Editing Digital Culture
The Editing Digital Culture project seeks to link students with projects that are working to transform historical cultural documents into high-quality resources for the public on the web.
Project description
"Access is almost always a precursor to participation and we might not even be aware of the channels that exist to make everyone part of cultural experience."
-Annamari Laaksonen, Making Culture Accessible (Council of Europe Publishing, 2010)
Every culture is shaped by its own history and the histories of the other cultures that have preceded and interacted with it. In many cases, however, the artifacts and documents that are our most tangible record of these histories remain locked away and inaccessible to the public, such as handwritten documents kept in special collections that can only be visited in person by a small number of researchers. Even among the important cultural items that are digitized and transcribed, the vast majority are hard to find, unreliable, restricted, or hidden behind paywalls. The Editing Digital Culture project seeks to link students with projects that are working to transform historical cultural documents into high-quality resources for the public on the web.
Students who contribute to the project will learn about:
- digital editing and publishing
- encoding and programming
- working in goal-oriented, project-based teams
- rare and unique objects drawn from collections around the world and different periods of history
Project outcome
Students will create small editions of previously unpublished historical documents that will be submitted for publication on the Marianne Moore Digital Archive, or other participating websites, such as the Folger Shakespeare Library. After review and correction by a project editor, student submissions will be published online and a link to the finished work to which they contributed will be sent to them.
Project details
| Length of commitment | Less than a semester (0-2 months) |
| Start time | Fall |
| In-person, remote, or hybrid? | In-person |
| Level of collaboration | Large group collaboration |
| Benefits | Academic credit; Interested students may pursue volunteer assistant positions and/or enroll in HMN 496: Digital Humanities Internship to earn academic credit. Contact nlwasmoe@buffalo.edu for more information. |
| Who is eligible | Undergraduate students majoring or interested in Technology, Editing, Web Publishing, History, English, Computer Science, and/or Cultural Studies |
Truman Scholarship
Students participating in this project might be interested in and eligible for the Truman Scholarship. Connect with the Office of Fellowships and Scholarships to learn more.
Core partners
- Digital Scholarship Studio and Network
- UB Libraries Digital Humanities Minor (UB English and other participating departments)
- Marianne Moore Digital Archive (moorearchive.org; collaboration between English and CEDAR/CUBS Lab)
Project mentor
Nikolaus Wasmoen
Visiting Assistant Professor
English
413 Clemens Hall
Email: nlwasmoe@buffalo.edu
Start the project
- Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
- After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.)
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
As preparation for this work, which you may pursue at a Transcribathon event or separately in consultation with the Project Director, Nikolaus Wasmoen, please take a moment to read the attached pamphlet, "The Probative Value of Archival Documents."
Reflect on the ways in which this pamphlet argues for thinking not only about the content of a document, but all of the other factors that contribute towards "evidentiary value," that is to say the value of what analysis of that document and its contexts can tell us about the individuals and societies that created and subsequently shaped it over time. As you read, consider how the criteria laid out for assessing legal and political documents in the pamphlet might extend to other domains, such as the history of science, technology, literature, and the arts. How do we know what we know about our cultures and societies? How will we pass not only that knowledge, but the documentary basis upon which it rests, to the future? How might improving the documentary record and making it more widely accessible change some of the arguments we make about the present and the future?
After completing the reading, please fill out this brief survey form. There are no prerequisites for participating in the Editing Digital Culture project; your answers about existing skills and experience on this survey will be used for planning purposes only.
Keywords
English