“Archiving” by Digital Writing and Research Lab is a family-friendly podcast episode released and published March 18th, 2014. In this episode of the archive the host, Megan Eatman, speaks to members of the Digital Writing and Research Lab’s Digital Archiving group alongside co-chair Rappaport’s Center’s Human Rights Archive Working Group. They discuss their various approaches and struggles when it comes to the world of digital archiving. The episode typically focuses on the challenges of having to build an entire digital archiving website from scratch and their struggles with making sure they are gathering the necessary different forms of media that are seen as necessary for creating an authentic and efficient digital archiving platform. This episode of this podcast is a great addition to the archiving website because you hear first hand experiences of experts in the field of archiving go into details on the struggles they face that are typical struggles that most of us will most likely have to deal with in the realm of digital archiving. Not only do they speak about their own personal experiences, they give advice to others through a variety of given questions submitted by listeners who plan on being involved.
Clara Pulido, Jacquelyn Curtin, Truc Duong
“Digital Humanities and Digital Media: conversations on politics, cultures, aesthetics, and literacy” is a book written by Roberto Simanowski. Unlike the previous item additions that we have added to the archive, this one is fairly new, being published in the year 2016. It is defined by critics as “exceptionally relatable” and a “very lively and engaging” take; turning an overcomplicated matter to one of very simple divided parts. Simanowski takes a very different approach in his novel than we have seen in many others in this category. He interviews many different “key figures” in the Digital Humanities field from different eras in time to show the quickly progressive and always changing state of digital media. Not only is Simanowski a writer, but he is a skilled journalist with many years of experience in interviewing others in a professional but easily relatable manner. He ensures that all his interviews share the same common key points and fields while also asking very key specific questions that relate to each individual interviewee. This text would be an important addition to the archiving website because it is in a style that is different than many others, adding a new potential way for students to learn.
RB203: From Digital Uprising to Digital Society
“RB203: From Digital Uprising to Digital Society” is a podcast episode published and released by The Platform on June 1st, 2012. This podcast will be an exemplary addition to the archiving website because it takes a real life historical event and relates it into terms of digital media and how ever advancing and changing technology can be used to control masses of people. Specifically, how whether or not digital media and digital technology had a direct impact in bringing about the “Arab Spring”. The Arab Spring is defined as “a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s.” These questions lead the podcast to delve into the specific communications infrastructure of the country of Tunisia, and how its government controlled digital technology may have played a major role in the protests. This is a great podcast episode to listen to because it relates what seems to be a simple idea, and connects it into the destruction of an entire government and the surrounding countries. It is immensely important for students to learn how the actions we make through technology can have a negative impact and can be used by a government to control its citizens.
Digital pedagogy is using digital tools to enhance teaching and learning experience. It offers the possibility of enabling more interaction among students and instructors and increasing student academic success. Educators who incorporate digital pedagogy in classroom re-creates the contemporary worlds which their students encounter every day. This paper provides a brief introduction to digital pedagogy. “Digital Pedagogy” is a one page descriptive article written by Matthew N.O. Sadiku in order to help guide a method of teaching when presenting an academic or theoretical concept. Considering that technology is constantly evolving and changing, it is important for professors and teachers to be kept updated on new lingo and practices of digital technology so that when they interact directly with their students they can be able to relate on a fresher and newer basis. In using a basics following-a;ong sheet like this one, it has been proven to rapidly increase the success rates for many students as there is common ground and understanding between them and the professor. This would be a great item to add to the archiving website because it offers introductions and conclusions that professors can use when giving a lecture or teaching in class. Not only does it help outline the necessary lessons of digital pedagogy, it offers direct resource citations that can be used as direct examples for the students. Lastly, it shares the pros and cons of such a topic, giving students a direct comparison of pros and cons to learn from. This lesson can be very complex and overly complicated for many instructors to teach their students, but with the help of this sheet it can be made simplistic, but still remain informational and accurate.
Matthew N. O. Sadiku, Adedamola Omotoso, Sarhan M. Musa
Libraries Face the Challenge of Archiving Digital Material
“Libraries Face the Challenge of Archiving Digital Material” by IEEE Computer Society is a podcast about how libraries are facing the problems that are presented by the modern day digital material. This podcast is used to introduce the ongoing problems of preserving printed and digital materials that libraries face. It goes into how digital material owned by libraries is being converted or transitioning printed materials into digital copies and how to preserve those copies from degradation. Libraries have faced the problem of preservation of printed materials before. Now, libraries are facing the challenge of preserving digital materials. Digital materials in terms of videos, recordings, artwork and more. The libraries now have to look into preserving enormous information. The differences between written/printed material that are preserved by libraries and the digital copies that are preserved by servers. The difficulties lay in how materials are preserved and how to categories the information. This would be a good addition to the archive by way of Digital Humanities. It is the history of how libraries are dealing with the ongoing problem of preserving materials, both in printed form and digital form. It shows how libraries are facing these problems and the solution in terms of preservation of information.
Conserving for the Future by Archiving Our Past: A Story about Technology and Digitization Informed
“Conserving for the Future by Archiving Our Past; A Story about Technology and Digitization Informed by a Vintage Paperback Book Collection” written by and released by Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). This 16 page pamphlet discusses the period of change that happens when taking information and digitizing it for digital archiving. Many pieces of informational texts just talk about the before and after, but do not go into how this impacts society once everything is said and done and through the process of taking such classic works and placing them for digital works for the world to see.It discusses what happens to those bits and pieces of information once they have gone through the processes and are uploaded in their designated servers. It mostly focuses on the negative impacts that this may have, stating that the original “essence” of such works can be lost when transformed into a digital version. It takes a very informational topic and creates a sense of empathy for our previous works. This would be a very valuable addition to the archive because it brings in a very neglected point of view that is not considered much in the modern day and age of technology. Students need to be informed of the potential losses that may come when doing a action that may be simplifying our lives, but also losing the effects of nostalgia that come within such works. The true purpose of these works are questioned as to being lost or misused when turned into digital versions.
The State of Digital Preservation: An International Perspective
“The State of Digital Preservation: An International Perspective: An international Perspective. Conference Proceedings is defined as a “collective of papers” published and released April 24th, 2002. These collective papers of text have many contributors coming from different backgrounds and countries. These leading experts come from the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia. They go into describing their different methods and processes that they go through in digital preservation. This is extremely valuable because leading experts from different parts of the globe practice different processes. This is an important set of text for readers to learn from because in order to grow as students we must be introduced to all types of methods in order to decide which ones would be most efficient and the proper way depending on the specific project the readers will be working on.
Meg Bellinger, Laura Campbell, Margaret Hedstrom, Deanna Marcum, Kenneth Thiboderu, Donal Waters, Titia van der Werf, Colin Webb,
The Digital Dilemma: Strategic Issues In Archiving And Accessing Digital Motion Picture Materials
“The Digital Dilemma: Strategic Issues in Archiving and Accessing Digital Motion Picture Materials” by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is a work of text consisting of 84 pages. It was published in the year 2007 as an open source English text. This item is different from the previous ones we have added to the digital archive because it analyzes the issues and discrepancies that come with preserving digital motion picture archiving. The text goes into great detail on what portions changed step by step and how they are changed when going through the process of archiving this form of media. This is a valuable item to add into the archive because it focuses on the archiving film which is an entirely different process than archiving other forms of media. When it comes to archiving this type of media, there are a lot of extra portions that need extra assurance that they are done correctly because if done incorrectly different aspects of the media can be corrupted and damaged. For example, the media can be transferred correctly through video, but the audio can be damaged.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Case of the Puzzling Personal Digital Archive
“Case of the Puzzling Personal Digital Archive” by writers Wendy Hagenmaier, Oscar Gittemeier and Michelle Kirk is a presentation hosted by NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. The program is working in collaboration with NYU Libraries and Coalition for Networked Information. This is run under their communications and sciences department. The presentation is an introduction to people who are trying to preserve personal information and sort it into an organized way that is easy to look and search through. The presentation itself is an interesting and colorful powerpoint for viewers in order to keep them engaged. This is especially important for people who are not familiar with programs. The presentators will introduce the concept of preserving personal information and how to do it without encountering more problems in a funny, comedic way.This adds an aspect of relatability for the readers in order to keep them following along in what is usually an extensive and complicated process. This presentation is valuable because it allows viewers an easy introduction into how to preserve personal information, the dangers of not doing so, and the correct way to do so. Preserving information can be a quite tricky and tedious task, with even the smallest errors resulting in incorrectly preserved and processed information.
Wendy Hagenmaier, Oscar Gittemeier and Michelle Kirk
Performing Arts and Digital Humanities: From Traces to Data
Found in the UCF Library through Primo Search, this book is a valuable resource to researchers, archivists, and artists alike. Today, all information has become digitized, either through a process or through digital creation. Data is valuable and necessary, but it is also easy to manipulate. Very often, data that is “too complex,” “too fragile,” or “of dubious authenticity” is lost through lack of trying. Factual and honest data is of the upmost importance; which is why there must be new ideas and methods in preserving the sanctity of digital archives. Bardiot targets the specific issue of preserving theatre. The topic of theatre ranges from the creative processes behind productions to the actual performances of the shows themselves. Theatre is an incredibly important part of culture and is one of the oldest art forms. It is a fascinating reflection of society at large; not only in the topics of the productions, but in the players and workers within the theatre sphere. In order to illustrate her point, Bardiot utilizes Merce Cunningham’s digital traces. She expands upon them in relation to the specific issues of the digital archiving of theatre. The information provided in this book is beneficial to many. Digital archivists will discover new methodologies, while cultural institutions will come away with a better understanding of the importance of theatre as a cultural kingpin.