When I first began as an archivist at the Archives of Appalachia, we had one computer, an Apple IIE, that had just been purchased to create a database that would index our manuscript collections. Descriptions of collections were created by a typewriter and sat on a shelf. Mostly, we worried about having boxes and folders enough to store our paper collections. Life was so much simpler then, but it was much more confining. What consumed our thoughts and filled our dreams was how to take the sounds and images and stories of life in Appalachia beyond the confines of the reading room walls. We are still struggling with that, but the possibilities are so much greater. So, now we begin a journey to step into the digital abyss and enter the Web 2.0 world.
We have made a few tentative steps into this new world by using Flickr to post some photographs from our University Archives photograph collection and by creating an iTunesU site with a sampler from our sound recordings. I was amazed to find that there were 3779 downloads from our iTunesU site in the first week of January. This statistic strengthened my resolve to explore new ways to take our collections beyond our storage areas and reading room. So, I am going to try 23 things in the weeks to come. Maybe, they will inspire me and we can find some new (and cheap) ways to fulfill the dreams that we have had since the very beginning of the Archives of Appalachia.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Welcome to RAO's 23 Things, Norma. Those download numbers on your iTunesU site are great (I now have iTunesU download # envy) -- congratulations! Flickr is covered during week 5 and I look forward to hearing about your experiences using it. iTunesU is not specifically covered with the closest Things covered probably in week 7. I think you will find some other interesting and useful Things during the next several week!
ReplyDelete