It doesn’t feel quite real that this school year has almost drawn to a close. As always, time has passed in a way that I don’t understand.
I learned a lot this semester, both more lofty academic things and things like how to scan and digitize materials. Working on the PEAK project about the items left in returned library books was a treat. The hours I got to spend sitting in the archives plodding through the folder of items that needed scanning, getting caught up in the mindlessness of the task, was a nice break from some of my more stressful obligations this semester.
For this project, my partner and I digitized and created a gallery for the items found in our library’s returned books. I ended up doing most of the digitizing, which suited me just fine. The times I did try to help with the website were… not the most efficient. I’m really grateful that my project partner was competent enough with Weebly, even though it gave her trouble, to push through and get work done.
Speaking of Weebly, that was the platform we used to create the website. It was not the most user friendly, let’s say. Especially with the upload process that we had to do, there were a lot of steps to get things set up right and in the right spot with the right things hidden and the right things visible. It was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be, so I got lost really quickly.
All in all, I do think our project turned out nicely! It’s an easy to navigate site and I’m happy with the quality of the scans. I would also happily go back and finish scanning the last few things we didn’t have time to get to. Although, since library books are always being returned and people will probably keep leaving things in them, it would be interesting to see where this could go as a project for future students.
I learned so much this semester and it is so bizarre that it is ending, but I do feel better equipped to proceed in a field with digital history, and as a historian in general. This course was very valuable, it broadened my understanding of so many different topics. I am sad to see it leaving the curriculum, even if it is temporary.
Thank you to Dr. Joy Lintelman for teaching this course, for pushing us to be better, and for encouraging our learning and development as historians and museum workers.
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