Assignment #5

While originally copyright was applied only to books, in today's world the effects of copyright can be seen everywhere, from movies to material found on the internet. With more and more material falling under copyright, the laws pertaining to protecting someones original work have become very expansive and much disputed.

The first copyright law put in place in England was called the Statute of Anne of 1709. It was largely created because of the leap in copies being made of books with the invention of the printing press. In U.S. history, copyright was originally going to be under the States jurisdiction in the Articles of Confederation, but with the Declaration of Independence a copyright clause was added to promote creativity in science and the arts. The Copyright Act of 1790 allowed works to be copyrighted for 14 years, with and additional 14 years if the author applied for it. Over the years the time and types of materials has been expanded.

Adelphi Charter, a group that advocates a more free flow of information sums up the long standing argument against some copyright laws.

"While exclusive rights have been adapted and harmonized to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, copyright’s exceptions are radically out of line with the needs of the modern information society. The lack of harmonisation of exceptions hinders the circulation of knowledge based goods and services across Europe. The lack of flexibility within the current European exceptions regime also prevents us from adapting to a constantly changing technological environment."

Another problem that many historians are facing because of copyright laws is how and when works can be desplayed or published because the copyright owner can not be determined. As with the case of the trove of historic jazz recordings that cannot be used because the issues arising from copyright many other works are held in sort of a limbo.

Assignment #4

This assignments' collection of readings focuses mainly on how historians should utilize the benefits of the digital age and be aware of the difficulties that come with it. The readings also cover how historian have to actively save online sources before they disappear in the digital ether.

With the coming of internet 2.0 and the interactive nature of websites, it is important for historians to utilize the new format to fully engage their readers and be able to use their input to enrich the site. As Cohen and Rosenzweig state, we must go beyond passive “texts” such as websites and web pages and also think about active processes such as communication and interaction.

While this approach can inevitability lead to some difficulties, it is still a valuable source of information. One problem that can arise when history is open to the general public is a overabundance of comments and the like that has nothing to do with the material at hand, leaving the site and original material smothered. Dr. Cebula gives an example of this when he explores the Library of Congress decision to create image archives on Flicker so that the public and add tags to the photographs. As Cebula says, "There are 20-30 notes on the photograph and not one contains useful historical information to give context or help us understand the photograph."

Another way that the internet can be used to enrich history is by collecting historical documents, images, and personal narratives, from people all over the world that may not have been found otherwise. Additionally, it is important for historians to realize and take action to preserve digital sources that are being produces right now. If we do not take time to preserve these digital sources much of our current history could be lost.

Assignment #3

Finding historical information online, in my experience can be a tricky endeavor. Without the right tools it is easy to get lost in the millions of hits that come back if researching a common subject. Shifting through websites to find legitimate and useful sources can be a pain. But, the more experienced one becomes at searching the web, the faster you will be able to find sites that will fit your needs. This weeks readings have pointed to many deep primary source web sites can be found. Archive projects done by universities and states offer great sources for users. Two of the sites that we were directed to for this weeks readings offer great digital archives that can be used.

From the perspective of the site designer, attracting users can be a difficult task. And, even if users are attracted, if a site is designed poorly and does not flow logically or is not easily searchable, than it will be hard to keep a user base. Additionally, it is beneficial to use software that will allow users to fully utilize all of sources at the site and not become bogged down searching with a program that is not effective. As William Turkel explains in his blog Digital History for Hacks a good searching method is essential or the user could be searching file by file for relevant material. Although I do not really understand the mechanics behind it, the machine learning tool uses the patrons searches to anticipate their needs and make shifting through material much easier and quicker.

Assignment #2

While digging through all the assigned readings this week the general impression that I got was that the Humanities have a lot of catching up to do to get on board with the digital revolution. Because some professionals are still dragging their feet, several different ways of encouraging people to go digital have sprouted up.

One of the major ways that people are trying to attract more frequent users and participants is by keeping scholarship in the digital humanities open access. Open access basically means that users do not have to buy access to scholarly articles and materials. As it is mentioned in the article Digital Humanities in 2008, II: Scholarly Communication & Open Access open access promotes collaboration and the exchange of knowledge and research. Additionally, if research is hid behind a pay wall, people will be less likely to read the published material, which is a "sure path to invisibility in the digital age" for scholars who do not embrace open access.
Another way the scholars from the Humanities are being lured into participating in the digitization effort is through the outcroppings of grants and scholarship opportunities that are geared toward digital humanities projects. At the Virginia Center for Digital History in partnership with several Virginian school counties

have been awarded a Teaching American History grant by the U.S. Department of Education to provide professional development training for American and world history educators.

for 1 million dollars. Digital History is important to foster a global community and share and receive scholarship from around the world.

Both of these approaches are pushing more and more historians to join the digital revolution simply because of its convenience and the realization that history could be left behind. These opportunities are essential to making digital humanities easier to access and develop.

Reaction Paper #1: What is Digital History?

To answer the question "what is digital history?" many different view points must be taken into consideration. A starting point for understanding digital history can be seen in the way Cohen and Rosenzweig describe it in the introduction of their book Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web . They say,

Digital history is an approach to examining and representing the past that works with the new communication technologies of the computer, the Internet network, and software systems.

From the time the first easily accessible internet browsers have became available, different academic professions have been taking advantage of the convenience of sharing material and ideas via the WWW. Although the History profession has taken a little longer to fully begin to accept and utilize digital means of sharing and preserving history today the number of digital history projects are expanding rapidly. However, while there are becoming more and more resources available online of digitized sources, historians cannot forget the masses of resources that are still left untouched.
With the digital revolution has come many complications ranging from the standard expense problems to more complicated diverging philosophies and applications of how to use the digital technologies appropriately when considering history.
In her article History, Digitized (and Abridged), Katie Hafner explains several of the difficulties that face historians and information professionals that are seeking to digitize sources. The main problem for the Library of Congress in digitizing its special collections she explains is that it simply costs too much money.

Scanning alone on smaller items ranges from $6 to $9 for a 35-millimeter slide, to $7 to $11 a page for presidential papers, to $12 to $25 for poster-size pieces.

Additionally, the shear amount of items that are still undigitized is astronomical, while the goal is there, it seems that the feasibility of making the online source bank complete is a little far fetched.
Another problem that relates to the incomplete nature of digitized material is the manner that many historians research now that so many sources have become available online. If a historian only uses sources that are easily accessible, online or close by, than primary sources that have not been digitized and are still stashed away in special collections, than important information could be missing which could lead to gaps in the end conclusion or misinterpretation.
Another facet of this particular problem is restriction on information because of copyright infringement. Many books and sound recordings are restricted from being digitized for this reason. The overall effect is "narrowing our own understanding of our own history" as Hafner frames it.

Even with these setbacks, there are many advantages to digital history. As Brett Bobley expains in Patricia Cohen's article Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches

analyzing unprecedented amounts of data can reveal patterns and trends and raise unexpected questions for study. He offered the human genome project as an example of how an area of study can be transformed: “Technology hasn’t just made astronomy, biology and physics more efficient. It has let scientists do research they simply couldn’t do before.”

This development offers historians a whole new range of ways to view the past.

“People will use this data in ways we can’t even imagine yet,” Mr. Stowell said, “and I think that is one of the most exciting developments in the humanities.”-

Like most professionals Edward L. Ayers of University of Virginia thinks that the future of digital history is a rosy one simply because media is so pervasive in our society today. As historians begin to see the clear advantages of working with technology, digital history will only continue to grow.

Assignment # 2

This is one of my new favorite artists, Anais Mitchell.

She has a beautiful and interesting voice that is featured very well in her new album Hadestown.