“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” This quote, attributed to anonymous and ubiquitous English street artist Banksy, is a surprisingly profound viewpoint on memory and mortality, and it got me to thinking: if that’s true, then…
Category: Digital Collections
(Digital Collections) Gather ‘Round and Download the Tale: A Primer for Digital Storytelling in Archives
The storytelling urge is an ingrained part of human behavior spanning back to our earliest conversant days, when “This plant bad, that plant good” wasn’t just helpful advice for staying alive, it could also pass for a rollicking tale around a campfire. Among the myriad ways we’ve progressed here in the 21st century is in our ability to tell stories…
(Digital Collections) If You Scan Something, Set It Free: The Surprising Places We Find Our Digital Objects Online
For the parents among our readership, you well know that stepping back and letting your child experience life on their own – from their first unaided steps to the day they walk the stage at graduation – is one of the toughest things you have to master. And even though you know it’s part of their healthy development, you can’t…
(Digital Collections) Imitating Janus: A Look Back, A Look Ahead for the DPG
Janus, of course, was the Roman god of beginnings and endings, usually represented as having two faces – one looking forward, the other back. His was the realm of doorways, transitions, gates and time itself. We derived the name of the present month from his name, so every time you curse your luck for living somewhere that January is one…
(Digital Collections) Bonnie and Clyde (and Pat) and The Texas Collection Artifact That Ties Them Together
Frank Jasek, the library’s resident bookbinder and preservationist extraordinaire, wheeled the book truck into my office, his face aglow with mischief. “Have you ever seen one of these before?” he asked, gesturing to a large bound volume measuring about a foot tall by two feet wide. The words “CALABOOSE REGISTER” were stamped on its cover. “No,” I answered Frank. “I…
(Digital Collections) A Bold New Venture for the DPG: Our First Graduate Course
The Digitization Projects Group moved into our current digs – the Riley Digitization Center – in October 2008. Since that time, we’ve grown to a staff of five full-time employees, four graduate assistants and up to ten undergraduate student workers at any given time. Our collections have grown from 12 to 57, and an item count of 27,000 exploded to…
(Digital Collections) Taking Your Show on the Road? Take a Look at Our Checklist
Friday is a big day for the Digitization Projects Group. That morning, Darryl Stuhr (Manager of Digitization Projects) and I will be presenting alongside Dean of Libraries Pattie Orr and VP for the Electronic Library Tim Logan to the Board of Directors for LEARN, a “consortium of 38 organizations throughout Texas” dedicated to “providing advanced network services for research, education,…
(Digital Collections) “The Path of Good Intentions is a Steep Learning Curve” – An Update from Zada Law
Longtime readers of this blog may remember a post we wrote about a researcher at Middle Tennessee State University named Zada Law and her work to use GIS (Geographic Information System) data and our historic War of the Rebellion Atlas collection to map the Federal defenses of Nashville, Tennessee. Zada sent us an update via email recently, and it…
(Digital Collections) The Rise and Fall of the Soash Empire: A West Texas Hard Luck Story
Everything’s bigger in Texas, the hoary old chestnut reminds us, and no group of people understood the Lone Star State’s geographic expansiveness like the speculators who bought up acres of prime Texas land for pennies on the dollar and hoped to turn a quick profit by selling them to newly arrived immigrants and Yankees looking for a better life out…
(Digital Collections) A Century of Daily Baylor History, Now Online: The “Lariat” Digital Collection
If you follow us on Facebook, you’ll recall a few weeks ago that I teased some “big news” was forthcoming. Well, the wait is over, and we’re excited to announce that thanks to the efforts of the Digitization Projects Group, The Texas Collection and the office of Student Publications, the entire run of the Baylor University Lariat is now available…