Author: Avabrandt

This week during Digital Humanities we had finished with our scrapbooking in the special collections room at the library. We met back in class on Monday and learned about maps and how we can use them. I believe we are trying to get more practice with techniques and tools that we collected from doing metadata on our Omeka collection. Basically, we are trying to find out what would it look like if we used our images and texts from Omeka and placed them directly on a map and how is would be done? Over the week, I learned there are many different ways we could use our metadata on maps. For instance, creating a map by timeline could be very efficient. If everything is in chronological order, it will be easier to find information because it is so organized. We also learned that a timeline organizes a single dimension, so starting with the earliest occasion or date and ending with the last is the easiest option. One thing to notice is when the person you are researching encountered all of these artifacts. Another tool you could use is transportation artifacts. For example, bus and train tickets, other forms of transportation that students engage with. We could combine the idea of chronological order and transportation routes/patterns to see if they line up with any new information or centers around anything specific. On Wednesday, we were given a google checklist to fill out. We were instructed to input our information from Omeka that we did on scrapbooking and see if we were able to pinpoint a location for the images or texts we chose. This was a cool activity to do to get us to become familiar with mapping and how it can correlate with metadata.  Professor Famiglietti also gave us links to powerpoints that give a more in depth look at how beneficial mapping can be and how we can use maps for our metadata on Omeka. I am excited to see what we can learn moving forward in class and see how we can really use our metadata and place it on a map.

During week 3 of Digital Humanities, I feel that I already have a better understanding of what this course is all about. This week, we focused on inputting information into our Omeka website for scrapbooking. We met as a class this week in the special collections center on the 6th floor of the library to engage in metadata through scrapbooking. We learned how to properly record and insert the information we had, whether it was just a picture or a postcard from a certain family. It was really cool and interesting to be able to understand how writers and researchers use metadata to find valuable, personal information. When creating your own item on Omeka, it is important to make sure that we follow the item level Metadata sheet that we were given. This was such a helpful tool and insight to guide us when recording our scrapbook images. We also learned on Wednesday the proper ways to write down our information from the scrapbook. On Omeka, we are given a whole bunch of categories to fill in about our scrapbook. Some of these categories include a title, subject, description, date, rights, and so much more. All of these elements are beneficial to creating metadata, especially for scrapbooking. I learned that being too vague in those descriptions can cause other readers and researchers to be confused and they may not be able to find what they are looking for. This is why it is important to take your time when inputting metadata. Overall, I learned a lot more this week about metadata and the general use of the Omeka website. I am excited to do more this upcoming week.

This week during our digital humanities course we learned a lot. I feel as though we were taught a better understanding of what digital humanities is and the different parts of it. In class we were shown the complete letters of Willa Cather. On the website we were able to see a whole range of things. We could search for a specific letter that was sent by using all these different features and filters such as date ranges, annotations, letter ID, etc. Date ranges are very useful when scholars and writers are interested in Cather’s life history and how she develops as a person as well as an author. They can use this to find information like what she did towards the beginning and end of her life, important dates, where she lives, and change in status. In class we learned that this allows us to do a date based search for someone’s life. We also talked and actively went through the annotations that were available for the letters. Annotations can include other writers’ thoughts and ideas. Therefore, depending on the kind of research we are doing, we might be interested when Cather was using literal language. For example, we searched “red cloud” in the search box and included annotations, which allowed us to find something we never knew about. After doing this activity for a little while, I realized it all comes down to what kind of research question we are asking and what we are looking for (either literal language or just topics). Throughout this week we also talked more about metadata and defined what that is. Metadata is information about another piece of information. For example, letters are a piece of information because it includes texts, words, and meaning. If we have information about that specific letter, then it is considered metadata. 

During our first week of Digital Humanities I learned a lot of valuable information so far. Going into this class, I had absolutely no idea what digital humanities was, nor did I ever think it was something that was surrounded in my everyday life. Although I am still learning the meaning of Digital Humanities, I do believe I have some knowledge of it. Humanities is the study of all languages, history and human culture in society. Digital humanities is the domain of researching and studying to develop digital technologies. In simpler terms, digital humanities is the field where information and research is given in an electronic form. Social media has become a huge deal in society today, which makes it easy for workers to advertise. In 2020, the Black Lives Matter campaign began circling through society and soon became one of the biggest and most conflicting campaigns. This movement specifically blew up over social media, considering everyone in this generation nowadays has some sort of online communication and knowledge. It is very effortless to go online and post or see information digitally that is trending in our generation and suddenly become up to date with it. Most influencers and campaign leaders use social media as their main platform, to reach the largest audience they possibly can to ensure they are getting their message heard. In today’s world, digital tools are being used all over those who are interested in arts or history of something. The power to be able to share information to others outside of the computer science field is a major factor of digital humanities today. In my Pop Culture Literature course, we were instructed to write a personal narrative on what we think Pop Culture is in today’s generation and how it affects our daily lives. I continued to write about how social media is a major factor in pop culture today and how easy it is to be influenced by someone who has a million strangers liking and resharing their digital content. I think there is some connection here between pop culture and digital humanities and how posting information online can reach a bigger audience and have a better outcome than any other source. I still believe there are many more concepts and details about digital humanities that I will learn throughout this semester.