This is a sample of my work. Some of the projects were deliverables for courses in the UNC School of Information & Library Science master’s program. Other projects were created in other contexts.
Archives
- Like a Box of Chocolates: A Case Study of User-Contributed Content at Footnote
Awarded the 2012 Theodore Calvin Pease Award by the Society of American Archivists
Abstract:
User-contributed content has been suggested as a means of narrowing the gap between the level of description that resource-constrained repositories are able to provide and the level that users need or have come to expect. An examination of the experience of entities with large-scale online collections of cultural heritage materials that allow users to contribute content can provide valuable insight to other institutions that are considering doing so. This case study examines 183 users and 1,495 instances of user-contributed content at Footnote. The study identifies individuals with family connections as the largest group of contributors while annotations are the most common type of contribution. The data suggests that users’ are predominately interested in information about individuals. Additionally, the study reveals the existence of users who contribute a disproportionate number of annotations. The findings of the study also indicate issues of consistency, authenticity, and context with regard to user-contributed content.
- Archival Research & Instruction (Paper)
First paragraph:
Imagine you were taken to a desert island, given a treasure map, and a shovel. The first thing you would do is start digging. Right? Probably not. Unless you have an endless amount of time and energy (and a very good back), you would, undoubtedly, consult the map first, in order to find the most likely location of the treasure. Likewise, when we are looking for a particular item, i.e. treasure, in the Southern Historical Collection, we would not launch into boxes and folders of documents right off the bat. As with any form of
treasure hunt, there are steps to follow that increase our chances of finding our treasure in the quickest amount of time with the least of amount of effort. (Even using the tools at our disposal, we may find the amount of time and effort can still be considerable.) The first step is to define what it is we hope to find. The second step is to consult our map. The third step is to pinpoint a location at which to begin digging. The last step is, finally, to begin our digging.
Libraries
- The National Library of Wales (Paper)
First paragraph:
National institutions, such as the National Library of Wales, play a significant role in preserving Welsh heritage and culture. The creation of a national library is not a simple process. This is especially true in the case of the National Library of Wales. Its founders faced particular challenges related to the history and politics of the region as well as cultural bias and regional parochialism. That they succeeded in building a national institution with a Welsh perspective rather than one British in nature is remarkable, indeed. The National Library not only houses and provides access to invaluable manuscripts and print materials; it also serves as a lending library, a legal deposit repository, and the de facto archive for Wales. Additionally, during both World Wars, it served as the wartime safekeeper of invaluable materials from institutions throughout the United Kingdom. Today the Library utilizes Internet technology and shares some of its collections online through digitization.
- The Regulators (Pathfinder)
Genealogy
- Genealogists & DNA (Paper)
First Paragraph:
Genealogists have long been gathering information in order to find connections with ancestors and the past. They now have a futuristic tool to aid them in their information seeking, DNA testing. An article in The New York Times in April 2007 describes DNA seeking genealogists like this:
They swab the cheeks of strangers and pluck hairs from corpses. They travel hundreds of miles to entice their suspects with an old photograph, or sometimes a free drink. Cooperation is preferred, but not necessarily required to achieve their ends. If the amateur genealogists of the DNA era bear a certain resemblance to members of a “CSI” team, they make no apologies. Prompted by the advent of inexpensive genetic testing, they are tracing their family trees with a vengeance heretofore unknown (Harmon 2007).
Are genealogists really this enthusiastic? The purpose of this paper is to describe DNA testing for genealogical research purposes, how it relates to the information needs of genealogists and their existing information seeking habits. I will also attempt to assess the use of this technology by genealogists as well as discuss implications for professional practice.
- Mayer Genealogy (Website)
Other
- Summer Reading List (Readers’ Advisory)
- Courage Booktalk
- I Am the Messenger (YouTube Booktalk)
Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries, in a 1000 years, have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom. The men themselves were hid and inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced by etiquette; but the thought which they did not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the strangers of another age.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson