Museums can be scarry places. To make the museum more inviting, the Northwest museums of Arts and Culture (or the MAC) installed the sculpture series, The Return of the Four-Leggeds. These sculptures are an exhibition, permanently on display outside of the museum and in the amphitheater.
Before entering the museum take a few moments to think about these statues. How many individual sculptures can you find for this work of art? What do the sculptures seem to be doing? Why do you think these sculptures are so active?
The Return of the Four-Leggeds is a collection of bronze sculptures was created by New York artist, Tom Otterness and was installed in 2003. Tom Otterness interpreted this work as:
“The Animal people have come with a contract to buy back the world from the Two-Leggeds. The Weasel is negotiating while the Salmon prepare the way to return to the river. The Marmot is already in the amphitheater, munching on small change.”
These statues present a fun an inviting look into social commentary as well as simply being pleasing to the eye. Take a moment, relax and reflect on The Return of the Four-Leggeds.
Monday, November 26, 2012
The MAC Revised
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, otherwise known as the MAC has changed a lot over the years. The organization began as the Eastern Washington Historical Society in 1916. The most notable donation to this society was the Campbell House in 1924, which is open and available for tours. In the 1960s the Cheney-Cowles museum was opened to exhibit the growing collections the historical society had collected. The Cowles family, who owns the Cowles Publishing Company, which owns the Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, sponsored the Cheney-Cowles Museum. The Spokesman-Review was bought by the W.H. Cowles in 1893 and is currently in the 4th generation of Cowles family ownership. In 2001 the Eastern Washington Historical Society opened a new exhibition hall and changed the name to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.
Today the MAC is open Wednesday through Saturday to the public as well as tours of the Campbell House. The MAC has three main exhibition halls the museum. Admission to the MAC is $7 for adults, however admission is free during the 'First Friday' events, hosted on the first Friday of the month from 5-8PM, and BeGin events on the second Friday of every month from 6-8PM.
The MAC also operates The Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives to house all of its collections. These archives are accessible Wednesday through Friday 12-5PM, advanced notice is requested.
Today the MAC is open Wednesday through Saturday to the public as well as tours of the Campbell House. The MAC has three main exhibition halls the museum. Admission to the MAC is $7 for adults, however admission is free during the 'First Friday' events, hosted on the first Friday of the month from 5-8PM, and BeGin events on the second Friday of every month from 6-8PM.
The MAC also operates The Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives to house all of its collections. These archives are accessible Wednesday through Friday 12-5PM, advanced notice is requested.
The Campbell House Revised Again
Amasa B. Campbell was sent by wealthy Ohio speculators to investigate mining opportunities in the west in 1878. In 1892 Mr. Campbell made the front page of the Lawrence Daily Journal when he was caught in the midst of a mining dispute between unioned and non-union miners. Mr. Campbell and his business partner John Finch were ultimately very successful in founding the Standard and Mammoth mines in the vicinity of Wallace, Idaho. These mines became so successful that by 1903, they sold the mines for $3,000,000 to a joint venture backed by the Rockefeller and the Gould families.
The Campbell House was built in 1898 and constructed for $30,000, although estimates for the house and the custom furnishings place the home at a total cost of $70,000. The Campbell House was home for Mr. Amasa B. Campbell, his wife Grace and their daughter, Helen. Renowned architect Kirtland K Cutter designed not only the architecture but the furnishings as well. One of the interior highlights of the home is the renowned gold reception room, which Cutter borrowed from the rococo French style. Life in the Campbell home was rigid, with social cues and interactions being paramount. To be invited to dinner at the Campbells was no small feat, the elite would dine formally, their meals prepared and served by servants, the men and women dressed in evening gowns and black ties accordingly. No house of this stature would be complete without a game room. The game room simply belonged to the men, who used the room to play cards and billiards, the game room was the 19th century equivalent of a modern man cave.
The house been restored from 1984-2001 by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, who aimed to restore it as best they could. Unfortunately the original furniture was sold and the MAC has done its best to use photographs and accounts of the home to re-create the furnishings. In 1924 W.W. Powell (formerly Helen Campbell) donated the house to the Eastern Washington Historical Society, who is now known as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Guided tours of the house are available and are included in your entrance fee to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, inquire at the admissions desk.
The Campbell House was built in 1898 and constructed for $30,000, although estimates for the house and the custom furnishings place the home at a total cost of $70,000. The Campbell House was home for Mr. Amasa B. Campbell, his wife Grace and their daughter, Helen. Renowned architect Kirtland K Cutter designed not only the architecture but the furnishings as well. One of the interior highlights of the home is the renowned gold reception room, which Cutter borrowed from the rococo French style. Life in the Campbell home was rigid, with social cues and interactions being paramount. To be invited to dinner at the Campbells was no small feat, the elite would dine formally, their meals prepared and served by servants, the men and women dressed in evening gowns and black ties accordingly. No house of this stature would be complete without a game room. The game room simply belonged to the men, who used the room to play cards and billiards, the game room was the 19th century equivalent of a modern man cave.
The house been restored from 1984-2001 by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, who aimed to restore it as best they could. Unfortunately the original furniture was sold and the MAC has done its best to use photographs and accounts of the home to re-create the furnishings. In 1924 W.W. Powell (formerly Helen Campbell) donated the house to the Eastern Washington Historical Society, who is now known as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Guided tours of the house are available and are included in your entrance fee to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, inquire at the admissions desk.
Patrick 'Patsy' Clark Mansion Revised
Patrick “Patsy” Clark was an Irish immigrant who came to the United States in 1850. Clark quickly left New York for the promise of mining opportunities in California. Clark was wildly successful in his mining overseeing operations and worked in mines from California to Montana and seemingly everywhere in between before working at the Poorman and War Eagle mines in Idaho. Patsy Clark became a well respected mine overseer and was even called upon for his expert opinion when mines were being sold that he was familiar with. In 1889 Patsy proved his business sense by selling the War Eagle mine to a group of investors for nearly 3 quarters of a million dollars in cash. When the new investors inspected their new mine, they found the ore was almost entirely exhausted and would have to begin searching for new reserves within the mine.
Patsy spent much of his life going from mine to mine, however finally settled down in Spokane in 1889 when he commissioned renowned architect Kirtland Cutter to build him a home. Patsy told Cutter to spare no expense in the construction of his home. Cutter finished the home in 1898, 9 years after Patsy Clark commissioned the home. The Clark Mansion stands as one of the most extravagant homes in the entire Northwest.
Kirtland Cutter spent years trying to create his vision. Inside of the extravagant mansion each major room, such as the Foyer, Drawing Room and Dining Room, had a different architectural style. In total the mansion has 27 rooms excluding the attic and basement. Furnishings inside of the mansion were custom built by artisans to Cutter’s specifications. The effect of the mixture of this one of a kind architecture and furnishings produced one of the most stunning homes in what became known as the age of Extravagance in Spokane.
The Patrick Clark Mansion has been used as a variety of things since Patrick and his wife Mary Clark died in 1916 and 1926 respectively. For roughly the first 50 years after the Clarks passed on the Mansion was used as a residence for various owners. The Mansion was then converted into the Francis Lester Inn, then into Patsy Clarks’ Resteraunt. Today the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Patrick Clark Mansion is used by NAME Architects, while the ground floor can be rented out for special events such as weddings.
Patsy spent much of his life going from mine to mine, however finally settled down in Spokane in 1889 when he commissioned renowned architect Kirtland Cutter to build him a home. Patsy told Cutter to spare no expense in the construction of his home. Cutter finished the home in 1898, 9 years after Patsy Clark commissioned the home. The Clark Mansion stands as one of the most extravagant homes in the entire Northwest.
Kirtland Cutter spent years trying to create his vision. Inside of the extravagant mansion each major room, such as the Foyer, Drawing Room and Dining Room, had a different architectural style. In total the mansion has 27 rooms excluding the attic and basement. Furnishings inside of the mansion were custom built by artisans to Cutter’s specifications. The effect of the mixture of this one of a kind architecture and furnishings produced one of the most stunning homes in what became known as the age of Extravagance in Spokane.
The Patrick Clark Mansion has been used as a variety of things since Patrick and his wife Mary Clark died in 1916 and 1926 respectively. For roughly the first 50 years after the Clarks passed on the Mansion was used as a residence for various owners. The Mansion was then converted into the Francis Lester Inn, then into Patsy Clarks’ Resteraunt. Today the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Patrick Clark Mansion is used by NAME Architects, while the ground floor can be rented out for special events such as weddings.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Digital Preservation
Digital Preservation is an intersting idea. There are great advanatages to digital formats, the largest being access. Wikipedia's article on Digital Preservation talks about the diferent strategies and types of digital preservation. The most important ideas, I believe, are those regarding Migration of data. For instance let's say I wanted to play the original Duke Nukem, which ran in MS-DOS. This game is on 3 1/2" Floppy Drives which are not even read by my computer. Digital preservation can come to the rescue. The migration of this data would mean finding a computer which still read the disks, then moving the disks to files that today's computers understand. Once this is complete the files can be read and played again.
The migration of digital files has far more implications than video games, although McDonough believes that video games have become an essential part of our culture and should be preserved as such. However migration and digital preservation in general is incredibly important with born digital files such as emails. In the article "'Digital Dark Age' May Doom Some Data" the perils of proprietary formats are raised. Let's say that you wrote the charter for a new non-profit corporation in Word Perfect file format in the 1990s. Now it's been some time and you want to re-visit your charter. The problem lies that you don't have the machine to read the file format. This is similar to the Duke Nukem problem, except hat a solution is offered. If users create enough demand to do away with proprietary formats, such as .doc, .docx for our files, then it no longer matters which computer we have the files would be ubiquitous and playable. A great example of this in practice is the .mp3 format, which is a non-propietary format and plays in any modern device such as iPhones, Android devices and Microsoft devices.
Looking at the Polar Bear Expedition from the University of Michigan Libraries we see an early example of digital preservation. The Polar Bear Expedition ran into some learning bumps along the way. I believe the project was too ambitious in its expectations. The project uses link paths, which watch what you and other researchers' patterns of use to suggest materials which may be of interest. This is similar to the way that Amazon.com suggests things to you. The main difference here is usage, Amazon.com has ridiculously more users than that Polar Bear Expedition. More users creates stronger suggestions which makes the process work. Also the Polar Bear Expedition had a comments section. Comments only help users if they are used. The lack of comments on this website has unfortunately made this feature rather irrelevant. The Polar Bear Expedition was an ambitious project in 2006, unfortunately it did not derive the number of users necessary for the project to prosper from all of their rather innovative ideas (for 2006).
In closing digital preservation is a interesting field with many challenges. The field is still in its infancy and I believe will continue to grow. In 2009 the New York Times wrote this article highlighting the field and their ideas for growth in the future. The Digital Preservation Europe website said it well when they explained the fragility of digital works:
The same article defined Digital Preservation the best that I found, they said that "Digital Preservation is a set of activities required to make sure digital objects can be located, rendered used, and understood in the future."
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| A screen shot of Duke Nukem from the Duke Nukem Wikipedia article. |
Looking at the Polar Bear Expedition from the University of Michigan Libraries we see an early example of digital preservation. The Polar Bear Expedition ran into some learning bumps along the way. I believe the project was too ambitious in its expectations. The project uses link paths, which watch what you and other researchers' patterns of use to suggest materials which may be of interest. This is similar to the way that Amazon.com suggests things to you. The main difference here is usage, Amazon.com has ridiculously more users than that Polar Bear Expedition. More users creates stronger suggestions which makes the process work. Also the Polar Bear Expedition had a comments section. Comments only help users if they are used. The lack of comments on this website has unfortunately made this feature rather irrelevant. The Polar Bear Expedition was an ambitious project in 2006, unfortunately it did not derive the number of users necessary for the project to prosper from all of their rather innovative ideas (for 2006).
In closing digital preservation is a interesting field with many challenges. The field is still in its infancy and I believe will continue to grow. In 2009 the New York Times wrote this article highlighting the field and their ideas for growth in the future. The Digital Preservation Europe website said it well when they explained the fragility of digital works:
"Digital objects are fragile because they require various layers of technological mediation before they can be heard, seen or understood by people. Digital objects are also much more venerable to physical damage. One scratch on CD-ROM containing 100 e-books can make the content inaccessible, whereas to damage 100 hard copy books by one scratching move is - fortunately - impossible."
The same article defined Digital Preservation the best that I found, they said that "Digital Preservation is a set of activities required to make sure digital objects can be located, rendered used, and understood in the future."
Monday, November 19, 2012
Campbell House Revised
Amasa B. Campbell was sent by wealthy Ohio speculators to investigate mining opportunities in the west in 1878. In 1892 Mr. Campbell made the front page of the Lawrence Daily Journal when he was caught in the midst of a mining dispute between unioned and non-union miners. Mr. Campbell and his business partner John Finch were ultimately very successful in founding the Standard and Mammoth mines in the vicinity of Wallace, Idaho. These mines became so successful that by 1903, they sold the mines for $3,000,000 to a joint venture backed by the Rockefeller and the Gould families.
The Campbell House was built in 1898 and constructed for $30,000. The Campbell House was home for Mr. Amasa B. Campbell, his wife Grace and their daughter, Helen. Renowned architect Kirtland K Cutter designed every aspect of this house, including the renowned gold reception room, which Cutter borrowed from the rococo French style. Life in the Cutter home was very rigid, with social cues and interactions being paramount. To be invited to dinner at the Campbells was no small feat, the elite would dine formally, their meals prepared and served by servants, the men and women dressed in evening gowns and black ties accordingly. No house of this stature would be complete without a game room. The game room simply belonged to the men, who used the room to play cards and billiards, the game room was the 19th century equivalent of a modern man cave. The house been restored from 1984-2001 by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, who aimed to restore it as best they could. Unfortunately the original furniture was sold and the MAC has done its best to use photographs and accounts of the home to re-create the furnishings. In 1924 W.W. Powell (formerly Helen Campbell) donated the house to the Eastern Washington Historical Society, who is now known as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Guided tours of the house are available and are included in your entrance fee to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, inquire at the admissions desk.
The Campbell House was built in 1898 and constructed for $30,000. The Campbell House was home for Mr. Amasa B. Campbell, his wife Grace and their daughter, Helen. Renowned architect Kirtland K Cutter designed every aspect of this house, including the renowned gold reception room, which Cutter borrowed from the rococo French style. Life in the Cutter home was very rigid, with social cues and interactions being paramount. To be invited to dinner at the Campbells was no small feat, the elite would dine formally, their meals prepared and served by servants, the men and women dressed in evening gowns and black ties accordingly. No house of this stature would be complete without a game room. The game room simply belonged to the men, who used the room to play cards and billiards, the game room was the 19th century equivalent of a modern man cave. The house been restored from 1984-2001 by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, who aimed to restore it as best they could. Unfortunately the original furniture was sold and the MAC has done its best to use photographs and accounts of the home to re-create the furnishings. In 1924 W.W. Powell (formerly Helen Campbell) donated the house to the Eastern Washington Historical Society, who is now known as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Guided tours of the house are available and are included in your entrance fee to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, inquire at the admissions desk.
Patsy Clark Mansion Revised
Patrick “Patsy” Clark was an Irish immigrant who came to the United States in 1850. Patsy quickly left New York for the promise of mining opportunities in California. Patsy was wildly successful in his mining overseeing operations and worked in mines from California to Montana and seemingly everywhere in between before working at the Poorman and War Eagle mines in Idaho. Patsy Clark became a well respected mine overseer and was even called upon for his expert opinion when mines were being sold that he was familiar with. In 1889 Patsy proved his business sense by selling the War Eagle mine to a group of investors for nearly 3 quarters of a million dollars in cash. When the new investors inspected their new mine, they found the ore was almost entirely exhausted and would have to begin searching for new reserves within the mine.
Patsy spent much of his life going from Mine to mine, however finally settled down in Spokane in 1889 when he commissioned renowned architect Kirtland Cutter to build him a home. Patsy told Cutter to spare no expense in the construction of his home. Cutter finished the home in 1898, 9 years after Patsy Clark commissioned the home. The Clark Mansion stands as one of the most extravagant homes in the entire Northwest.
Kirtland Cutter spent years trying to create his vision. Inside of the extravagant mansion each major room, such as the Foyer, Drawing Room and Dining Room, had a different architectural style. In total the mansion has 27 rooms if you exclude the attic and basement. Furnishings inside of the mansion were custom built by artisans to Cutter’s specifications. The effect of the mixture of this one of a kind architecture and furnishings produced one of the most stunning homes in what became known as the age of Extravagance in Spokane.
Patsy spent much of his life going from Mine to mine, however finally settled down in Spokane in 1889 when he commissioned renowned architect Kirtland Cutter to build him a home. Patsy told Cutter to spare no expense in the construction of his home. Cutter finished the home in 1898, 9 years after Patsy Clark commissioned the home. The Clark Mansion stands as one of the most extravagant homes in the entire Northwest.
Kirtland Cutter spent years trying to create his vision. Inside of the extravagant mansion each major room, such as the Foyer, Drawing Room and Dining Room, had a different architectural style. In total the mansion has 27 rooms if you exclude the attic and basement. Furnishings inside of the mansion were custom built by artisans to Cutter’s specifications. The effect of the mixture of this one of a kind architecture and furnishings produced one of the most stunning homes in what became known as the age of Extravagance in Spokane.
Friday, November 16, 2012
The MAC
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, otherwise known as the MAC has changed a lot over the years. The organization began as the Eastern Washington Historical Society in 1916. The most notable donation to this society was the Campbell House in 1924, which is open and available for tours. In the 1960s the Cheney Cowles museum was opened to exhibit the growing collections the historical society had collected. In 2001 the society opened a new exhibition hall and changed the name to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.
Today the MAC is open Wednesday through Saturday to the public as well as tours of the Campbell House. The MAC has three main exhibition halls the museum. Admission to the MAC is $7 for adults, however admission is free during the 'First Friday' events, hosted on the first friday of the month from 5-8PM, and BeGin events on the second friday of every month from 6-8PM.
The MAC also operates The Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives to house all of its collections. These archives are accessible Wednesday through Friday 12-5PM, advanced notice is requested.
The Return of the Four-Leggeds
The Return of the Four-Leggeds is an exhibition, permanently on display outside of and in the amphitheater of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington. This collection of bronze sculptures was created by New York artist, Tom Otterness and was installed in 2003. Tom Otterness interpreted this work as:
“The Animal people have come with a contract to buy back the world from the Two-Leggeds. The Weasel is negotiating while the Salmon prepare the way to return to the river. The Marmot is already in the amphitheater, munching on small change.”
I believe these statues present a fun an inviting look into social commentary as well as simply being pleasing to the eye. The exhibition is a collection of bronzes regarding this theme, how many bronzes can you find? Take a moment, relax and reflect on The Return of the Four-Leggeds.
“The Animal people have come with a contract to buy back the world from the Two-Leggeds. The Weasel is negotiating while the Salmon prepare the way to return to the river. The Marmot is already in the amphitheater, munching on small change.”
I believe these statues present a fun an inviting look into social commentary as well as simply being pleasing to the eye. The exhibition is a collection of bronzes regarding this theme, how many bronzes can you find? Take a moment, relax and reflect on The Return of the Four-Leggeds.
History of Computing and Data
In The History of Humanities Computing Susan Hockey takes on the monumental task of recounting the entire history of computing as it pertains to the humanities in 14 pages. Perhaps this work should have been re-titled, that is the History of Humanities Computing until 2004. This would have given the reader more of a background of what to expect in terms of content. The beginning of the article entitled Beginnings and Consolidation were great examinations of computing through time. When Susan Hockey discusses the Era of the Internet, the analysis is a little trying. I believe the article should have stopped right before the internet, in order to preserve this as a history of the humanities computing, not the current state of humanities computing.
Looking at the Old Bailey database is a great example of academic search capabilities of websites. The advanced search function enables researchers the ability to search narrowly and broadly. This capability allows academic research along side of casual searchers who want to know how many people were sentenced to death by hanging of chains. The ease of search also helps to browse, you can begin by filtering the database by something you know you want to research, e.g. men, and then peruse the results. The biggest drawback with this browsing style is that you cannot change the amount of results on the page for a given query. What I mean is if there are 50 results you can only view them 10 at a time, rather than seeing all 50 at once. The Old Bailey site has been able to be used by instructors at the college level, such as Ancarett who has been using the Old Bailey database to form the basis of a project for students. This project also allows for the exportation of search data, e.g. how many murders happened between X and Y? The manipulation and export of data allows researchers to use the data in various ways, including visualization projects, which Allen points out can take many different forms.
Allen's article is great in that it reminds us in this technological age that data visualization isn't new. Allen points out visualization project dating back from 1780. What is new is the power and availability of these visualization tools. Allen points out a variety of tools and resources to evaluate not only data but also words. Allen brings up some good points when discussing this and likes to point out that data can be anything, e.g. names, age, sex, location. Allen reminds us that if we take the time to visualize our data it allows us to look at our data differently and perhaps see trends that we hadn't seen before.
One thing to remember when thinking about data and visualization is the key idea, what is data? The first response to a google querry "define:data" is: Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis. I liked this definition, however I feel like there is more to it, so I'll leave you with the question: What is data?
Looking at the Old Bailey database is a great example of academic search capabilities of websites. The advanced search function enables researchers the ability to search narrowly and broadly. This capability allows academic research along side of casual searchers who want to know how many people were sentenced to death by hanging of chains. The ease of search also helps to browse, you can begin by filtering the database by something you know you want to research, e.g. men, and then peruse the results. The biggest drawback with this browsing style is that you cannot change the amount of results on the page for a given query. What I mean is if there are 50 results you can only view them 10 at a time, rather than seeing all 50 at once. The Old Bailey site has been able to be used by instructors at the college level, such as Ancarett who has been using the Old Bailey database to form the basis of a project for students. This project also allows for the exportation of search data, e.g. how many murders happened between X and Y? The manipulation and export of data allows researchers to use the data in various ways, including visualization projects, which Allen points out can take many different forms.
Allen's article is great in that it reminds us in this technological age that data visualization isn't new. Allen points out visualization project dating back from 1780. What is new is the power and availability of these visualization tools. Allen points out a variety of tools and resources to evaluate not only data but also words. Allen brings up some good points when discussing this and likes to point out that data can be anything, e.g. names, age, sex, location. Allen reminds us that if we take the time to visualize our data it allows us to look at our data differently and perhaps see trends that we hadn't seen before.
One thing to remember when thinking about data and visualization is the key idea, what is data? The first response to a google querry "define:data" is: Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis. I liked this definition, however I feel like there is more to it, so I'll leave you with the question: What is data?
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| Servers from 2009, courtesy of bandarji on Flickr Commons. Is this data? |
Friday, November 9, 2012
Patsy Clark Mansion
Patrick “Patsy” Clark was an irish immigrant who came to the United States in 1850. Patsy quickly left New York for the promise of mining opportunities in California. Patsy was wildly successful in his mining overseeing operations and worked in mines from California to Montana and seemingly everywhere in between before working at the Poorman and War Eagle mines in Idaho. Patsy Clark became a well respected mine overseer and was even called upon for his expert opinon when mines were being sold that he was familiar with. In 1889 Patsy proved his business sense by selling the War Eagle mine to a group of investors for nearly 3 quarters of a million dollars in cash. When the new investors inspected their new mine, they found the ore was almost entirely exhausted and would have to begin searching for new reserves within the mine.
 |
| The Patsy Clark Mansion Photo courtesy of: Washington State Archives. Eastern Region Branch, City of Spokane Historic Preservation Photographic Collection. The Eastern Region Branch of the Washington State Archives retains all original prints/negatives. |
Campbell House
Amasa B. Campbell was sent by wealthy Ohio speculators to investigate mining opportunities in the west in 1878. In 1892 Mr. Campbell made the front page of the Lawrence Daily Journal when he was caught in the midst of a mining dispute between unioned and non-union miners. Mr. Campbell and his business partner John Finch were ultimately very successful in founding the Standard and Mammoth mines in the vicinity of Wallace, Idaho. These mines became so successful that by 1903, they sold the mines for $3,000,000 to a joint venture backed by the Rockefeller and the Gould families.
 |
| The Campbell House, designed by Kirtland Cutter Photo courtesy of : Washington State Archives. Eastern Region Branch, City of Spokane Historic Preservation Photographic Collection. The Eastern Region Branch of the Washington State Archives retains all original prints/negatives. |
Friday, November 2, 2012
Copyright Revisited
I've been reading a lot about copyright lately, more than my non-lawer brain can fathom really, here's what I have found out as copyright pertains to digital history:
On a basic level, copyright is good. Copyright protects the ideas and works of historians. However on a practical level something is wrong with copyright. After reading Helprin in the New York Times I got a striking approval of the copyright. Helprin argues that ideas don't become less important or unique, so why should somebody's work lose its copyright simply because a certain amount of years has expired. Reading Cohen and Rosenzweig their view on copyright is that it is far too confusing, especially for the digital historian. Cohen and Rosenzweig's chapter Owning the Past? goes into the ins and out of copyright in each type of medium. This examination is enough to make your head spin since each medium (text, audio, video and more) has their own unique copyright protocols and loopholes. However C & R do present a great chart which can be useful as a reference.
The idea of the Creative Commons is raised as perhaps the solution to all of this copyright head (and heart) ache. The Creative Commons suggests that people should be allowed to use your work so long as they do not use the work commercially. Creative Commons believes that copyright is owning all of the rights to reproduction of your work while a CC (Creative Commons) Liscense is owning some of the rights to your work. This seems pretty nirvana and groovy until you read Toth's article regarding these liscences. Toth argues about the validity of CC and points out that in principle it seems like a great ideallistic thing to do, but in reality the CC is unenforceable. Toth believes that essentially once you publish something under CC, an action which is irreversable by the code of the CC, you cannot enforce your copyright. Toth believes that once an item is widely available for free it becomes part of the de facto public domain which allows open use by all.
One last viewpoint on Copyright was on Orphan Records. The article set forth by Seidenberg explains the perils of trying to retroactively go back through to find copyright owners for works that were published over 50 years ago. Seidenberg is describing a treasure trove of audio recordings found by a museum. The museum is now trying to find the copyright owner for the records. This process has locked these 'orphan records' in ligigious battles denying the public many forms of access to these records. Seidenberg explains the varrious roles of the legal partners in this battle, essentially scaring digital historians from posting known copyrighted works.
From reading all of these articles I was essentially scared into believing in the value of the copyright. My fresh perspective and intuition tells me to believe everything is copyrighted unless specifically expressed otherwise. Unfortunately for digital historians this attitude produces a lot of barriers, however until things change (and hopefully they do) I'll just have to deal with it.
On a basic level, copyright is good. Copyright protects the ideas and works of historians. However on a practical level something is wrong with copyright. After reading Helprin in the New York Times I got a striking approval of the copyright. Helprin argues that ideas don't become less important or unique, so why should somebody's work lose its copyright simply because a certain amount of years has expired. Reading Cohen and Rosenzweig their view on copyright is that it is far too confusing, especially for the digital historian. Cohen and Rosenzweig's chapter Owning the Past? goes into the ins and out of copyright in each type of medium. This examination is enough to make your head spin since each medium (text, audio, video and more) has their own unique copyright protocols and loopholes. However C & R do present a great chart which can be useful as a reference.
The idea of the Creative Commons is raised as perhaps the solution to all of this copyright head (and heart) ache. The Creative Commons suggests that people should be allowed to use your work so long as they do not use the work commercially. Creative Commons believes that copyright is owning all of the rights to reproduction of your work while a CC (Creative Commons) Liscense is owning some of the rights to your work. This seems pretty nirvana and groovy until you read Toth's article regarding these liscences. Toth argues about the validity of CC and points out that in principle it seems like a great ideallistic thing to do, but in reality the CC is unenforceable. Toth believes that essentially once you publish something under CC, an action which is irreversable by the code of the CC, you cannot enforce your copyright. Toth believes that once an item is widely available for free it becomes part of the de facto public domain which allows open use by all.
One last viewpoint on Copyright was on Orphan Records. The article set forth by Seidenberg explains the perils of trying to retroactively go back through to find copyright owners for works that were published over 50 years ago. Seidenberg is describing a treasure trove of audio recordings found by a museum. The museum is now trying to find the copyright owner for the records. This process has locked these 'orphan records' in ligigious battles denying the public many forms of access to these records. Seidenberg explains the varrious roles of the legal partners in this battle, essentially scaring digital historians from posting known copyrighted works.
From reading all of these articles I was essentially scared into believing in the value of the copyright. My fresh perspective and intuition tells me to believe everything is copyrighted unless specifically expressed otherwise. Unfortunately for digital historians this attitude produces a lot of barriers, however until things change (and hopefully they do) I'll just have to deal with it.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Digital Preservation
So I guess copyright is a discussion for next week, my mistake.
In Preserving Digital History Cohen and Rosenzweig give us the doom and gloom to digital preservation. I think they are over-analyzing the situation a bit. For instance if you are constantly developing and creating content for your website, you should be in tune with the changes in formats and standards in order to keep your website in working order. I guess I differ from C & R a bit after that, I believe if you are no longer able to keep your web resource updated (financially or otherwise) it should be your responsibility to take that resource down. This practice will make those that are still up a better, since the user will not be constantly wondering what will and will not work (I'm sure we've all been to websites where about half of the content is still live).
Speaking of preservation, the Utah Digital Newspaper project as described by Herbert and Estlund provides a great look into the inter workings of a large scale digitization effort. Herbert and Estlund take time to explain the perils of digitization and the time it takes to create these records. The Utah Digital Newspaper project uses OCR for the text of the articles, but enters in the headlines and sub headlines manually to preserve 100 per cent accuracy (which is a fallacy but we'll let them dream) with headlines. The work being done by the Utah Digital Newspaper project sets a great example, which hopefully other states will follow.
Cohen and Rosenzweig also discuss crowd sourcing, here they go back to using the online communities you have developed to create a more user friendly content area. I have a few examples of this in history sites, bear with me. When we look at Old Weather there are transcription options for users to transcribe the original records of the past. If you look at the transcription pages, you will find that the transcribers (or indexers) are not meeting the need of the project. This project is dated at the bottom as 2012, hopefully it is new to the game and only getting started. Looking at another project, the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania uses a mobile platform called The O to curate their collection for the visitors. Using The O users vote on the art they enjoy weather they love or hate that specific work of art. This crowd sourcing option has worked very well and has provided the Museum of Old and New Art with some valuable feedback on their collection. One final example of crowd sourcing is a glimpse into the future. As more and more records are digitized at the Washington State Digital Archive we have an increased need for indexing (or transcribing) our records to create metadata. Unfortunately our budget is what it is, so we are putting the finishing touches on a system called Scribe, in which volunteers and employees can index our records. As we have seen with Old Weather, and is talked about in Cohen and Rosenzweig, the key to making Scribe a success will be getting the public interested and willing to participate.
In Preserving Digital History Cohen and Rosenzweig give us the doom and gloom to digital preservation. I think they are over-analyzing the situation a bit. For instance if you are constantly developing and creating content for your website, you should be in tune with the changes in formats and standards in order to keep your website in working order. I guess I differ from C & R a bit after that, I believe if you are no longer able to keep your web resource updated (financially or otherwise) it should be your responsibility to take that resource down. This practice will make those that are still up a better, since the user will not be constantly wondering what will and will not work (I'm sure we've all been to websites where about half of the content is still live).
Speaking of preservation, the Utah Digital Newspaper project as described by Herbert and Estlund provides a great look into the inter workings of a large scale digitization effort. Herbert and Estlund take time to explain the perils of digitization and the time it takes to create these records. The Utah Digital Newspaper project uses OCR for the text of the articles, but enters in the headlines and sub headlines manually to preserve 100 per cent accuracy (which is a fallacy but we'll let them dream) with headlines. The work being done by the Utah Digital Newspaper project sets a great example, which hopefully other states will follow.
Cohen and Rosenzweig also discuss crowd sourcing, here they go back to using the online communities you have developed to create a more user friendly content area. I have a few examples of this in history sites, bear with me. When we look at Old Weather there are transcription options for users to transcribe the original records of the past. If you look at the transcription pages, you will find that the transcribers (or indexers) are not meeting the need of the project. This project is dated at the bottom as 2012, hopefully it is new to the game and only getting started. Looking at another project, the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania uses a mobile platform called The O to curate their collection for the visitors. Using The O users vote on the art they enjoy weather they love or hate that specific work of art. This crowd sourcing option has worked very well and has provided the Museum of Old and New Art with some valuable feedback on their collection. One final example of crowd sourcing is a glimpse into the future. As more and more records are digitized at the Washington State Digital Archive we have an increased need for indexing (or transcribing) our records to create metadata. Unfortunately our budget is what it is, so we are putting the finishing touches on a system called Scribe, in which volunteers and employees can index our records. As we have seen with Old Weather, and is talked about in Cohen and Rosenzweig, the key to making Scribe a success will be getting the public interested and willing to participate.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Copyright and History, and the Library of Congress
Today I'd like to start by looking at the world of copyright through the lens of digital historians. Copyright, so the government would like to tell us, protects our ideas form being copied by others. For historians this poses a problem. As we are not able to post anything containing copyright except from Public Domain, Creative commons or General Public License resources. This problem, for historians, was essentially created in 1976 when copyright transformed form 28 years total to essentially 70 years after ones death. The whole transformation of copyright is covered very well in Cohen and Rosenzweig's Digital History Chapter Owning the Past? Cohen and Rosenzweig create a table which is an essential resource for digital historians explaining which items are inside and outside of copyright. Essentially any text created after 1923, with some exceptions are under copyright. This gets worse when looking at different mediums, which the digital historian would like to use. For instance there is essentially no public domain for music or film. This conundrum puts many contemporary digital historians in a conundrum.
In the above image I would like to name the wrestler on top Copyright and the poor chap underneath Digital Historian. As you can see things haven't gone the way the Digital Historian was hoping, copyright is winning. However as Cohen and Rosenzweig explain Copyright is capable of moving and changing, with any luck Digital Historian will find his way out from underneath Copyright, even though his chances do not look very bright at the moment.
The Library of Congress websites are not nearly as exciting as I believe they could be. However the addition of myLOC is a great step in the right direction. MyLOC allows researchers, students, teachers and the general public to save what they are looking for for further review. The Library of Congress hosts videos as well as photos and text. Unfortunately their videos seem to be of lectures regarding specific actions or collections and as you might imagine tend to be dry as salt, kudos to anyone who doesn't turn this off within 25 seconds. However the LOC is working in the right direction, for instance their collection highlights are well thought out and offer great access to holdings in their collection that would require visiting the LOC, which in many cases in impossible or impracticable. I particularly enjoyed the Maps collection with 11638 maps available for research.
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Wrestling, 1950-1970, Department of Corrections, McNeil Island Corrections Center Photograph Collection, 1855-2010, Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.wa.gov, 10/27/2012.
Certain online repositories allow use of their images, the Washington State Digital Archives being one of them.
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Friday, October 19, 2012
Google Historical
In the readings this week I found the discussion of the behemoth Google to be one of the major themes. The Google Books service came especially under fire. I believe one of the major problems with this service is that everyone seems to want or expect something different out of it. For instance Cohen argues that the Google Books cannon should be freely downloadable, focusing on the metadata or searchable text of the books. Unfortunately Cohen didn’t explain why he wanted to do this, perhaps for data mining, I could not come up with a valid reason why this was necessary when Google Books are available online 24/7. Nunberg argues that Google Books is destroying scholarship by having some faulty links and metadata reporting false information, such as publication dates. I respond to Nunberg without sympathy, I believe using Google Books is no different than using other academic sources, you must always evaluate the validity of the source. For instance if you are reading a Google Book about the Berlin Wall written in 1881, it is reasonable to believe that the indexing on Google interpreted an 8 instead of a 9 making the work written in 1981. This type of obvious correction and identification is something that historians should be trained to do in paper or physical sources. The transition to digital world does not mean to leave the analytical skills behind and trust the cloud. Carr comes on strong arguing that Google in general, not merely Google Books, is making us [humans] lose our patience for reading and our reading skills generally. Carr concludes, “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.” I couldn’t disagree more. I believe that with sources of information becoming more easily accessible people are forced to rely on their digital skills to look up information and anylize it rather than simply accept it as truth. One of the things I found out from these readings on Google was that we cannot simply rely on Google to give us the answers, we must solicit Google’s help in our quest to find the truth but accept that we cannot rely on Google to give us the truth.
The digital history projects for the week, Cleveland, Spokane and New Orleans Historical websites. These sites are loaded with information from students from the prospective cities which have worked to provide text, photographs, and sometimes audio and video to interpret each “stop.” The websites are laid out well, I believe Cohen and Rosenzweig would agree that the information is well organized and easy to read. However I got the feeling that the sites were not well marketed. Cohen and Rosenzweig talk about driving traffic through links to and from other websites here:
“In particular, try to get links from respected or prominent sites. Your site’s ranking will benefit much more from a link provided by the highly linked (and highly ranked) Library of Congress website than from your cousin’s personal home page.” (Building an Audience, Mass Marketing, Online and Off, Near the Bottom of this website)
If the City Historical websites used this principle, linking to and from other cultural institutions in their area, perhaps it would drive use.
In conclusion this week was built upon using digital skills and interpreting their results. I believe it is important to understand these results and to interpret them before blindly accepting the results as fact or truth.
10/22 Addendum:
In searching the 250+ digital history sites I came across this gem and this failure. Both are from Maine and are examples of digital history websites. The gem is great because it not only fosters interaction but also has lots of rich content in a design that works well. The failure is a product of a website not being kept up over time, videos don't play, and shows us the plight of old websites, c'mon if it is not being maintained take it down folks.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Open Source Digital History
My readings for this week have largely focused on creation of digital content for use in digital history projects. One of the most important parts of this, I believe, is the idea of open sourced history. In history many people do not feel that the term 'open source' applies, after all I did the research for my scholarly article and I should be able to charge what the market will provide for that. Spiro points out that open sourced journals can be powerful things since they do not have to charge as much, or perhaps anything, to the readers. This savings will decrease in profit for the author (which can't be much) and has the possibility to substantially increase the readership of the article.
Open source has greater impact in Digital Humanities rather than simply publication. Open sourced digital history tools being developed have created free resources for historians to use in their work. This allows historians to focus on what they know best, the content of their digital history projects. The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media is a prime example of an institution creating a suite of resources to make digital history projects better.
Reading both Spiro and Cohen and Rosenberg's Digital History, the amount of variation in the files and way that history is presented is astounding. With the rise of open source, I believe Digital Historians must convene and decide on standards as well. For instance, image scans for digital history projects will be in .tif format and no larger than X MB for viewing inside of a webpage, with a downloadable option to download the full resolution image. The acceptance of certain standards for digital history projects will yield less confusion when using various digital history projects.
I know people are reluctant to abide by another set of rules that they did not create, however I believe this is necessary, especially when looking at the myriad of different digital history projects, listed at the CHNM, VCDH, Nebraska Center for Digital Research and the MITH. I believe standards for elements within these digital exhibits would create cohesion without having the webpages look like they were simply altered templates (which I believe is what people fear).
Lastly open sources and standards raise the ability of what a digital historian can do on their own, without spending years studying computer science and other factors involved in how everything works. Open source projects such as Omeka have done wonders in terms of increasing web page creation tools and accessibility to the moderately computer savvy historians.
Open source has greater impact in Digital Humanities rather than simply publication. Open sourced digital history tools being developed have created free resources for historians to use in their work. This allows historians to focus on what they know best, the content of their digital history projects. The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media is a prime example of an institution creating a suite of resources to make digital history projects better.
Reading both Spiro and Cohen and Rosenberg's Digital History, the amount of variation in the files and way that history is presented is astounding. With the rise of open source, I believe Digital Historians must convene and decide on standards as well. For instance, image scans for digital history projects will be in .tif format and no larger than X MB for viewing inside of a webpage, with a downloadable option to download the full resolution image. The acceptance of certain standards for digital history projects will yield less confusion when using various digital history projects.
I know people are reluctant to abide by another set of rules that they did not create, however I believe this is necessary, especially when looking at the myriad of different digital history projects, listed at the CHNM, VCDH, Nebraska Center for Digital Research and the MITH. I believe standards for elements within these digital exhibits would create cohesion without having the webpages look like they were simply altered templates (which I believe is what people fear).
Lastly open sources and standards raise the ability of what a digital historian can do on their own, without spending years studying computer science and other factors involved in how everything works. Open source projects such as Omeka have done wonders in terms of increasing web page creation tools and accessibility to the moderately computer savvy historians.
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Friday, October 5, 2012
Digital History
What is digital history? I would contend that digital history is simply the portrayal of historic information in a digital form. To me, digital history is online, intuitive, interactive and open to interpretation. I recently read an article here in which career academics discussed digital history, available here. I do not believe digital history needs to be a topic of such debate (and length). Digital history should take advantages over print media and other ‘traditional’ historical sources to create an intuitive and interactive experience for the user.
Digital history cannot replace the experience found in many historic venues and places. For example, in 2007 when I visited Auschwitz there was no digital tour (that I was aware of). In this example, the pure power of place and artifact did not need amplification by digital media or augmentation. The personal tour recounting the terror inflicted on the human race, served as a reminder to us all of the horrors of unbridled power.
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| Looking at this photo online does not give the user the same experience as being there first hand. |
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| Photo curtosey of tom.arthur - www.flickr.com |
This is not to say that digital history cannot be useful to augment many different experiences. For instance a QR code at a historic overlook explaining what it looked like (in an audio or video file) when explorers first looked at the valley could be useful and far more efficient than hiring someone to stand at a historic overlook and talk to whoever happens to stop the car.
Digital history has a use, and should be engaging and interactive. Archives and institutions across the world are beginning to understand what this interaction can be and how they can use it to the best of their ability to make sure that the digital history experience adds to rather than subtracts from the physical experience that comes with historic artifacts and places.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Looking for Examples
Today I'm writing for inspiration. I'm looking for examples from the field. I'm creating a presentation for a museum about interactive digital opportunities to engage users. I am looking for examples of how museums are using technologies, and any feedback on how its working. I'm thinking of either creating a mobile website or an app for smartphone / tablet use however I would like to see some examples of what is working at other institutions to present as possibilities. If anybody knows of any examples please leave them in the comments.
The next thing I'm looking for is a free website creation tool, that has the ability to scale the website to mobile interfaces as well as the main interface. Ideally this would be something that I could create in some sort of test environment to present to the museum before having spent too much time on it. I have been learning web languages, however I am not confident enough to attempt to write this from scratch, so I'm looking for some form of website builder. I have found these:
http://openpublicapp.com/
http://omeka.org/
Probelm being that there is no easy way to create an example and or check to see how they will work. Please let me know if you know of any other places to look and any examples.
The next thing I'm looking for is a free website creation tool, that has the ability to scale the website to mobile interfaces as well as the main interface. Ideally this would be something that I could create in some sort of test environment to present to the museum before having spent too much time on it. I have been learning web languages, however I am not confident enough to attempt to write this from scratch, so I'm looking for some form of website builder. I have found these:
http://openpublicapp.com/
http://omeka.org/
Probelm being that there is no easy way to create an example and or check to see how they will work. Please let me know if you know of any other places to look and any examples.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Back in the Saddle
Wow! What a summer. Working at the Washington State Archives, Eastern Region and Digital Archives has taught me a lot. Right now I am beginning work on my MA final project in lieu of thesis. This project will be creating an online and mobile experience for a museum in order to bring them into the 21st century. During this project I am hoping to learn more about HTML, CSS, Java and other web languages in order to build this project from the ground up. However if I am unable to learn all of this, I am going to be the content creator for the project. I am hoping to gain valuable experience in creation.
My hope is that these exhibits will be a different experience for all of the different types of devices, desktop, tablet and smartphone which highlights the best qualities for all devices. This project may be a bit ambitious, however I believe the way forward for public history lies in the digital sphere.
I will also be attending the Museum + Mobile conference on Oct. 23rd, to gain some more information about how these type of applications / websites are being used, what is and is not working. I am very enthusiastic about this project and believe it will challenge my technical skills as well as increase my understanding of how the public absorbs history. I am quite excited and am ready to take this on, if anybody out there has any publications or blogs dealing with this please link them to my site so that I can increase my knowledge base.
The blog is back and will be updated at least weekly so keep coming back to see how I'm progressing.
My hope is that these exhibits will be a different experience for all of the different types of devices, desktop, tablet and smartphone which highlights the best qualities for all devices. This project may be a bit ambitious, however I believe the way forward for public history lies in the digital sphere.
I will also be attending the Museum + Mobile conference on Oct. 23rd, to gain some more information about how these type of applications / websites are being used, what is and is not working. I am very enthusiastic about this project and believe it will challenge my technical skills as well as increase my understanding of how the public absorbs history. I am quite excited and am ready to take this on, if anybody out there has any publications or blogs dealing with this please link them to my site so that I can increase my knowledge base.
The blog is back and will be updated at least weekly so keep coming back to see how I'm progressing.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Update
Here are my updated videos. Apparently I can't post my audio only stops, I'll try to find a way to post those later. Hope you like 'em!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Videos
Howdy,
I worked up these videos for my project I'm working on. Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.
I worked up these videos for my project I'm working on. Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Spokane Historical Audio
When I recorded the sound for my audio podcasts I used this website for audio clips.
www.freesound.org
Unfortunately you have to register as a user on the website but after that it works quite well.
- Zach
www.freesound.org
Unfortunately you have to register as a user on the website but after that it works quite well.
- Zach
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Zotero Revisited.
Step 1: Sync Zotero Firefox plugin with Zotero online acct.
Step 2: Lookup correct Chicago Manual of Style for newspaper articles:
Article in a newspaper or popular magazine
Newspaper and magazine articles may be cited in running text (“As Sheryl Stolberg and Robert Pear noted in a New York Times article on February 27, 2010, . . .”) instead of in a note, and they are commonly omitted from a bibliography. The following examples show the more formal versions of the citations. If you consulted the article online, include a URL; include an access date only if your publisher or discipline requires one. If no author is identified, begin the citation with the article title.
1. Daniel Mendelsohn, “But Enough about Me,” New Yorker, January 25, 2010, 68.
2. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, accessed February 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
3. Mendelsohn, “But Enough about Me,” 69.
4. Stolberg and Pear, “Wary Centrists.”
Mendelsohn, Daniel. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25, 2010.
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
FROM http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Step 3: So Zotero will add the ‘Short Title’ instead of the name of the publication. The name of the publication is the title now, if I can change that field, that should work… Also Zotero is not adding the date, or URL of the citation…..
Step 4: Ensure Zotero preferences within Word are set for ‘Chicago – Full Note’ this includes more of the information I’m looking for.
Step 5: Replace ALL URLs in Zotero with shortened URLs for the purpose of this paper, to avoid epicly long URL addresses in your bibliography. Also add titles to the Gnews articles and change the publication so that it recognizes the publication is S-R or SDC. See the ‘Killed in Fall of Two Stories’ Zotero entry for an example of what is working.
Step 6: Spend more time indexing Zotero as you research so that I don’t have to do this all at once.
Thankfully Zotero did work for me, however the indexing of Zotero was not exactly what I wanted and I had to go back in and re-input basically every Zotero entry into my research. Bummer. The idea of Zotero is good…. Maybe with more practice it won’t be evil.
Step 2: Lookup correct Chicago Manual of Style for newspaper articles:
Article in a newspaper or popular magazine
Newspaper and magazine articles may be cited in running text (“As Sheryl Stolberg and Robert Pear noted in a New York Times article on February 27, 2010, . . .”) instead of in a note, and they are commonly omitted from a bibliography. The following examples show the more formal versions of the citations. If you consulted the article online, include a URL; include an access date only if your publisher or discipline requires one. If no author is identified, begin the citation with the article title.
1. Daniel Mendelsohn, “But Enough about Me,” New Yorker, January 25, 2010, 68.
2. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, accessed February 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
3. Mendelsohn, “But Enough about Me,” 69.
4. Stolberg and Pear, “Wary Centrists.”
Mendelsohn, Daniel. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25, 2010.
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
FROM http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Step 3: So Zotero will add the ‘Short Title’ instead of the name of the publication. The name of the publication is the title now, if I can change that field, that should work… Also Zotero is not adding the date, or URL of the citation…..
Step 4: Ensure Zotero preferences within Word are set for ‘Chicago – Full Note’ this includes more of the information I’m looking for.
Step 5: Replace ALL URLs in Zotero with shortened URLs for the purpose of this paper, to avoid epicly long URL addresses in your bibliography. Also add titles to the Gnews articles and change the publication so that it recognizes the publication is S-R or SDC. See the ‘Killed in Fall of Two Stories’ Zotero entry for an example of what is working.
Step 6: Spend more time indexing Zotero as you research so that I don’t have to do this all at once.
Thankfully Zotero did work for me, however the indexing of Zotero was not exactly what I wanted and I had to go back in and re-input basically every Zotero entry into my research. Bummer. The idea of Zotero is good…. Maybe with more practice it won’t be evil.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Zotero
So I'm working with Zotero (firefox and word for mac) to create an annotated bibliography for my Spokane Historical stops. This seems like it should be painless.....
However the indexing for my Google News articles is incorrect and my footnote in Word reads:
“Spokane Daily Chronicle - Google News Archive Search.”
No good. I'll fight with the software and find a solution. As soon as I do I'll post it here and explain why I did what I did. Stay tuned....
However the indexing for my Google News articles is incorrect and my footnote in Word reads:
“Spokane Daily Chronicle - Google News Archive Search.”
No good. I'll fight with the software and find a solution. As soon as I do I'll post it here and explain why I did what I did. Stay tuned....
Friday, May 4, 2012
Travel Grants
To whom it may concern,
I'm a MA student at Eastern Washington University and i'm trying to go on a cultural exchange to Cuba in December. I'm searching out travel grants and other forms of funding so that I am able to attend this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am seeking out any and all forms of grants to help fund this. Below I have attached my preliminary research prospectus for the trip, if you know of any travel grants that I might qualify for, please leave them in the comments or send them to my twitter account @ZacharyWnek. Thank you for your time.
- Zach Wnek
My plan in traveling to Cuba is to examine the presentation of public history and compare it to the American presentation of public history. I am hoping to examine how the presentation of history differs in Cuba, since the state controls the media and presumably the presentation of history. I am hoping to look at Cuban history broadly looking at their National Parks, historic walks or landscapes, and Cuban culture by taking in a baseball game. By looking at these factors and others I'm hoping to put together a picture of Cuban public history which I will be sharing with everyone on my blog and in other venues by request. Upon return from Cuba I plan on comparing the presentation of Cuban history to how American history is presented. I know that I'm using some broad strokes here saying that the presentation of American history is uniform, I assure you it is not. However I am hoping to use fairly standard models of American interpretation of history seen commonly across the United States as a model, acknowledging that the field of American historical interpretation is constantly changing.
I'm a MA student at Eastern Washington University and i'm trying to go on a cultural exchange to Cuba in December. I'm searching out travel grants and other forms of funding so that I am able to attend this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am seeking out any and all forms of grants to help fund this. Below I have attached my preliminary research prospectus for the trip, if you know of any travel grants that I might qualify for, please leave them in the comments or send them to my twitter account @ZacharyWnek. Thank you for your time.
- Zach Wnek
My plan in traveling to Cuba is to examine the presentation of public history and compare it to the American presentation of public history. I am hoping to examine how the presentation of history differs in Cuba, since the state controls the media and presumably the presentation of history. I am hoping to look at Cuban history broadly looking at their National Parks, historic walks or landscapes, and Cuban culture by taking in a baseball game. By looking at these factors and others I'm hoping to put together a picture of Cuban public history which I will be sharing with everyone on my blog and in other venues by request. Upon return from Cuba I plan on comparing the presentation of Cuban history to how American history is presented. I know that I'm using some broad strokes here saying that the presentation of American history is uniform, I assure you it is not. However I am hoping to use fairly standard models of American interpretation of history seen commonly across the United States as a model, acknowledging that the field of American historical interpretation is constantly changing.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Walking Tour
For this walking tour I did the Central Spokane tour of the Downtown Spokane Heritage Walk. I did this tour on Saturday, and began the tour at 5 PM. The tour took me all over downtown, including some of my stops that I will be highlighting for Spokane Historical.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Research Proposal
In this blog post, I'm hoping to outline my research for stops on the Spokane Historical website and mobile app. It is my hope that these stops will provide not only historic information but also tell some sort of historical story to bring the past to life. I began my research hoping to focus on the 'Three B's' that is Bars, Brothels and Breweries. Unfortunately I found that there simply weren't enough of the 'three B's' to manage 10 coherent stops for Spokane Historical. This conundrum lead me to a smorgasbord of stops, outlined below, I hope to convey the importance of these stops and a peak into the research availability of the stops.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Digital Storytelling
As part of my research in to public history I'd like to look at historical videos portraying history within the state. The first of these I found intensely interesting was the MOHAI minute productions. MOHAI, the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, has been producing these productions to examine historic sites and neighborhoods throughout Seattle and the surrounding areas. These videos are very informative and well researched, although somewhat long for my taste. The biggest downfall to these videos in my opinion is over-research, the hosts seem to be reading off of a script, which interrupts the natural flow of their discourse. However do have a look, very informative and interesting take on digital storytelling in the Pacific North West.
Then and Now
I found this great comparative article on the Spokesman-Review website, comparing historical sites in spokane Then and Now. I know it's been done before, but if you click on the images you get a slider to see some great comparative photography. The post first appealed to me when I was looking for historic Spokane imagery for my blog, however looking at this comparative feature I believe the S-R has done a great job. A few questions though, does this comparison style work as it is presented? What could be done differently to make it even more effective?
Welcome
Welcome to my public history blog dealing initially with issues in Cultural Resource Management and Digital Storytelling. Parts of these topics will include working with the Jensen-Byrd building around EWU and WSU's Riverpoint Campus, and creting varrious stops for the upcomming Spokane Historical app, which should be hitting the AppStore and Android Marketplace soon. I will be posting regularly with my comments and thoughts on the varrious aspects of public history while working in a few other aspects as well. I welcome your comments and thoughts as we sort through the challenges of public history together.
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