Blog #18: Then and Now

I thought it would be fun to show the template I used for building my website as I downloaded it compared to what my website currently looks like. Take a look:

After...

...and before!

Blog #17: Hailey's Review

I can't seem to find the Scottish Chapbooks Project website, so I will just review what I saw from the presentation.

Hailey is one member of the group which is digitizing and exhibiting information on the chapbooks collection at the University of Guelph. The Chapbooks Project is a pilot project, as digitization of chapbooks is thus far unheard of. There is very little that has been done with these documents so far. Each member of the group has focused on a specific theme which can be found within the chapbooks. Hailey's theme is superheroes. Mainly, she wanted to address whether or not superheroes had timeless qualities. She did this by comparing characters in Scottish chapbooks to those in modern-day comic books. She focused on William Wallace and Captain America and Queen Elizabeth as Wonder Woman. However, Hailey mentioned that she had a hard time finding enough information on Queen Elizabeth to make a definitive link between her and Wonder Woman. In order to define what a hero would have been considered during the time chapbooks were published, Hailey extracted key characteristics from an account of the Battle of Roslin. In addition to including images of the chapbooks examined and information on her chosen theme, Hailey also included a list of additional, related sources.

One thing that I think would have been nice is the inclusion of the chapbooks, entirely digitized. Many of the group members expressed their desire to do this, however, the University did not want the entire books available on this website. They did mention that the fully digitized books would probably be available in the future, as another Library and Archives initiative.
I think that Hailey picked a really interesting theme. The fact that she made it relevant to today's society was a really strong point. It's too bad that she seemed to have some issues with Queen Elizabeth, in particular, as she only had two examples. More examples would have strengthened her overall thesis/purpose.
Overall, this project seemed to have a lot of potential. I would have liked to have seen the completed website in order to see what she added since her presentation.

Blog #16: Project Log

Just a quick list of things I've done recently:

• Updated the template of all the cookbook pages so that they match the new website design. Filled out most of the information for each cookbook, and added "TBA" in places where I still need to add stuff
• Found another digitized cookbook! I'm now only missing 8 cookbooks (plus a few that only have US editions online)
• I did some work on the blog, including adding more information to the sample post and adding sources. I also added a Pinterest feature. I'm planning to try and integrate the blog into the website today or tomorrow, or at least have it link up nicely. Done! http://canadiancookbookstimeline.blogspot.ca/
• Currently adding the title page images to each cookbook's webpage. Have done a few; lots more to go. Requires some minor trimming of images. Done!
• Apr. 3: Realized I forgot to add my search bar to the new design, so will be doing that shortly. Don't you hate websites without a search bar? Done on the main pages, will be adding it to the rest shortly.
• Apr. 11: Added a Twitter feed as a sort of news ticker. Starting to add subjects to each cookbook's page. About halfway done. 

Blog #15: Project Log

Here's a sneak peak at the fruits of my labour - about 5 - 6 hours of scanning. Plus post-processing time, in which the scans are lightly edited in Photoshop.

My hope is to have the entire book in a pdf and available on my website by Tuesday.

I'll talk a bit about the scanning process on Tuesday, but I probably won't be able to go into much detail, so I'll do it here.


How to scan archival material:

1. Get the item that you're scanning. At the archives you need to fill out an item request form.
2. Go to the scanning room. Turn on the computer and the scanner and wait 5 minutes for them to start up. While waiting, clean the scanner to remove any dust or particles.
3. Place your item in the scanner, being sure to line it up so that the image is as straight as possible. Open up the scanning program. Make sure that the correct parameters are set and that your file is being named and numbered appropriately (for example, the image above is uas041b06CANRECEIPTBOOK001 - the first part is the call number of the item, the second part is the title of the book, and the last part is the scan number).
4. Do a preliminary scan to create a preview of the image. Zoom in. Use the marquee tool to select what you want scanned and to crop out any excess grey areas. Now you can create the actual scan!
5. Open up the scan in Photoshop and make correction with the brightness and contrast. This is to improve readability and reduce bleedthrough.
6. Repeat!

Blog #14: Building a Website

I've made some more modifications to my website, although nothing too significant. The biggest change was that I linked up all the digitized cookbooks I could find online to the pages I had created.

In other news, I've been meeting with Melissa McAfee and I've started the process of digitizing a cookbook. I would have liked to do more than one, but at this point I don't have the time for that sort of commitment (I'll also write more about digitization later). Melissa also suggested I look at using Omeka. I also realized that you can sign up for a free account on Omeka.net...I'm kind of embarrassed that I missed that. However, I've been messing around with Omeka a bit and I wasn't really thrilled. Even though Melissa upgraded her account, there was still a huge restriction on themes (which you are unable to significantly alter) and plugins. Overall, I wasn't impressed, so I decided not to use Omeka.

I was also browsing the internet and came across a website called Wix. This website would be a great tool for our course, I think, as it provides free webspace and appealing templates which are highly customizable - and you don't need to know any HTML or CSS! The only drawbacks are that Wix puts two ads on website and that the URL is a bit ugly (username.wix.com/sitename). I'm considering using Wix, but we'll see. The website I'm creating is something that I want to be online forever, and I'm pretty sure that my student webspace will disappear a year or so after I graduate, so that bothers me. However, that's something I can focus on during my own time, and at this point I'm really into making content rather than design, since I present in two weeks.

Blog #13: Spencer's Review

Spencer is a fellow classmate and I am reviewing his project proposal.

He began his brainstorming by thinking about Montreal and how physical space changes over time. What he came up with as a final project idea is an interactive map of St. Patrick's Ward (otherwise known as just "The Ward") in Guelph which displays how it has been gentrified over time, especially focusing on the railroad. This area of Guelph experienced similar changes to Montreal, so it would not only tell the history of Guelph, but also the history of a greater trend throughout Canada.

Spencer's plan is to create and design a website which will house his interactive map. He is planning to use Google Earth to create his map, which will include photographs, text, and quantitative data. Spencer will also be using digitized maps from 1879, 1908, 1960, and 1989 and a digitized fire insurance plan from 1878 in the creation of his project. Currently he is using the University of Guelph archives as a source for his project, but he is looking into other locations, such as the Guelph Museum and the Wellington County Museum. If he has time he would also like to create a walking tour based on the historical data he has collected. His goal here is to use a multifaceted approach, rather than focus on just one medium. I think this will work well with the idea of an interactive map. It would be great if the items on his map also had links to more information which was housed on his website, or external links (which he may be planning on already, not sure!).

Overall, Spencer's two main goals are for the project to be used as a community resource and as a place for research. As a community resource this project would be a nice addition to what is already out there on the internet. I think that the walking tour would be especially nice to add to his website, especially if he makes it into a printable brochure or something similar, which could then be printed out and used by interested individuals. I could see that being useful for elementary/high school students or even homeschoolers. For the research aspect of his project, Spencer intends to include call numbers and references on the archival items he will include in his map (like photographs). This will enable viewers to find where he originally sourced the information from. I think this is a good way to allow for research opportunities within a website which is aimed towards a non-scholarly audience. A bibliography on his website would also add a degree of credibility and be useful for those seeking more information or related scholarly works. Spencer needs to make sure his website and map are accessible and relatable to the average viewer but still act as a useful source for those who might be visiting for scholarly reasons.

It looks like Spencer has an interesting project with a lot of source material out there to work with. His project also seems to fit in well with the greater scheme of Canadian history, even though it focuses on just one case study. It seems like a project which would be of interest to both the average, non-scholarly viewer as well as those seeking a more academic approach. Personally, I am very interested to see the final outcome. I was looking online at the Guelph Archives a few months ago and I noticed that they had some digitized photographs online. I was searching for images of my house here in Guelph, but unfortunately there were none. It was also difficult to search the archives when there was no map to reference, so I can see the wider appeal of something like what Spencer is proposing.

Blog #12: Project Log

What I've been up to recently...

• Got my pretty scrollbars to work!
• Made the font a little larger, as I noticed some people had trouble reading it during my presentation in class
• Changed the top navigation
• Added pretty titles to the pages on the top navigation
• More or less finalized my template for each cookbook's bibliographical page (can be seen at La cuisinere bourgeoise, the rest are all outdated)
• Made some graphs which are on the Data page. I'll probably end up having them on a linked page, but for now they are right there for visibility
• Added a subject category to the browse page (incomplete right now, but I've started it so that I don't forget)
• Messing around with Omeka. Having some issues installing it, which led to me uploading all the files one-by-one...Hopefully I'll be able to play with it before the semester is over, ha. If I can get it to work after all this.
• Thinking about adding interesting/important events on dates on the left sidebar without cookbooks, as per a classmate suggestion. Still need to make a list of events and add them in to see if I like the way it looks.

Blog #11: The Dreamer

Today I want to talk a bit about an unlikely source, but one that I really believe in: The Dreamer. The synopsis from the website states:

Beatrice “Bea” Whaley seems to have it all; the seventeen year old high school senior is beautiful, wealthy and the star performer of the drama club. And with her uncle’s connections to Broadway theater, the future looks bright ahead of her. Little does she know that her future might actually be brighter behind her.
Bea begins having vivid dreams about a brave and handsome soldier named Alan Warren--a member of an elite group known as Knowlton’s Rangers that served during the Revolutionary War. Prone to keeping her head in the clouds, Bea welcomes her nightly adventures in 1776; filled with danger and romance they give her much to muse about the next day. But it is not long before Beatrice questions whether her dreams are simply dreams or something more. Each night they pick up exactly where the last one ended. And the senses--the smell of musket shots and cannons, the screams of soldiers in agony, and that kiss--are all far more real than any dream she can remember.

The Dreamer is a webcomic by Lora Innes. Her background is in fine art, but it quickly becomes apparent that she put a lot of historical research into developing this comic. In fact, her story is based on actual historical documents, such as The Life and Times of Joseph Warren. I enjoyed this paragraph by Innes:

You might never read The Life and Times of Joseph Warren (though I hope you do) but my desire is to make that world come alive for you. Let yourself be transported back in time. Let yourself go on an adventure. And let yourself fall in love with these characters who have become dear friends of mine. I’ve found that the people I spend the most time with these days have been dead for 200 years.

Now, using a project like this to learn about history has both strengths and weaknesses. I think that the main strengths are the unique medium, the appeal to popular masses, and the way the author can teach about the American Revolution without really "teaching". On the other hand, when reading The Dreamer or something similar, it is important to realize that it is a work of fiction. The author may have distorted events or historical facts to suit their story, may have taken a biased position in their storytelling (Innes seems very attached to her characters, for example, so as a result the readers naturally feel more sympathetic towards her heroes), and of course, as with any source, readers should realize that this is just one portrayal of history. Nevertheless, I think that The Dreamer would make a great supplemental educational aid in a classroom, especially for high school students (some teachers have already caught on to the potential). If a similar project were to be taken up by a group of historians and artists and done as a collaborative project, I could see a bright future for (web)comics as a educational sources.

Blog #10: Project Log

What I've accomplished over the past few days:

• Made a favicon! Now my website has a nice little book which appears next to the title.
• Fixed up the blog a bit. It's not perfect, but now it has links and a header, so it appears more or less as part of the site, and links up properly.
• Had a fight with the fancy scrollbar. May or may not end up keeping it, depending on if I can get it to work.
• Messed around with adding an image carousel to the front page, to advertise parts of the collection, but I couldn't get it to work (I tried about 6 different scripts), so I ditched the idea, at least for now. It was a minor detail that was taking up too much time.
• Asked for some opinions from friends and family on various designs I had been playing around with for the website. I think I have some good direction now, but I need to do some work to execute it.
• Figured out some ways to organize menu content in a clearer and more aesthetically pleasing way.

So I'm still working away at various things! I hope to start working on content in the next few days, since I'm feeling more confident about the design now.

Blog #9: Historical Twitter Feeds

Like Youtube, blogs, and websites, Twitter offers a modern platform for educating the public about history.
One of the main advantages of Twitter feeds is that they are concise and easy to follow. This way, history can be broken down into small doses. Someone is more likely to read one line of text than a paragraph. At the same time, this can be a disadvantage, as it can create a situation when information is oversimplified and lacks context. It can also be a confusing website to use.
There are tons of different kinds of historical Twitter feeds out there. The most broad is a feed such as @PocketHistory, which simply posts random facts from anywhere in the world. Another feed is Archeology Rome, which focuses on presenting various links and information related to ancient Rome.
Local museums and archives have also realized the benefits of Twitter. @WichitaHistory is run by a local museum and provides facts related to Wichita's history. Similarly, @NS_Archives is a feed which shares items from the Nova Scotia Archives.
@WWIIToday offers daily tweets on a "this day in history" type theme. This kind of approach makes history directly relative to today. These kinds of tweets also work well with Twitter's character limit.
One unique feed is @Wendell_Howe, which is the fictional twitter account of Wendell Howe, a time traveler and anthropologist. I felt like this twitter had a lot of potential to be both fun and informative, as the main character would be experiencing history for the first time, just like the viewers. However, I found it sort of confusing, and I think that is mostly because of Twitter's character limit. There just isn't enough space to explain any background context.
@historicaltweet is a fun feed, which actually posts links to their website, which posts pictures of photoshopped "tweets". So it's not really a historical twitter account, but it's a similar idea. I found some of these "tweets" funny, but I think that in a lot of cases it's only funny to people who already know the history behind the image. It's not really a great source for teaching history.

Overall, I think that Twitter can be a great tool for teaching history, but I feel that at the moment it is not being used to its full potential. I was not super impressed with any of these feeds. Many of them were inundated with personal tweets or retweets, which was annoying when I wanted to find original content. Many of the tweets were just links to a website or a blog, so the tweets were acting more as advertising. In this case, there's pretty much no point in even reading the twitter, when you can just directly read the blogs websites it links to.

Blog #8: Janet Stephens

I came across Janet Stephens's Youtube channel by pure chance - a friend had posted a link to a news article about her on Facebook. Stephens is a hair stylist who has merged her passion for hair with an interest in history. On her Youtube channel she posts videos depicting how to make historical hair styles with period appropriate tools. Her styles are based on both primary sources (mostly art) and scholarly secondary sources. She has even gained reputation in academics, for her theories on Classical hairstyles.
I think this is a great way to make history more accessible. The use of Youtube is also nice, as it makes her work available for anyone in the world to watch. Stephens's videos remind me of other (contemporary) hair styling videos I've watched, but she includes little tidbits of historical knowledge which makes them appealing to me as a history major, but likely also interesting to the public masses.

Blog #7: Project Log

I've been working on my website a lot since my last project log. Most significantly, I completely overhauled the design. I really liked the way the dates were set up on the old version, but I couldn't get the dates to go in a straight line without making them super tiny and illegible, and I didn't like how it looked with two lines of dates. I thought about making a horizontal scrollbar, but I couldn't get it to work, for some reason.
So, in the new version, I went with two vertical frames. The left frame holds the timeline, which is now vertical and scrolls. The content appears in the right frame. I also completely changed the fonts and the color scheme, to something a little easier on the eyes.
As of now, the cookbook pages are incomplete. I just copied and pasted the HTML from La cuisinere bourgeoise so that each page would have the correct formatting. Later on, I'll go back and update all the information for each page.
Currently, I'm working on making sure the design is consistent in all the pages. Next, I need to work out how to incorporate the blog into the website. As of now, it's a little glitchy, and I need to put the links at the top. I also need to make pages for the dates in the timeline frame. Lastly, I'll need to input all the information into the cookbook pages (titles, dates, authors, etc.) and do the write-ups. If I get to it, I'll also try and include some data on the research page - perhaps a map, some statistics, etc.
Any comments or constructive criticism would be great!

Blog #6: DIY History

A little while ago someone introduced me to DIY History, a website run by The University of Iowa Libraries. This is a public digitization project, very similar to the one run by the New York Public Library. However, DIY History focuses on handwritten letters, diaries, and books. The collections include culinary manuscripts, women's letters and diaries, and civil war letters and diaries. Overall, it is a much more personal project than What's on the Menu? because everything is handwritten in a formerly private location. Some of the items waiting to be transcribed date back to the 18th century, while others are from the more modern 20th century.
The purpose of digitization projects like DIY History and What's on the Menu? is to increase accessibility. By digitizing and transcribing objects, it makes it easier for archives/libraries to catalog and at the same time it improves searchability by enabling the use of keywords. It is definitely useful to transcribe handwritten items, which could not be achieved with a machine, like typed text could be.
Opening transcription to the public serves a dual purpose. It is a cheap, easy way for universities/libraries/archives to get things done. All they have to do is open a website and let eager internetters go to it. Otherwise it would be a long, slow, and costly project. At the same time, these projects do benefit the public as well. They offer a unique, engaging way to interact with history on a personal level.

Edit: So, amazingly, I wrote about this before this week's blog assignment, which was to participate in a crowdsourcing project. Obviously I've already done that - I have spent time transcribing on both DIY History and What's on the Menu?
I actually did another today, also without realizing it was the assignment, which was correcting the transcription for the "COOKERY" section on this digitized newspaper page from Australia. In this case, it seems that the text is automatically generated, but blurring and stray ink marks sometimes make the transcription messy, so it needs a lot of work. The main website is called Trove, and it's part of the National Library of Australia. Items available on the website include newspapers, books, maps, images, and music. There's actually a way for Australians to submit photos to Flickr, which then appear on the Trove website. I think that is an awesome way to get people involved and sharing information!
I think crowdsourcing projects are really neat. I love getting involved in them because it makes me feel like I did something special, even if it was just a little thing. I could spend hours transcribing old menus or newspapers or diaries. I also think having this information publicly and freely available is amazing. Without the internet or projects like these, I would never been able to interact with a 1902 newspaper from Australia or a New York menu from 1914.

Blog #5: Humanities and GIS

Okay, disclaimer of honesty: at first I thought this whole GIS (Geographic Information Systems) thing was going to be super boring.
But then I started searching around and I felt like I had just found the coolest things ever! Which is why I'm going to highlight a few projects here, because I just couldn't choose. They're all so amazing!

Lewis and Clark Across Missouri

Official blurb:

This website serves geographical information and maps that are products of the LEWIS AND CLARK HISTORIC LANDSCAPE PROJECT that has been conducted at the Geographic Resources Center (GRC), Department of Geography, University of Missouri in partnership with the Missouri State Archives, Office of the Missouri Secretary of State. With the primary goals to geo-reference, digitize, and map all of the retrievable information from the Lewis and Clark journals and the 18th and 19th-century land survey notes along the Big River Corridors of the state of Missouri, this effort should serve as a significant educational contribution to the national commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial (2003-2006).
Specific campsite maps, photo-realistic images of important river landmarks, animated virtual Missouri River travel, and an interactive map server offering various layers of geographical data on the Expedition's outward and homeward journeys joined with the natural and cultural history of the Missouri River corridor are all currently offered here. We hope your visit both informs and excites your geographical and historical imaginations on the Missouri of old.

Things I love: the website is simple, but still provides interest. There are a number of different maps, which are interactive, and a list accompanies each map so that you can browse through campsite or landmark names as well. I think this is a cool website and would be useful in teaching, especially in elementary or high school. I could also see tourism value here as well. The virtual river travel was the coolest thing to me. The only way it could get better is by being there in person. There are also a lot of links to related information.
One thing I wish they had done is made a composite map, where all the routes were plotted, so they could be seen together. It would have made a nice comparison.

Map of Early Modern London

Official blurb:

The Map of Early Modern London (MoEML) maps the streets, sites, and significant boundaries of late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century London (1560–1640). Taking the Agas map as its platform, the project links encyclopedia-style articles, scholarly work, student work, editions, and literary texts to the places mentioned therein. Students will view the landmarks of Shakespeare’s London and learn about the history and culture of the city in which he lived and worked. Teachers will find the map and encyclopedia useful in teaching Renaissance plays and other texts set in London. Scholars are welcome to contribute articles, links, sources, or compilations of data.

This project is a little different, and it seems to take more of a wiki type of approach. The map is used as a visual basis for discovering information about streets and landmarks. There are also some complete texts (I assume early modern and from London) and references to places in literature. This is also a Canadian project! Unfortunately there is not a lot of information on the site yet, but even having the high-quality map available to look at up close, with labels, is commendable enough. Because this project is on-going, applications to contribute are available, which I think is great!

Google Lit Trips

Official blurb:

Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story.

First off, I love how the website has links according to grade, right up at the top. That said, at first I was confused about what to do. The website was also a bit messy, so it took me a while to figure out how to navigate it. It also requires that you download Google Earth and the lit trip file, which is kind of annoying and a turn off. It would be nicer if everything was available on the internet for easy access.

Mapping the Republic of Letters

Official blurb:

"Mapping the Republic of Letters” is a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and international project in the digital humanities, centered at Stanford University. Since 2008, we have been creating visualizations to analyze “big data” relating to the world of early-modern scholars. We focus primarily on their correspondence, travel, and social networks. While we make use of quantitative metrics to examine the scope and dimensions of our data, we remain committed to the qualitative methodologies of the humanities. We actively encourage collaborations with other projects.

At first I was impressed by the clean design of this website, but then with the minimal links and information I found it rather confusing in the end. There is lots of information on the tools they have developed/in development, but no way to access these amazing projects! Perhaps it is because of the newness of the project. Anyway, it focuses on literature in relation to geography. Some of the case studies include John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Galileo, Voltaire, and more.


So, this is just a selection of GIS projects in the humanities which I found intriguing. I'm sure there are hundreds more out there. I think that using maps is a great way to learn. For me, at least, I find the visual aid very useful. Furthermore, organizing information this way can be useful to a wide variety of people: elementary school and high school, as in Lewis and Clark or Lit Trips, or upper level university scholars, such as the map of London or Republic of Letters. I think GIS could be applied to almost anything really, which is part of its appeal. Everything is based in a place, and therefore can be mapped. I'm even considering it in relation to my project for this course, which I discussed below.

Blog #4: Project Log

When I thought about my project for this class, an idea immediately occurred to me. I have a keen interest in food history, so I knew it would be something related to that. Then I considered what I could make that would contribute to what is currently on the internet. I remembered that recently, when researching for an essay, I was frustrated with the fact that there was no single website for canadian cookbook history. So basically, I want to make a website where someone can find information on many cookbooks at once, rather than having to do a google search for every title or author.
So, this is what I've come up with so far: click.
Right now only one cookbook link (under 1825) works, just to be an example. I have added a bit of information under "Browse" and "Links & Bibliography", as a rough draft. The "Research" section will include more quantitative data - perhaps graphs and charts, as well as essay-type information for more scholarly visitors. The "Blog" section would be a more popular media for highlighting interesting recipes, books, tidbits of information, etc. I am also toying with the idea of including a recipe bank, like the one at The Henry Ford.
While I am proud of what I've thought up so far, it is not the scope I intended. On the other hand, at this point I think it might be taking on too much to go any farther. In this case, I think I might present this website as a component of a larger website. For example, the main website might be Canadian Cookbooks Timeline, with various sub-websites named:

• Canadian Cookbooks Timeline

• Pre-1825 Canadian Food History Online

• Early Canadian Cookbooks Timeline (1825 - 1855)

• Late 19th Century Canadian Cookbooks Timeline (1856 - 1900)

• Early 20th Century Canadian Cookbooks Timeline (1900 - 1910)

• Wartime Canadian Cookbooks Timeline (1914 - 1945)

• Modern Canadian Cookbooks Timeline (1946+)

I think breaking up the information into manageable timelines would be necessary in a project with such a large scope. The main website might also have timelines organized by province and by cookbook type (community/fundraising cookbooks, advertising cookbooks, etc.).

Blog #3: What's on the Menu?

A few months ago I came across What's on the Menu?, a website run by the New York Public Library. I thought it was the coolest project ever - anyone, anywhere could participate in history by transcribing and interacting with primary documents. Additionally, the transcription of the menus has allowed anyone access to useful information for research. For example, I looked up the dish "Squash Pie" and was able to see the earliest and latest dates it appeared on menus, the lowest and highest price, a chronological timeline depicting the frequency in the collection, and links to related dishes. This could be extremely useful for someone studying menus or the history of a particular food or dish. The website also allows anyone to download data spreadsheets. A What's on the Menu? blog highlights interesting or relevant parts of the project and collection.
What's on the Menu is just one of the NYPL's many digitization projects. Other projects include Map Warper, Musical Theater Online, Biblion, and Yizkor (Holocaust Memorial) Books. This is just a very, very small selection of the huge number of websites the library runs.

Blog #2: Orlando

The website for Orlandois very minimal and easy on the eyes, but when I first visited the site I found myself feeling lost and confused. I didn't know where to look or how to access information. It wasn't really a self-explanatory site. That said, once I figured it out, I found Orlando to be a very interesting project!

For those who are wondering what Orlando is, the website states,

Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles is an online cultural history generated from the lives and works of over 1200 writers, and for readers with an interest in literature, women's writing, or cultural history more generally. With almost eight million words of text, it is full of interpretive information on women, writing, and culture. Orlando currently features 1012 British women writers--listed twice in cases of multiple, shifting, or contested nationality--; 13,495 free-standing chronology entries; 25,616 bibliographical listings; 2,438,588 tags; 7,861,990 words (exclusive of tags).

 One of my favourite sections is Today in Orlando - a page that highlights related events in history. For example, a number of events are listed for today, January 14th. The earliest entry states that in 1664, "Poems by the Incomparable, Mrs K. P. was advertised for sale by Richard Marriott of Fleet Street, London." The latest entry states,

Katharine, Duchess of Kent, converted to Catholicism, becoming the first Roman Catholic member of the British Royal Family in more than 300 years.
Her husband, the Duke of Kent, a cousin of both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, stands in the line of succession. Though the Act of Succession (1701) prohibits heirs to the throne from being or marrying a Roman Catholic, officials said the Duchess’s conversion would have no constitutional implications since she had been an Anglican at the time of her marriage.

So we can see the scope of this project. Not only does it cover a long period of history - up until modern times - but it also includes information that situates the literature in history. I like an approach like that.

I decided to try out the system. First, I went to the Writers with Entries page. I selected the British author Ariadne. This brought me to a page dedicated to the author. This page was much easier to comprehend than the main website. I could easily navigate the sections - overview, life & writing, writing, life, timeline, links, links excerpts, and works by. I love how this broke up the information into neat pieces. The overview also lists milestones and a quick blurb about the author, so the reader gets some background knowledge on the person. I can see how this would be a very valuable resource for researchers and there is just so much information here that it really is a goldmine of knowledge.

However, I noticed that Orlando is a subscription service, and without a paid subscription, viewers cannot see any of the real information. I found myself dwelling on this fact, especially given the recent news reports surrounding the suicide of Aaron Swartz. Should scholarly information be available for free? Is a free and open internet really possible? According to Aaron Swartz,

You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends … Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

Honestly, I'm still undecided. I think that there were a lot of mistakes in the way Swartz's case was handled (although JSTOR is to be commended) but I'm not sure that it was the right way for Swartz to make a statement or if having everything online be free is really feasible.

Blog #1: Digital Approaches at the University of Guelph

How have my studies at Guelph been affected by digital tools and approaches, and what future possibilities do I see?

I think that compared to the majority of students, I've had a fairly digital-based education. Thus far, I've taken 13 online courses and I plan to take one more this semester, for a total of 14. That is 44% of the total number of courses I have taken/am currently taking.
At first I found online courses difficult, because when I wasn't regularly attending a lecture, it was easy to fall behind...way behind. Once I got used to the difference in learning style, I came to really enjoy online courses. The style fits well with my personality. They also seem quite modern, since everything is conducted online.
When considering traditional courses, at first I didn't think they were modern or technologically advanced at all. But then I realized that my opinion was formed on my own obliviousness. It is so easy to take things for granted, when you've never known any other way. Considering when my mom or my grandparents went to university, they didn't have access to things like Primo, JSTOR, Google, Wikipedia, or ebooks. I use all of those things on a practically daily basis when researching for a school project. Obviously, then, digital tools are very integrated and important to my education. At the same time, this sort of approach isn't necessarily promoted, and a student could easily do research the old fashioned way. Of course, it's just assumed now that students will do the former.
Many courses also make use of Courselink, another digital approach in education. I love when a professor uses courselink well - posts regular news updates, the course outline, assignment instructions, powerpoint slides, etc. It can be frustrating when some professors don't seem to understand how to work Courselink or don't use it, however.
I have also had some courses make use of digital media within the course content. One course had a discussion on public history in relation to historical video games. During that lecture we were encouraged to play the game Outbreak 1885. Another course had all of the readings online in PDF format. A few courses showed videos related to course content. An art history course I took last summer involved a lot of hands on photography work, including uploading submissions to Flickr. The professors of a few courses have had blogs available for students to read. In one course I viewed the website hastings1066.com to interact with the Bayeaux Tapestry and in another I completed a research essay based on The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft.
So now that I have really had time to think about it, digital tools and approaches comprise a large part of my university education. I think that this is commendable. At the same time, I think that these tools and approaches could use some sophistication.
Professors could be instructed more in how to utilize Courselink. Online articles or ebooks could be used more often in courses instead of traditional, costly textbooks. The library website could be made more easily accessible and more sources could be digitized (especially things from the special collections which are public domain). Technology in classrooms could be upgraded. Another major issue is the general assumption that online information is not as reputable as print information. Although work is being done to reverse this attitude, it still seems to be a widely accepted attitude.
Considering how far the university has come since 5, 10, 20 years ago, it seems obvious to me that things will continue on in the right direction. In the 21st century, digital information plays a huge role in all aspects of life, from education to social interaction to government and politics. It would be a mistake not to implement new tools and technologies in order to educate and prepare students for a modern world.