"Harvard’s new “open collection” contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases and offers important historical perspectives on the science and the public policy of epidemiology today."
In June 2005, the Josiah Macy Foundation awarded the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library and Archives a grant to conduct a pilot project to digitize and catalog selected materials from our archival collections. As part of this grant, we have purchased and are implementing a new database which will help us provide access to our materials and serve as a digital repository for our scanned materials. We purchased ExLibris' Digitool with which we can (1) store digital images, (2) extract metadata from the images, (3) add descriptive metadata in MARC or Dubin Core formats, (4) organize our materials into digital collections which reflect the physical organization as well as digital collections which reflect different virtual organizations, and (5) provide access to our materials through a web-based interface.
The Digital Collection Project at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library & Archives contains a wide variety of collections related to the history of the famed Long Island laboratory. Collections include documents, correspondence, photographs, and oral history audio files from many of the scientists who worked there. Researchers may create user accounts to keep files organized and annotated.
Isaac Newton wrote at least one hundred thirty one manuscripts, totaling approximately one million words, on the subject of alchemy, work that would today fall under the general rubric of "chemistry". With the support of the National Science Foundation, this scholarly online edition is one part of an integrated project that combines new research on Newton's chymistry with an online edition of his manuscripts. In the future, this edition will include all of Newton's chymical writings in word-searchable form with annotations indicating their sources and the degree of Newtonian input into them.
The Chymistry of Isaac Newton site is a project that will give researchers access to Newton's writing on Chemistry, a field for which the scientist is not well known. In the future, the project will be an important supplement to other sites such as the comprehensive Newton Project at London's Imperial College; however, the project is just getting off the ground and only one manuscript is available at this time.
Biography of Lamarck
This section of the Lamarck Site contains documents and testimonies concerning the life of the french scientist. Texts which, on some points of Lamarck's life, sometimes constituted the only information source, as for example the ambiguous funeral oration pronounced by Georges Cuvier or the anecdotes printed by Isidore Bourdon, who declares that he received them from Lamarck himself, at the end of his life.
This site is a project of the French Center for Research in the History of Science and Technology. The site contains digitized versions of a range of manuscripts produced by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a noted Zoologist whose work influenced early evolutionists like Darwin. The manuscripts include letters, books, discourses, memoirs, and others. There are also sections devoted to his critics and his pupils. The site is offered in English, but almost all of the material is only available in French.
WW2 People’s War is a site dedicated to capturing people's personal stories of World War Two in a lasting archive. Military or civilian, on the front-line or home front, every story plays a vital part in helping future generations understand the sacrifices made by a nation at war. Please note that WW2 People’s War is an internet-only project, which means that contributions made by letter or telephone cannot be accepted. However, there are now over 2,000 People’s War centres nationwide where you can find help getting your story online.
The People's War website is produced by the BBC and accompanies their large amount of historically-oriented content. Visitors can read stories submitted by others, or register and submit their own story. There is a research desk with starting points and guides to researching familiy history, and there are related discussion boards that are very active. Also featured are articles that outline the major activities of the War, and suggested activities for educational projects in addition to the thousands of personal stories.
The BBC People's War website was launched in November 2003 and will be collecting personal stories through November 2005, after which the materials will be archived as a resource and tribute. Sharing your story requires registering with the site, but you can contribute your story and communicate with the more than 10,000 contributors and registered users. The stories are edited and approved before they appear on the site, although only the author is held to the truthfulness of the submission.
The Research Desk provides articles about British regions, major events, and theatres of the war and links to the BBC History website that has thousands of maps, galleries, and articles. Guides to researching family history cover medals, badges, service records, and photos. The very active "Ask and answer" Research Desks are divided topically and are used by many as they are uncovering their own family history. In addition, the education section offers lesson plans and activites for school project, which revolve around interviewing individuals about their experience of the war.
The purpose and staffing of the site are clearly introduced, and the writing is rather informal. While there aren't simple URL's, the design and layout of the site is very straightforward and the discussion board and user pages. The resources of the BBC are apparent in this site, from the professional design, extensive interaction supported by the site, and the more than 200 "People's War Centres" throughout Britain to support the submission of digital materials. The site offers so much varied material, from the concise articles to the thousands of personal stories, that it is a necessary visit for anyone interested in the personal experiences of the British in World War II, on the frontline and the home front.
Joan Fragaszy
Center for History and New Media
April 29, 2005
Based on Bob Greene and D.G. Fulford's To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories For Generations To Come, The Remembering Site presents a guide to writing an autobiography. Using a series of over one thousand questions, organized into thirty-five chapters on topics ranging from on topics ranging from “Elementary School Years” to “Romance and Relationships” to “Vehicles," the site offers users a road map to recording their life story. The Remembering Site also highlights several completed biographies, and there are plans to make an even larger number available which would provide historians with a useful source for research.
Presenting opportunities for the preservation of memories has become an exciting and popular use of the World Wide Web. A recent addition to the online memory collecting presence is The Remembering Site. Based on Bob Greene and D.G. Fulford's To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories For Generations To Come, this site presents a guide to writing an autobiography. Launched in the summer of 2005, The Remembering Site encourages the public to record their lives and share them, either with family and friends or better still, with the online community.
While similar to MemoryWiki and History Lived in scope, The Remembering Site is unique in its approach to harvesting memoirs. Whereas MemoryWiki is completely open-ended in what users may contribute and History Lived simply suggests historical topics for users to write about, The Remembering Site carefully guides users through a thorough assessment of their life's past. For users who struggle to identify which of their stories might be of interest to others, the structure of The Remembering Site is an indispensable tool. The site uses over one thousand questions organized into more than thirty-five chapters on topics ranging from “Elementary School Years” to “Romance and Relationships” to “Vehicles.” The process is completely customizable, as users only answer the questions they choose to, and can add stories which they feel do not fit into any of the proposed categories.
These questions provide a comprehensive and useful starting point for an individual seeking to preserve their memoirs, as evidenced by the completed autobiographies. In presenting autobiographers with a wide range of topics, many seem eager to recount experiences characteristic of multiple eras and facets of their lives. However, this method also has its flaws. Since they are structured in a question and answer format, the memoirs often lack a coherent narrative feel. This framework also seems to lead users to recording only a single story on a given topic, when likely a number of memories would be relevant and of potential interest to researchers.
Perhaps the most promising feature of the site are plans to make public the stories people have submitted. The authors of the site maintain that one of their goals is “to create an Internet-based anthology of personal histories so we may learn from one another.” After finishing their autobiographies, users have the option to either make them available to the world or have them remain confidential, sharing them only with people of their choosing. Currently, only a few “featured biographies” are available, but the founders of The Remembering Site hopes to soon make available a much larger number of memoirs.
As of this writing, there is a subscription fee of $10 to join the site which provides one with the questions and forms to create an autobiography. For an additional fee, professionally printed and bound copies of one's autobiography are available.
Ken Albers
Center for History and New Media
March 2, 2006
This research project "Ampère and the history of electricity" is developed by the CRHST with the partnership of the Académie des sciences, la Société des amis d'Ampère, le Musée Ampère à Poleymieux et l'Ecole Centrale Lyon. It was financed by the Ministère de la Recherche (programm "Création de produits de médiation scientifique en libre accès sur l'internet"), EDF Fondation, CNRS et la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.
This website houses digital images and transcriptions of various André-Marie Ampère manuscripts. The site is geared toward users fluent in French. The site offers an English language version, but even the English pages contain some French text, which makes the site difficult for non-speakers to navigate. The manuscripts are organized by type and topic, and they are searchable, although the search almost certainly recognizes only French keywords and phrases. The site also contains other contemporary primary sources on the field of electro-magnetism and a bibliography of Ampère's published works.
The Apple II was officially introduced at the First West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977, one of the very first trade shows dedicated to the newly emerging microcomputing industry. I loved the Computer Faires because they were attended by passionate hobbyists in the days before commercial forces completely dominated.
In April 1981, a few members of the Mac team took off the afternoon and drove up to San Francisco to visit the seventh West Coast Computer Faire at Brooks Hall. The biggest splash at the show was the unveiling of the Osborne I, from a brand new company named Osborne Computer, which was touted as the world's first portable computer.
Folklore.org is an online history collecting site that allows users to view stories, rate and add comments to these stories, and create stories of their own. The site serves as both an archive of popular histories and a facilitator of new collecting projects. The only project hosted as of yet is about the original Macintosh development team.
Folklore.org is an online history collecting site that allows users to view stories, rate and add comments to these stories, and create stories of their own. The site serves as both an archive of popular histories and a facilitator of new collecting projects.
Currently, the only project hosted by the Folklore.com site is a collection of stories about the original Macintosh development team. This project served to launch the site and attract users, so most of the stories are written by Andy Hertzfeld, who is also the author and designer of the site. Hertzfield chose the Macintosh history as a starting point because he says, it was “the most important event that I played a part in.” Although the site has not yet benefited from a large group of contributors, there is a significant body of information contained in more than a hundred entries ranging from 200 to more than 1500 words. The stories are searchable, and cross referenced in categories such as “software design,” “bugs,” “personality clashes,” and “marketing.” The stories are well written, and in some cases, the comments add richly to the original content.
The Folklore.org site is not limited to Macintosh or computing history. New projects will eventually be added as the site expands. Users can propose projects for which they would like to act as editor, and if accepted, the Folklore.com administrators will help set the project. Users can also add their own stories to any current project by creating an account and obtaining a username. This process is quick and simple, requiring no additional information besides a name and email address. Once logged into an account, the user can create stories using an automated form; however, the site administrators retain a large amount of editorial control by approving or rejecting stories before they are published on the site. Comments posted to existing stories also undergo an approval process, although a user does not need an account name to post comments or submit ratings. Additionally, the site maintains a RSS feed so that users can be notified of new postings and updates.
Although the Folklore.com site is helpful for its stories alone, it also promises to contribute to the online collecting effort through the software Andy Hertzfeld developed to run the site. The software is a set of CGI scripts written in Python, and after it is stabilized sufficiently, Hertzfield plans to release it as an open-source download that other online collectors can install on their own servers. Collectors will have to have some technical savvy, but the scripts should facilitate the collection of popular history on user-friendly, easily customized sites.
Miles Travis
George Mason University
April 25, 2005
AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), and the Library of Congress have teamed up to collect and preserve personal accounts of America's struggle to fulfill the promise of equality for all. We invite you to share your story and explore this site, a tribute to those who were a part of the civil rights experience and to the continuing quest for equality. Begin by learning about the power of a story.
Visit the History Channel's companion educational website for excerpts from the documentary, Save Our History: Voices of Civil Rights.
Voices of Civil Rights is a website sponsored by AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), and the Library of Congress to collect and archive first-hand accounts of civil rights developments in the United States with a focus on the second half of the twentieth century. The site includes more than 500 primary accounts dealing with efforts to end discrimination based on race, gender, age, and disability. The site also includes supplemental resources such as images, timelines, music videos, links, and essays on continuing efforts to achieve a more equal society.
Voices of Civil Rights is a website sponsored by AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), and the Library of Congress to collect and archive first-hand accounts of civil rights developments in the United States with a focus on the second half of the twentieth century. The site includes more than 500 primary accounts dealing with efforts to end discrimination based on race, gender, age, and disability. The site also includes supplemental resources such as images, timelines, music videos, links, and essays on continuing efforts to achieve a more equal society.
The primary function of the site is to collect letters and historical materials from people who witnessed the civil rights movement first-hand. A user can read the accounts of others or submit a letter of their own. The submission process requires two steps. First, a writer must type their story and define certain descriptors such as year, subject, and state. Then the writer must agree to the site’s terms and conditions and provide their name, email, phone number, and contact information. The site reserves the right to edit, reproduce, and distribute submitted stories and images. Most of the letters range from 200-500 words.
For users hoping to read the stories, the accounts are searchable by state, topic, and year, or a user can search by keywords. Each resulting entry provides a title, the author’s name, and a two-line excerpt. A user can also browse the letters without searching, but this is a slow process because the site will only display ten entries at a time. In addition to the letters, the site offers a timeline, images, a feature on Jackie Robinson, and a quiz to test your knowledge. The site incorporates several different mediums in its presentation as well. Besides the letters which can be read, slideshows and music videos offer a visual element and a few interviews provide audio files along with their transcripts.
Beyond the historical materials, Voices of Civil Rights also includes much information about the continuing civil rights movement. In 2004, the site sponsored a bus tour, entitled “Across America,” that visited cities across the American South and South West commemorating civil rights advances, gathering stories, and assessing current knowledge and attitudes about civil rights. The tour is documented with videos of various stops, journal entries by tour writers, and photos. The site also offers several bios of new leaders who have recently founded or joined civil rights initiatives and essays about what the past has to teach the present, new challenges that must be faced, and the protests that can be heard in contemporary culture.
Voices of Civil Rights contributes to the civil rights discussion by stretching our understanding of what “civil rights” include. Among the many stories of freedom marches, voter registration drives, and sit-ins are other stories about discrimination against Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. There are also stories about the push to recognize and fight age discrimination and the experiences of people with disabilities, from physical handicaps to special education needs. These histories are sometimes overshadowed by the celebration of victories over Jim Crow in the South, but other issues certainly deserve the attention they receive here, and the collection of personal accounts in these civil rights battles should help raise the level of their study and discussion.
Miles Travis
George Mason University
May 6, 2005
NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.
The New York Public Library Digital Gallery is a site that gives access to thousands of primary source images reproduced from the library's archives. The collection includes images from manuscripts, maps, books, and more. The collection is searchable and organized into seven topical categories: Arts and literature, cities and buildings, culture and society, history and geography, industry and technology, nature and science, and printing and graphics. The site also contains information about gaining rights for reproductions and a helpful user's guide to assist with finding materials quickly.
