Class Notes for October 1

October 1, 2012 · by · in Archiving History Digitally, Class Notes, Final Project, Research

Announcements

Blog Posts Review

  • Various shades of primary sources
  • Read every type of source in a range of ways
  • How do we assess the credibility of sources?
  • Agency and causation
  • Precision
  • From sources to an argument

Reading

James Grossman, “‘Big Data’: An Opportunity for Historians?” March 2012.
  • Free write: what is the difference between an “archive” and a “collection”?
  • Key Concepts:
    • Archive vs. collection
    • Provenance
    • Original order
    • Collective control
    • Authenticity
      “Materials created or received by a person, family, or organization, public or private, in the conduct of their affairs and preserved because of the enduring value contained in the information they contain or as evidence of the functions and responsibilities of their creator, especially those materials maintained using the principles of provenance, original order, and collective control.

Stephen Brier and Joshua Brown, The September 11 Digital Archive: Saving the Histories of September 11, 2001, Radical History Review, Fall 2011.

  • http://911digitalarchive.org/
  • key concepts
    • Is this an archive or a collection?
    • “archivist-historians”
    • born-digital vs. scanned acquisitions
    • inequality of access to digital media
    • review different methods of inputting information: text and image scans, emails, websites, listservs, text via form on site, images and video via upload, call-in system, collaborations with other collectors (e.g. Sonic Memorial Project and Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs), digital and analog interviews and sound recordings (including collaborations with Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, and the Chinatown Documentation Project;
    • perspectives of “ordinary” people
    • challenges ahead: more standardized open-source database and web publishing platform, more complete metadata, redesigned web site, permanent archival home (expected to turn over to LOC in 2013)

Group Project

Group 1
Caroline, Anton, Eli, Cameron, Leanardo

Group 2
Estevan, Tatsiana, Phillip, Jordan Burgos

Group 3
Felipe, Jordan Smith, Robert, Pablo

Group 4
Guang, Cary, William, Stephen, Shaif