Thoughts on Real vs. Nonreal in Digitization

Digitization of almost everything has altered the way we perceive and absorb information, for better or for worse.

Anecdote

When doing some preliminary reading about this topic, specifically regarding the stark difference between perception of real objects compared with perception of real objects which have been digitized, one example recently relevant to me came to mind. Last year, I had been apartment shopping. Nowadays, everyone offers virtual tours of apartments on their website, where you just type in a url and click through a full apartment. This seems like a great way to get to know a space! While true to some extent, for every apartment that I ended up seeing in person, it was like a completely different place. Granted, the various pictures in the virtual tour were real images of the real apartment, but being fully immersed in the environment added a dimension that was impossible to gain digitally. I would liken this experience to digitization of history, or any other information. While you can gain an understanding of a real world thing through studying it digitally, there is certainly an unspoken benefit associated with being present with it.

Non vs. Nonreal History in Action

As I had been browsing the various databases offered by the Library of Virginia, a few collections stood out as relevant to this topic

American Periodicals - This collection holds digital images of periodicals from magazines and journals dating from 1740 - 1940. A collection like this represents a sort of "middle ground" between the real and nonreal. Specifically, the images of the periodicals are images of the real item (i.e.: not just a type-up of the words on the item), but the experience is nonetheless different than it would have been had you held the magazine in your hand.

Historic Map Works Library Edition - A database like this one is an example of an instance when the digitization of "real" history may be aided by making it not real. This source provides access to US cadastral maps dating back to the 1700s. Further, the maps can be overlayed with the current day GoogleMaps. This is an interesting method in which the digitization of the information can make it more relevant to the user in a way that may allow for more effective absorption of information which was made "nonreal".

Thoughts on Informational Databases

 After taking a look at a number of informational databases that are actually more accessible than one would think, a few interesting ones stuck out:

Historical Washington Post Database

My local Fairfax County Public Library has a full-page archive of the Washington Post coverage of politics, society, and events dating all the way back to 1877. This would be a great resource to go back and see how certain events and time periods were documented at the time, compared to how we view them now.

Civil War in Words and Deeds

This database, through the Library of Virginia, seems to present accounts of the Civil War which likely would not have been displayed to the general public through the reporting of the time. Namely, this database includes compilations of the reasons individuals volunteered, as well as the daily trials and tribulations of the war from a soldier's perspective. 

Gale Legal Forms

This was another sort of niche database through the Library of Virginia that contains legal forms containing details on Virginia divorces, wills and estates, real estate, bankruptcy, landlord tenant, power of attorney, name change, business incorporation. Seems like a useful resource if you are interested in finding something very specific about a particular legal event.

Thoughts on Blog Styles

Overview

While the content of a post is what draws the audience in, the style is what can make or break it. Providing readers with an organized and digestible format can place emphasis on major points and make the content more enjoyable. Rosenweig's reading provides more insight on this, breaking down blog style into the following points:

• General Principles of Design
• Text
• Images, Color, and Multimedia
• Putting It All Together
• Site Structure and Good URLs
• Accessibility

My Thoughts

What stood out from Rosenweig's reading was the discussion of Putting It All Together, which explained how all of these aspects of a blog can create a great final product, both visually and informatively.

"When all of the pieces - text, images and multimedia (if any), and navigation - come together in a well laid-out and structured historical site, the results can be both visually appealing and informative" 

This definitely inspired me to make some updates to my own blog. Specifically, I changed the page from being mainly dark colors to a more colorful and engaging look. Here is a before and after:

Before:

After:

Thoughts From Browsing Blogs

Through my browsing of various history blogs around the web, it was interesting to see the multitude of viewpoints and events being brought to light that may have otherwise been ignored. For instance, the Women of History blog serves to share content related to the history of women and their customs, attitudes, and accomplishes throughout time. They strive to do so as they felt that many women were unfairly absent from written history. Another interesting blog is the National Museum of American History. Their content is highly useful as they seem to prioritize providing historical context to current events, including an article highlighting the various obstacles African-Americans have had to overcome throughout American history, including the unrest at present.

A couple historical twitter accounts that I found interesting and followed included @JQAdams_MHS, an account which tweets daily lines of John Quincy Adams diary, and seems like a fun way to take in his life story, as well as @AHAhistorians, a well-known historical association that provides well-sourced and relevant history.

Thoughts on our Local Digital History Center

When considering the missions of the local digital history centers in the VA area, it was great to see that the major focus was creating accessibility to digital history not only to their related universities, but to the greater community. The work that many of these centers to is also quite interesting. With so much data and information available, such tools to organize, visualize, and present relevant historical information is invaluable. For instance, the methods that the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) explore to create computing methods to enhance digital preservation of data is nearly as important as the data itself when it comes to making it accessible and usable to the average user.

Thoughts on the Promises and Perils of Digital History (Cohen, Rosenzweig)

Rosenzweig's commentary on the idea of the quality issue associated with the digital media revolution, and how the masses may be inclined to reference what is more accessible and easy to find, rather than what is reputable sparked my intrigue. Specifically, it was interesting to consider the simple fact that because many of the most formal and peer-reviewed historical sources are only open to subscribers, the general reader will be more inclined to use free or informal sites or blogs for their historical reference. As a result, they might not be consuming the most "quality" information. Given the accessibility of authoring this information (anyone, including me here, can post something on the web), it could lead to misinformation. Rosenzweig talks about combating this issue, but it is hard to imagine a way to police the online realm of history when it is so open-source, especially since limiting the accessibility to create and share information would limit the benefits that the digital realm of history has to offer in the first place.