While reading the “Interchange” article, I saw myself reflected in the participants’ comments on teaching digital history to graduate students and had a bit of an “a-ha” moment. Thomas stated that “the most difficult aspect of teaching digital history is getting beyond the technology” to a point where students “think” rather than do and Cohen agreed saying the goal is to get us to think like “architects rather than plumbers.” I realized this is exactly how I have been thinking… I have been so focused on the end product and how I was going to get there and wondering when I would have a chance to learn the programming aspect that I haven’t really given my chance to think about the process, having “time to think” has been a struggle. I’m wondering if any of my classmates have been thinking the same things. Worrying about the technology and the “how-to” rather than the concept.

My second thought relates projects taking over careers . . . there is so much that can be done with a digital project, commanding constant revision and receiving unending feedback, could a historian be limited by the constant attention digital history needs rather than varying their research?

Which models of intellectual property rights should we expect to assume as more archives that are bequeathed non-digital media then digitize that media? And what happens when we/archivists add to it (oral histories?), distribute it, etc…

I am just still fuzzy about all of this and how it might affect actual archives given by the owners… not found or created outside of that.

I have noticed that some of the humanities are more collaborative than others… for example in Irish History, I see a lot of collaboration co-authoring and sharing of ideas. I am on the Irish Diaspora listserv and get an amazing amount of email from academics in the field and have been able to put my own questions to the group in the past as well, receiving good feedback. Focusing on the archival perspective, the collaboration not only within the academic departments but between archivists and researchers in academia is vital for the development of the archive. I like the idea of these seminars and what seem like “team building” exercises, but wonder how successful they will be in creating a different academic culture.

Previously, I completed an internship at the Archives of Irish America (AIA) here at NYU. My project for that internship was to produce a finding aid on the Frank Durkan collection (first accession). Frank Durkan was an Irish American attorney, partner in O’Dwyer and Bernstien of Manhattan, who was very active in Irish American affairs such as the Northern Ireland Peace process. He also represented several prominent defendants in related cases. The materials include correspondence and records of organizations in which Durkan participated and led as well as legal records pertaining to court cases. A significant amount of newspapers and other publications chronicling key events in the Peace Process are also included.

For this course, I would like to create an online exhibition of the Durkan collection as well as related materials from other AIA collections and link to other collections of notable involved parties. I will be meeting with the AIA archivist this week to confirm the scope of the project and if this will be a suitable project for this course.

I am very much interested in the “democratization” of archives and source materials (Rosenzweig) and how this will affect archives and historical research. Will there be a day when you no longer have to visit an archive in person, but can complete research through online archives? How will this shape the work produced and the archivists job responsibilities as more technical skills are needed… and questions/access will not be handled in face to face interaction but totally online through email, web interface and even Skype-ing? Will the create an environment where we have “no time to think” about structuring and improving, as Levy decries, as those online inquiries made possible by our technical advances take more time out of the work day? Or will the opposite occur? Making everything available and not just the “big name” projects so that those interested in materials in the “long tail” (Anderson) . . . the implications for archives from the experiences of Amazon and Netflix are vast.

About the online assignments, I need to spend more time navigating bibliographic programs. I remember using Zotero previously and really liking it, but evidently I have forgotten how and got frustrated with that. Refworks has been really good to me and I am exploring Endnote more. I need to spend more time exporting these to each other as I was not able to negotiate that well.

Ok, I’ll apologize for a technological mishap and any typos that appear here, but for some reason, the text is not visible on my page for adding a new post… maybe someone can offer me a tip on that?

I too found myself wondering what updates Friedman would have for the book to include the social networking (facebook, twitter, etc.) and aftermath . Blogs have made a tremendous impact on society and news, so I am looking forward to seeing more about how they have affected academics and the sharing of knowledge through libraries and archives. There is of course great potential here (I suppose that is why we are all in this class).

I’m very interested in how copyright affects all of the technology and use of documents online. The creation of online spaces for education and research … I’m sure we will speak more about this later as some of the later readings are focused on these issues.

Hello, everyone.

I’m Stacey Satchell and I’m in the certificate program for Archives. I’m rather a perpetual student having multiple master’s degrees (KU-Higher Education, NYU-Draper, NUI Galway-Irish Studies). The first one pays the bills as I work full time at NYU as an Academic Advisor for CAS.  Busy week with all of the undergraduates back.  I became very interested in archives through my own historical research for my Irish Studies degree.

My background in digital/web media consists of being the administrator for a department website at another university. For this, I used Dreamweaver. I am a newbie to the social networking thing (I’ve always been biased against them but am slowly coming around).

My interests continue to center around the world of Irish Studies and I am hoping to tie this class project in with the work I have previously done at the Archives of Irish America here at NYU.

See you all on Wednesday.