Preservation isn’t just for 3-D objects and places

I found this weeks readings concerning preservation of digital archives and files very interesting. We constantly hear talk about preservation. How historic sites need to be preserved. How museum collection need to be preserved. And how printed sources need to be preserved. While this is completely true…what about our digital records? With the world entering further into the digital world on a daily basis there is an obvious need to make sure our digital files, sources, records, etc are preserved as well. It would be a shame if all was lost.

It’s funny because you always hear, “you can’t break the internet!” It would take a lot to break the internet, but what about files not being updated for new technology? What if digital files are not preserved, and historians lose access to the tons of digital files that are now being created on a daily basis? I myself do not have a solution because I honestly have no idea how to go about preserving digital files, but I am very intruiged by the idea. From now on when I think of preservation I won’t only think of 3-dimensional objects needing to be saved, but also the on going creation of digital archives.

Collecting History Online

This weeks readings seemed to pretty much delve a little further into topics we have discussed in class. We spent a good portion of a class meeting looking at case studies where collecting history was occurring. The September 11 online project is not one new to our class, but it was nice to see this looked at a bit more in depth. Because we have discussed this idea of collecting stories in the past I’m not going to waste time re-capping things that we all know already.

What I would like to do is comment on Flickr. Flickr is listed as one of our possible case studies, and I had not thought about it as a way of collecting history before. It seems very obvious that Flickr even in its traditional use of uploading photos for your friends to see is collecting history and presenting it through photos to the public. I have friends who use Flickr to post photos very frequently, and to be honest it is through their Flickr sites that I am able to learn a bit more about there life before I met them.

Because of Flickr’s non-traditional approach it brought to mind caringbridge.com. For those of you who don’t know what caringbridge is – it is a tool that many terminally ill (as well as other) patients use online. They are able to set up a blog of their own, friends can comment in a guest-book, their is a section where photo albums can be set up. My sister Amber began utilizing a caringbridge site when going through cancer treatments. Although my sister has since passed away my brother-in-law keeps her site up. He writes updates about he and their children, and makes sure that photos are occasionally uploaded to keep people updated as the kids grow. In turn the guest-book on my sister’s site has turned into a bit of a oral history of sorts. It is now a little over a year since her passing and people (some that the family had not ever met – many who the family knows) have begun frequently writing memories of my sister on this site. It is a joy to see how this caringbridge site has become a place to collect stories, memories, and histories of hte varying aspects of my sisters life.

Exhibition Blogging

The readings this week, and the podcast that was posted reminded me of a recent exhibition at The Met in New York. The exhibit was called blog.mode: addressing fashion and ran from Dec. 2007 I believe untilsometime in April of 2008. This exhibit was very interesting, and was created in a kind of two piece organization. First, it was a traditional exhibition of recent acquisitions of The Met in the fashion collection. The costumes and accessory pieces dated anywhere from the 18th century through the present, and represented all sorts of fashion trends. Anything from court fashion in the 18th century, to fetish fashions of the 1920s and 1930s, to recent designed wedges were seen on exhibit (I’m pretty sure there were several lovely pairs of Manolo’s in the exhibit as Manolo Blahnik was  a large funder). The second part revolved around blogging. In the main gallery space of the exhibit were station computers for the public to use and blog about the exhibit at any point during their visit – or you could blog online in the comfort of your own home at a later time. The purpose of this blogging exhibit was to promote both critical and creative dialogue about fashion, and in this forum it was open to anyone – didn’t matter if you were a designer, scholar, or random person off the street who had no idea about fashion. Everyone was welcome to blog, all you had to do was view the exhibit. When I went to this exhibit I thought it was amazingly put together. It was curated in a way that the blogging station did not seem out of place with the rest of the exhibit – it was an integrated portion, and the met really took a big step at tying the contents of their museum to an source that could be viewed from outside of the museum.  I think The Met made a great decision in having this exhibit (I believe it might have been the first in a planned series of blogging fashion exhibits), and I believe many other museums could learn a lot from this great way of integrating museums, academics, the general public, and new technology successfully.

Cat Kong vs. Googzilla

Ok, maybe it’s just me, but the “Cat Kong vs. Googzilla” article in the Burritt Library bulletin made me want to reach out and smack someone. I respect the opinions of others, in fact I would love it if everyone would have varying opinions (it makes for a much more interesting world to live in), however, stating your opinions in a respectful tone to others would be a great way to gain those people’s respect. SB definitely could have gone about some things in a nicer fashion. In stead of upholding his views and opinions in a positive way, he seemed to instead be attacking anyone who was not a library scientist. I have met many a librarian in my life who seems to think they are better than others, or more intelligent, because they got a library science degree. SB is no different than these librarians I have met. Instead of sounding like you are yelling at the world for making advances and trying to change, just try to be a bit more calm and support your ideas in a way that does not sound like you are looking down upon others and saying that no one could be right but you.

Libraryman

Libraryman’s rant “Dear facebook and Google, I love libraries more” was a big mix of things. On one hand I wanted to comment and say, “No joke? Facebook and Google are companies? You mean they are out to make money?” I thought this was a bit obvious, but perhaps its not obvious to everyone. I too am guilty of using google and facebook everyday, but nowhere in doing so did I think that either was a great, noble, public-bettering community. Yes, both provide great services to their customers, but that’s what they are…customers. I understand that Libraryman is pushing for support of non-profit institutions (such as libraries) that exist to serve the public, I do as well. However, I think their is a way to combine both, and I think a lot of people do. Facebook and Google are not brainwashing people so far that libraries are closing and shutting down. I don’t think we are anywhere near that state. People just must realize that in fact these online services do exist as a business, and therefore realize you are paying for them. Likewise, you are paying for public libraries. Or at least we all were the last time I checked….I believe we pay for most things….it’s called taxes.

Taking Stock

I must say that if it weren’t for Dan Cohen I might easily get lost in digital lingo at times. We are into week six of our Digital History readings, and I still find myself most easily comprehending Dan Cohen, and all of his musings. While reading for this coming Wednesday I found myself thinking, “thank you for pointing out the obvious.” Dan Cohen makes an obvious point in Chapter two of his book…before taking on a huge task of creating a digital space…take stock of what it is you are doing and decide if a digital space is even right for you and what you are trying to do. He makes a valid point. There is no point in spending precious time trying to create a high tech web page for something if it is not necessary. I find this to be true about most things however. Don’t waist your time on something if it is not needed. Take stock, figure out what is best suited for your project and then create that. If you only need a simple web page, don’t try to create something way beyond your needs. At times it seems that this happens. I have definitely found this true with some of the websites we have looked at as case studies. Many of the web pages are great, but for some the simpler ones are honestly the easier to use. Where this is not always the case, it does apply at times and sometime the bells and whistles are just not needed.

From Babel to Knoledge

I found Dan Cohen’s beginning image of a narrator surrounded by tons of indistinguishable pages of paper, and awaiting his slow death very interesting. Mainly I found it interesting because I usually don’t feel as if I’m digging and getting nowhere when taking on traditional research. It can seem a bit overwhelming at times, but never have I been so crushed beneath my books that I feel as if I am getting nowhere and I may die. Then again, I tend to like research as long as it’s a topic I’m interested in. At times I find value in not being able to keyword search, and having to sift through pages. Many times I find that doing the extra reading is valuable in the context that I gain for the subject. Instead of just jumping directly to where a keyword is mentioned I find myself becoming more familiar with the topic at large, as well as any topics that may effect the one I am researching. Through this I find that my arguments, analysis and critiques of other author’s work is more thorough and more soundly based. I was very intrigued by Cohen’s discussion of the Syllabus Finder and H-Bot however. The elaborate ways in which they search the web seems that they will produce a bit more relevant and reliable information than a search through an engine such as google. At times I it would be nice to have the advantages of the web search with a fairly good reliability about credability. As a student I am constantly looking for those “credited” sources that are considered appropriate by professors. I am not saying that I would only look at these sources, I’m saying that in certain situations it is necessary to be looking for the work of professional historians and not the history buff.

Wikipedia…what to do?

Our digital history readings for this week focus around wikipedia, and the phenomenon it has become. I have now read about how it started, how it works, who likes it, who doesn’t, why there should be an online collectivism why there should not be an online collectivism. Pretty much, if its a major topic I have now read about it. On one hand I think it is great that wikipedia provides a space where everyone has the right to author posts, edit posts, and become part of the encyclopedia process. One the other hand though, I find it hard to head straight to wikipedia for anything academic. I received my undergraduate degree as wikipedia was becoming big, and we had it drilled into our heads that it was not an acceptable source, nor a reliable source. Don’t get me wrong I’ll frequently run to wikipedia to get quick answers that will quench my burning desires to know more about Dairy Queen, and for a complete cast list of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, but in doing so I know I’m being a hypocrite. I use wikipedia for one set of uses, and disregard it in others. Should I pick one side or the other? Or should I find a way to compromise with myself and use wikipedia as a jumping off point, without ever using it as my only source? Just thoughts after reading the assignments.

Multiple Choice tests…pleh

I had a little bit of spare time between meetings today, and during that chunk of free time I read “No Computer Left Behind.” Oh standardized multiple choice tests. I HATE multiple choice tests. I have never been very good at them, no matter what approach I take to them. Taking my ACT heading into undergraduate school and the GRE heading into graduate school were two of the most un-nerving things I’ve ever had to do because I hate multiple choice so much. The only thing that did not make me nervous about those test were the essay portions. However, I don’t remember being allowed to use any calculators or aids to find the asnwers when taking them. If we rely on machines to grade them, I don’t think that students should assume that they can rely on machines to help them answer the questions – otherwise it is not a test of their knowledge on the subject – it becomes a test of their knowledge of how to use technology to find the answers about a given subject. In closing to this short rant I would like to say, “Thank you Dr. Wendell Mauter for always making your students at Quincy University take essay exams.” Those annoying blue books that I filled up with hand-written essays never made me nervous, and never made me question my intelligence quite like a standardized test.

The Lost Museum

For my case study I looked at The Lost Museum; as did two other people of our digital history course. This website reconstructs Barnum’s American Museum that was located in New York City. I originally clicked on each link and then decided which web site to explore as my case study. The Lost Museum site seemed very intruiging at first glance, and boy was it. I was able to play a mystery detective game, and solve the mystery of who burnt down Barnum’s American Museum. IThe site also included archives, which had great search features. I also like the classroom portion that provided activities and resources for varying ages delaing with Barnum and society in general during Barnum’s time. I thought it was an interesting site, and one which might be vest used if a teacher used it in the classroom. And if you are no longer in the classroom…this website is not just for younger students, I had a heck of a good time as well.