Week 8 comments
October 19, 2008 katdp3
From the chapters in Digital History, I thought it was interesting for the author to point out the logical costs and inconveniences of scanning by hand or hiring out for the process. Costs applied by the helpers provided for meta-data is usually underestimated. But the convenience of having sources digitized can be worth it to avoid tediously sifting through boxes of primary sources and waiting for archival procedures. Obviously, online sources are continuing to increase. I am still not convinced that digitizing is the best way to go, although I think it is the movement of the future. New accessibility is great, but at what cost? Costs can be outrageous, plus accuracy, as pointed out, is not always guaranteed! If I am spending hundreds even thousands of dollars to digitize works, they better give a discount and fix the source if I find errors!
Images and texts online have an enormous amount of value in the classroom, but the expensive process to produce them online, along with how unfaithful the online documents are to the original, casts some doubt. The Achilles heal of digitizing, as mentioned by the author, is a great point. I’m sure one that many poorly funded historians or historical societies deal with. “Ok it sounds good, but maybe later.” Due to the lack of funding and non-technical capability of many. A connection to a university is key, their resources and experts would really help the process and save some aggravation.
Jensen’s keynote speech, points to the threat that libraries and publishers are starting to encounter because of digitization. Are books in their physical form a dying breed?? If E-books are the wave of the future, there should be some serious concern about what use libraries will have in the future, and how research will be utilized online vs. in person. Are libraries inherently against “change” and “adaptation”? I think he makes a good point about what universities and libraries can do to still maintain their attractiveness. Stay in the circle! By proving their value, communciating and assisting historians, and working with scholarly societies, libraries and universites stay with the grade and show their capabilities and contributions to academics.
Libraries have much updating and modernizing to do and its time for a movement for all local and state libraries to get going with their use of potential technology. The availability of digital forgery is prevalent on the internet, and more common than the survelliance of it, as pointed out in the Economist. It is easier today to find misleading photos and fake ones, but the process is slow and is definitely not flawless.
Case Study: National Archives—–AKA the national Record Keeper! They hold in trust the famous documents we all know of (Constitution, Bill of Rights, Dec. of Independence) but also the records of ordinary citizens. The essential documents of the rights of citizens and the action of our government. It was established by FDR in 1934 and has holdings dating back to 1775. There archives branch in 14 cities and provide access to millions. Popular programs include: American Memory, and the Federal Register. Located in DC, the “Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom”—-house the Dec. of Indep., the Constitution, Bill of Rights for viewing. YAY for the National Archives, in preserving our past!!!
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