Thoughts
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InfoBox
Please review the InfoBox at 301 N. Crystal for format, appearance, and content. Some version of this can, after we agree on it, become the standard for basic info for each property. Dick 13:42, 26 October 2007 (CDT)
Primary and Secondary Sources
It occurs to me that an aspect of the nature of the content hasn't been fleshed out to my full understanding. As I understand our plan is to take the information gathered from sources such as the Archives and then convert that into a history for the contributing structure, NHL, NHLD, related structure, etcetera; which I think would be great. But my limited understanding of history is that such a thing is a "secondary source". My limited history studies suggest that primary sources (the actual research documents) are considered to be superior. So do we want to embed reference and links to the original material? For example after a statement supported by a piece of research should there be a link that takes the user to an image of the original article (or other bit of research?). What issues, copyright or otherwise, would this raise? It certainly seems to me that such inclusion would legitimize the project in the eyes of historical scholars. -Max
- Great point. I think (and I will find out this week) that the Archives database is more or less facts about the structures. Historic context will be ours to discover or link to -- for example, something that was built in 1917 would be linked to short articles on historic events of that year, and/or to info on architectural styles etc. I'm hoping that an element of the Archives' collaboration will be pointing us to at least some primary documents such as Newspaper articles or advertisements that may be germane to the properties in question (this probably applies much more to public buildings like offices, businesses, churches, mines, than homes). Another primary source that we will be able to use is the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps to provide historical spatial context (what was and was not present when the Building was built and/or in its heyday), as well as map outlines and facts about the original building, which may have changed over time (e.g. the map of my house shows that all the funny angles, and the front porch, are original elements, but the garage is not). The hard-copy Sanborn maps at the Archives for pre-1923 will have no copyright issues. There is an online library-access (Archives has it, I have it) for digital Sanborn maps from Butte, but those digital images are copyrighted. We can explore interacting with them for permission, or scan/photo the non-copyrighted hard copies. I was more or less saving that inquiry until we got the grant.
- But it's probably a great idea to include clear reference to these original sources in our work description. Thanks Max! Dick 14:32, 11 February 2007 (CST)
The original architectural inventories that were done have a little section where the researchers noted what their primary sources were. If they found the original builder's permit, for example, or found a newpaper article, they noted it right on the inventory form. But I think it would be really neat for people to be able to link directly to original documents, especially the ones where there are not copyright issues, such as the old newspapers, the building permits, whatever Ellen says we can use. Irene 16:49, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
- Agreed, for a certain number of cool original things - the only issue is how much time do we have, and bearing in mind the fact that our proposal does NOT include significant time and effort for digitizing existing stuff. I don't think that means we can't snap digital pix of this and that, but we just have to be circumspect since they made it very clear that they did not want to support a lot of digitizing. Cheers and thanks - Dick 19:53, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
Examples to Look To
Restoring Silver-Bow Creek
For a multi-layered but focused look at a particle phenomenon, however, the most compelling example of a really interactive experience was Todd's CD on the mining district and the clean-up ("Restoring Silver-Bow Creek"). I don't know enough about crafting a website to even know if the two media (website and CD) are even comparable -- but Todd crafted a really engaging CD. -- Andrea
Virtual Historic Savannah
The Savannah website is certainly loaded with information, but it wasn't particularly inviting, attractive, engaging.... or quick, for that matter. I don't think they gave their end users much thought. Just front-loaded in the data. I guess it helps to imagine the audience for this site. Serious researchers who don't want or appreciate a little "fluff" or mainstream America who needs to be entertained a bit more? Both? Savannah certainly delivered information. But I found myself not caring very much by the time the information was delivered. I certainly expected more from a city as amazing as Savannah. -- Andrea
