Unit Eight: Digitizing and Sourcing Images and Text (and Video)

Well, we've reached the halfway point for my Introduction to Digital History course and this week we're focusing on the sources of digital materials.  Throughout the course we've discussed digital databases, sites where someone else has already digitized the materials for us and saved them in a neat, searchable package.

For my final project I am hoping to create a usable, digital resource for use in my classroom, in particular for a unit on the Declaration of Independence/Revolutionary War. There are countless digital resources available that I might be able to use - YouTube videos created by other teachers in my district that cover the topic, digitized copies of historic documents, audio recordings of actors reading narratives from the time, dramatic History Channel reenactments…I'm at no loss for materials.

But what happens when the materials we are looking for aren't readily available for a quick download?  While I'm not planning on discovering a long-lost, hand-written letter from Thomas Jefferson in my back yard, there are resources that I've used in my classroom before, from various books and other resources, that I would like to incorporate into my project.  As demonstrated in some of our assignments for this course, documents may be scanned, pieced together and saved for use in digital projects and made available to other researchers or historians.

The task sounds daunting - digitizing historic documents or creating digital materials?  I have a scanner and some basic computer and editing skills, but "digitizing and sourcing images and text"?  That I'm not so sure about.

But then I really thought about it.  We digitize and source images and text all the time, but usually for our own personal use, to document our personal histories.  My children are constantly creating, and I don't have the storage space to save even a fraction of their work.  I do, however scan or take digital photos of their favorite drawings, artwork and other creations and put them in a photo book.  My father and I compiled years of family recipes into a family cookbook, including scans of original hand-written recipes and photos of celebrations when we've shared them.  Years ago a relative of my mother typed up a family tree (in the form of an inch-thick packet of photocopies) and mailed copies to everyone - wouldn't it be great to get all of that information in one place on-line and make it available to family members to record, births, marriages and deaths for everyone in our extended family to know about?

So the approach I going to take, as I'm facing the task of having to "digitize and source images and text" for a professional and academic project, is to look at my everyday life - my Facebook-ing, Instagram-ing, Shutterfly-ing, iPhoto-ing ways may just serve me well.

Extras: My professor from another course shared this resource, Know Your Copy Rights, published by the Association of Research Libraries.  It is specifically written for faculty and teaching assistants in higher education, but contains a lot of copyright information that could be helpful to digital historians.  It ties into my post from last week on Copyright and the Web.