archive, I merely suggest it; most do end up looking at it, after the discussion if not before).  Often, the discussion in class revolves around our supposedly “post-racial” society. Do images like these just replay the violence and re-victimize the victims, and perpetuate racial resentment? Or do they serve a useful purpose? This is an important question, since I often find that many of my students (even black students) have never heard of lynching or the Jim Crow era. Without that context, much of 20th century American literature is unintelligible to students.

ProQuest to Release First Module of NAACP Archives in April – Press Release – Digital Journal

The first step in broad, digital access to the archives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) commences in April when ProQuest and the venerable civil rights organization release the first in a series of modules for libraries and researchers. ProQuest® History Vault’s NAACP Papers 1 will provide the first electronic access to files from the group’s Board of Directors and Annual Conferences, as well as text of major speeches and national staff records.

via ProQuest to Release First Module of NAACP Archives in April – Press Release – Digital Journal.

This is an important project to preserve and make publicly accessible the archives of the NAACP – the digital humanities once again making important records available to the public in ways that expand the potential research of such archives.

Unit 13 – I’ve learned a lot this semester!

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I have learned so much this semester, it’s hard to know where to begin. But I guess I need to begin with metadata and taxonomy. Early in the semester I posted that “I read some articles this week that made me realize that much of what added value librarians provide to collections is in the form of metadata. I guess I always thought of librarians mainly as reference librarians or subject specialists — not as experts in classifying and indexing information.” But now I know (a little) about the value of good metadata, and taxonomies, and I’ve learned about metadata standards such as Dublin Core, that help to standardize metadata usage over the entire web. I’ve learned about the semantic web, and the idea of linking data and building ontologies that describe the relations between concepts. I’ve learned about the contrasting benefits of controlled vocabularies versus “folksonomy” (i.e., tagging). And I’ve learned a little about harvesting metadata, using PKPHarvester to harvest metadata from several databases and data providers.

I’ve also learned more about the Open Access movement, and open access initiatives; and about the issues of “freeing” information from behind paywalls. The main obstacle to this is that knowledge (and its associated data) is a currency that has value, and that making it freely available will necessitate basic structural changes in academia and in academic publishing.

Those structural changes include major changes in the role of the library and librarians in the production and preservation of knowledge. These changes present sigificant challenges to libraries in managing, curating and preserving digital materials and data. Librarians are increasingly expected to have the technical skills to design and select Content Management Systems for their libraries, to design, create, and maintain digital collections and digital repositories, and to train other librarians to do the same, often with limited technical staff and limited budgets. Open Source software is a boon to the small library or non-profit or museum that needs these types of functionality; but again that requires technical knowledge and skill on the part of the librarian to install, configure, and maintain operating systems and small in-house servers.

In order to gain those technical skills, I learned how to create several virtual machines with linux stacks of various sorts, and to install and configure four different content management/digital repository software systems (Drupal, DSpace, Eprints, and Omeka). I created a sample digital collection in each one, and used the experience to compare each system’s strengths and weaknesses, and then to decide which sorts of digital collections (and environments) each system is best suited for. I then chose which system to use to host my digital collection, set up the system, entered the records and created the metadata, and then wrote a paper on the process, which will contribute toward my digital portfolio. In my case, I decided upon Drupal as the system I want to use for my digital collection. Drupal has a steep learning curve, and I really learned a lot about Drupal in a short time through the process of designing my collection, downloading and installing extra modules to provide the functions I needed, and troubleshooting the installation. I’m proud of how well my prototype digital collection works, but I already have plans to keep working on the prototype to get it working even better, and to extend its functions, and to redesign certain features. I’m turning into a Drupal geek already.

Librarians are also expected to conduct outreach to their various communities, in order to make the services of the library more accessible and useful. This seems to be especially needful for the humanities scholar community. We read many articles about the obstacles that keep humanities scholars from embracing digital initiatives, and from using digital resources (and those articles confirmed my own observations). We learned about how humanities scholarship, data, and workflows are vastly different than those of the scientific community; identified some of the obstacles that prevent humanities scholars from using (or producing) digital resources, including digital repositories; and read about several digital humanities initiatives, both in the U.S. and in Europe.

I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of the course for me was just the chance to see so many different examples of digital collections; to interact with my fellow students over their collections and interests; and to explore what is already being done, what is possible and useful.  A find that was very helpful to me was the UK Reading Experience Database (RED). This is a database that contains much of the same sorts of data that I wanted to collect in my own digital collection, so it gave me some assurance that I was on the right track with my ideas.

Finally, I have included a slideshow of some screen shots from my project.

Unit 12: pre-installed VM versus DIY

I think the question here is really: what skills are really needed in a librarian working in digital collections? That is not easy to answer, because libraries vary so much in terms of staff size, budget, and training. I certainly feel much more confident about installing and configuring virtual machines (VMs) as a result of this course; but I wonder if it was the best use of class assignment time, especially since it could be so time-consuming. But if I was the sole librarian in a small non-profit or museum, with no technical staff, and I wanted to create and host a digital collection, the ability to create a VM from scratch would be important. I guess the question is, how common is this scenario, and how common will it be in the future? And what sorts of librarianship does the DigIN program want to support?

I don’t know if a middle ground might have worked better; maybe install only 3 VMS and spend more time on metadata and actually working with collections. I think DSpace and Eprints were sort of repetitive; maybe we could have been given a choice to install one or the other as our example of digital repository software. I think it was good to see Drupal because it is so ubiquitous, and to get an idea of the more technical end of the spectrum in digital collections management. And I think Omeka seems to represent the other end, the simple end of digital repository management.

 

 

Unit 11: Repository Software Homepages – an assessment

A repository software package’s homepage ought to be attractive, clear, and inspire the users’ confidence.  Some of these homepages do that better than others; but they are also geared toward very different audiences. In general I think each site is geared toward the user that could best benefit from it.

• Eprints (http://www.eprints.org/): clearly states what it is, the interface is clean, and provides a live demo as well as links to documentation, downloads, and a description of the principles of open access.
• Omeka (http://omeka.org/): again, the homepage is well-designed, attractive, and provides clear links to all the information a user could want. It seems geared especially to draw in the new or uninitiated user (i.e. me). The user could be an individual rather than an institution.
• DSpace (http://www.dspace.org/): There is a lot of white space on this page. For some reason I find that intimidating. There is a very clear statement about what it is–if you know what an “institutional repository application” is. The logo at the top identifies it as a “scholar space” – This is definitely geared toward an institutional user/IT professional that already knows what an institutional repository is. This might be more confidence-building if you are an institutional administrator looking to find a turnkey application.
• Drupal (http://drupal.org/): This is a very busy page. But the tag line: “Come for the Software, Stay for the Community” is catchy. The page goes out of its way to show you how world-wide its scope is; you can tell that the software is geared for IT professionals and developers; they even have announcements about DrupalCons (a very geeky term for conventions). This is definitely a geek community and that means that I am not the sort of user they are targeting.
• PKP (Public Knowledge Project http://pkp.sfu.ca/): This site also has a lot of projects besides the harvester software. It takes a while exploring and reading to figure out what this site is and what it contains. It’s not for the casual user, and it seems to already assume that the user is committed to open source and open access projects.
• JHove (http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/): This is a site full of technical jargon, definitely targeting the technical user, not the casual user or the repository administrator.

I guess each site has its advantages for the type of user it is seeking. As a librarian or a non-profit or museum curator, I find the first 3 more attractive and accessible.

Unit 10 – Open Archives Service Providers

Like many others in class, I had difficulty finding working links on the list of open archives service providers we were given. Most service providers seemed to collect scientific database metadata, and many sites were in foreign languages, which is great but not useful to me. There were only a few that provided harvests from humanities archives; these were almost exclusively the same sites that I found with my harvester. I also found many dead links; or sites that would not load.

I looked at the DL-Harvest site from the University of Arizona; its description states that “It brings together full-text, scholarly materials in the Information Sciences from many different OAI-PMH compliant repositories.” The site seemed true to its description, well organized, and I was able to search it easily. It would be very useful if I were looking for articles in library science or information management.

I looked at the OIAster site, which is the huge federated site that supports WorldCat. That site is truly amazing, and the search is faceted in very useful ways, mainly by type of resource, which works for me most of the time. I think this service is very very useful; there have been many times I have used WorldCat to find things I could not find in other ways. In particular, when I am searching for archival material it is invaluable. I think it is especially helpful when one is searching for unique items, or a set of items that is small in number. A general search would return too many hits. But again, being able to select archival material usually returns a manageable set.  Sometimes the links don’t click through, or it can’t resolve a particular record to a particular library or collection; but that is pretty rare in my experience.

The Perseus site was really interesting. It collects metatdata from sites containing Greek and Latin texts, as well as Arabic and Old Norse. It was very easy to use and search; it also included a dictionary for each language. I liked the interface; when I searched for “shame” in the general search bar, I got hits that actually showed me the hits in context. It is very useful for the subject matter it covers.

It seems that services work best that have a very specific focus; or a very, very broad one with the faceted ability to cull the search results. The descriptions need to specify the language used by the federated site. Thet also need to indicate the last time the federated archive was updated.