Workshop
In the spring of 2008 the Library will host leading scholars of southern history and related specialties in a workshop with digital librarians, archivists, and information technologists. Participants will explore research priorities and specify current topics and materials in the evidence base that might most benefit scholarship by being digitized on a large scale. They also will identify additional potential new collecting areas, and consider how digitization and digital technologies can support a wide range of scholars in addressing those priorities. This workshop will build on the priorities and directions in southern history identified during the 2005 Southern Sources conference and broaden the discussion to include scholars of literature and social science disciplines that comprise southern studies. Digitization of many varied forms of materials beyond those traditionally thought of as "manuscripts" will be discussed, including audio recordings, photographs, films and other moving images, artwork, and "born digital" materials.
Scholars of southern studies and librarians, archivists, and digital experts will discuss ways in which manuscript materials could be made more accessible and useful to scholars. Participants will identify research priorities that could be supported by new technologies, and make decisions informing further development of collections. The outcome of this discussion will be a list of priority research needs and a preliminary decision matrix for digitizing large-scale manuscript collections, using the Southern Historical Collection (SHC) as a test bed.
During the 2005 Southern Sources conference, numerous speakers alluded to expectations that digitization of archives was forthcoming and would advance archival research. Very few cited experience with digital archives of print or manuscript materials. The 2008 workshop agenda will include presentations about existing digital projects and discussions about the types of production, interface, and access issues that developers of such projects will face. Existing models of "digitization" vary from the highly complex, such as the correspondence of John and Abigail Adams for which each letter is transcribed and virtually every term is searchable, to the relatively simple, such as scanning microfilm collections and putting them on the web. Workshop participants will be asked to provide specific feedback about the level of access, encoding, and searchability they need to further their work. Participants will also be asked to express their opinions about the potential uses of digital publishing in advancing scholarly inquiry, and provide input about choices, including business models, leading to the design, structure, and sustainability of a large-scale digital manuscript collection.
The Library’s leadership, project staff, and technical experts will present the results of the Library’s survey and analysis of existing digital projects, listen to the feedback and opinions of scholars, and discern specific strategies for digitizing large-scale collections of manuscript and other documentary materials to meet the needs of scholars, educators, and students. A preliminary decision matrix will be presented to the workshop participants as an example of the types of decisions, options, and trade-offs required to digitize large-scale manuscript collections.
The types of questions likely to be discussed are:
- What types of digitally presented information are most useful to you in research and teaching? How so and why?
- What types of databases, digital technology and tools do you find most useful in your research and teaching? How so and why?
- Are there specific archival document types that if digitized would significantly alter and enhance research? If so, how do you envision this digitized document and how would it transcend the original?
- Are there specific research topics or research methodologies that would especially benefit from large-scale digitization of manuscript collections?
- To what degree, if any, should the online presentation of digitized archival material attempt to mimic the analog archival research experience?
- With scholarly citation in mind, how closely, if at all, should the digital objects map to the physical arrangement and location of the original artifact? Does the digital archival researcher need to know, for example, that the original artifact is located in box 2, folder 28 of the collection?
- What degree of searchability in large-scale digital manuscript collections is desirable and what degree is minimally acceptable? Is the ability to browse without searching important? Why or why not?
- Considering the trade-offs between accessibility to large amounts of material versus searchability, readability, and so forth, is it worthwhile to digitize pre-existing microfilm, thereby quickly making a large volume of material digitally accessible?
- Would user fees be acceptable to scholars, educators, and students?
The workshop, tentatively titled "Southern Sources: Focusing the Conversation," will take place in the Wilson Library and will be planned, organized, and administered by project and Library staff. Workshop proceedings will be compiled, edited, published, and disseminated to the library, digital publishing, and scholarly communities on the Web and as a printed document.