Embedded Librarian in Undergrad Digital History Course & Extracurricular

Graduate Workshops

RUSA History Section Discussion ALA Midwinter Philadelphia 2014

Virginia Cole, Ph.D.Cornell University

HIST 2293/AMST 2293: Digital History

Digital technologies change the way we learn about and understand the past. In this course, we will explore U.S. History in particular through the use of new digital tools that allow us to conduct research, analyze information about the past, and communicate what we know in different ways.

Edward E. Baptist, US Historian (19th century South, Slavery, etc.)

Course topics

Project: Digital Scavenger Hunt

Discuss/critique: Valley of the Shadow

Intro to Relational Databases

Discuss/critique: New Orleans 1829-1831

database

Intro to Metadata & XML

Discuss/critique: Richmond Slave Market in

the 1850s

Project: New Orleans Slave Trader database

ArcGIS, Google maps, Google Earth tutorials

Project: Geocode New Orleans Slave Traders

Discuss/critique: DocSouth

Intro to Text mining

Project: Geocode DocSouth text

Project: Create Ngram with DocSouth

Discuss/critique: Edward Ayers’ book In the

Presence of Mine Enemies

Intro to Paper Machines

Project: ManyEyes visualization

FINAL PROJECTS:

Input 100 Fugitive Slave Advertisements

APP CAMP for Freedom on the Move Project

Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives from North American Slavery (currently in development)

• runaway slave advertisements from pre-1865 U.S. newspapers (placed by slaveowners when enslaved people attempted to escape) which are single richest source of information about enslaved individuals in the US

• uses crowdsourcing to parse data into a database

• provides for public engagement with a formative and enduring national trauma, supporting lessons for K-12, university, and museum education

• publicly available for browsing and searching, and exportable for research and analysis

http://freedomonthemove.org/Currently in development

Part 2:Humanities Graduate Student Immersion Program

Began in 2012 with IMLS funding

2014 is third year

3-4 days in January before spring semesters begins17-10 students each year

Topics

Power ResearchInfo (citation/pdf) managementFinding ImagesUsing Images for Research & TeachingOrganize, Safeguard, Update: Manage Digital Research FilesFinding Funding Working with EbooksUsing a Camera in the ArchivesCopyright for Doctoral Students

Each session taught by different librarian(s)

http://guides.library.cornell.edu/olingrad

Optional fourth day of digital scholarship by Digital Scholarship & Preservation Services

• Publishing in a Networked Age

• Intro to Digital Tools (intro to HathiTrust & Voyeur)

• Showcase of projects from first cohort of Summer Digital Scholarship/Humanities Fellows

Virginia Cole, Ph.D. vac11@cornell.edu

Questions? Comments? Discussion?