An Introduction to SlideShare

This is week two of 23 Things for Archivists, and we are up to "Thing #3: SlideShare." Each new "thing" we try just reinforces my amazement at how many individuals have put up so many things on the internet for sharing. There is so much information out there that it is difficult to navigate through it to find those few things that are useful to you. It was fairly easy to create an account in SlideShare and to search for presentations that related to Web 2.0. I chose to narrow the search to Web 2.0 and libraries and archives. I found several presentations that were quite interesting. The presentation that focused on the angry staff person giving all the reasons why you should not use Web 2.0 as a means to access your collection was fun but to the point. I certainly have heard all those reasons presented so forcefully that it made me pause to doubt my thinking.

The other thing that I keep realizing with every new application that I explore is that so many of the barriers are falling away. You can create beautiful blog pages without knowing XML and not having access to the server manned by the Office of Information Technology. I created the first web page for the Archives of Appalachia writing the html code on an IBM mainframe using Xedit. It is so much easier now. There are so many more possibilities especially for smaller archives that have limited staff and resources.

The one fear that I am not over is how materials will be used once we have placed them out there on the web. I am excited by the possibility of enriching the information through the contribution of users, but I am concerned about two things. How do you get beyond the trivia and how do you protect the people that you are documenting. This Archives documents life in Appalachia. The culture is one that has spawned many stereotypes, and I have seen requests to use images in a way that can be damaging not only to the individual but also to the Appalachian culture. When I search these sources for materials on Appalachia, I find information on coal and poverty. Maybe I have a new quest to study the region on the web through all these different means of people contributing content to see if the crowd depiction of Appalachia is any different than the stereotype of the hillbilly that has been alive and well since the advent of the color writers at the turn of the century.