Neatline: Facilitating Geospatial and Temporal Interpretation of Archival Collections

UVA Library seeks Level II Start-Up funding for the development of Neatline, a tool for the creation of interlinked timelines and maps as interpretive expressions of the literary or historical content of archival collections. Neatline promotes collaboration by libraries and cultural heritage institutions with scholarly end-users, who will build on standard EAD (Encoded Archival Description) metadata to produce geospatial and temporal visualizations of the textual content of cataloged letters and manuscripts. Neatline is a geo-temporal framework for fruitful interchange among scholars and the stewards of primary resources. It builds on robust, open standards and tools, including OpenLayers and SIMILE Timeline. The innovation of our approach lies in our dedication to providing a seamless, out-of-the-box experience for users without deep Web development skills. Neatline is a contribution to interpretive humanities scholarship in the visual vernacular

Using Data Visualisation to tell Stories about Collections

The paper explores visualisation of “big data” from digitised museum collections and archives, focusing on the relationship between data, visualisation and narrative. A contrast is presented between visualisations that show “just the data” and those that present the information in such a way as to tell a story using visual rhetorical devices; such devices have historically included trees, streams, chains, geometric shapes and other forms. The contrast is explored through historical examples and a survey of current practice. A discussion centred on visualising datasets from the British Library, Science Museum and Wellcome Library is used to outline key research questions

Thinking About Digital Archives: One Tool at a Time

This lesson plan introduces digital archives to an audience of students, faculty, and cultural heritage professionals through a locally-adaptable lesson kit that includes glossaries, links to sources, individual lessons, and a sample archive

Story Maps & Co. The state of the art of online narrative cartography

This article offers a comparative analysis of six applications for mapping narratives on the Internet. Based on the life story of a Rwandan refugee, three main families of cartographic applications were identified: simple applications that allow the user to map stories in a standard format (ex: Tripline and Google Tour Builder); more sophisticated applications directly linked to the world of GIS), which allow the user to tell various stories using maps but which also use maps as tools for spatial and temporal analyses (ex.: ESRI Story Maps, MapStory); finally, applications that are more research oriented using narratives as databases whose analyses can help us better understand the places, their personal and intimate geographies, and the structures of the narratives that refer to them (ex.: Atlascine et Neatline).Cet article propose une analyse comparative de six applications dédiées à la cartographie des récits sur Internet. À travers la mise en carte du récit de vie d’un réfugié rwandais, trois grandes familles d’applications cartographiques ont été identifiées : les applications simples permettant de représenter cartographiquement des histoires de manière uniformisée (par exemple, Tripline et Google Tour Builder) ; les applications plus sophistiquées et plus directement liées au monde des SIG permettant non seulement de raconter des histoires variées à l’aide de cartes, mais aussi d’utiliser la carte comme outil d’analyse spatiotemporelle des récits (par exemple, ESRI Story Maps et MapStory) ; enfin les applications plus orientées vers la recherche qui abordent les récits comme autant de bases de données dont l’analyse peut nous aider à mieux comprendre les lieux, leurs géographies intimes et personnelles, ainsi que la structure des récits qui s’y réfèrent (par exemple, Atlascine et Neatline).Este artículo analiza y compara tres tipos de aplicaciones para representar mediante mapas temáticos relatos en internet. Cartografiando las vivencias de un refugiado ruandés, se han analizado tres tipos de aplicaciones : las simples, que cartografían narrativas de manera uniforme (como Tripline o Google Tour Builder) ; las más sofisticadas que trabajan con sistemas de información geográfica, y que permiten, además de gerorreferenciar los relatos, y utilizar el mapa como un instrumento de análisis espaciotemporal (ESRI Story Maps ; MapStory) ; y finalmente aquellas aplicaciones orientadas hacia la investigación, que gestionan estos relatos como bases de datos para analizar y comprender mejor sus estructuras, los espacios, y las geografías más emocionales y personales (como Atlascine o Neatline)

Creating deep maps and spatial narratives through design

An interdisciplinary team of researchers were challenged to create a model of a deep map during a three-day charette at the NEH Institute on Spatial Narratives and Deep Maps. Through a reflexive process of ingesting data, probing for fruitful research questions, and considering how a deep map might be used by different audiences, we created a wireframe model of a deep map and explored how it related to spatial narratives. We explored the tension between interfaces for exploratory and structured views of data and sources, and devised a model for the intersections between spatial narratives and deep maps. The process of creating wireframes and prototype screens—and more importantly, the discussions and debates they initiated—helped us understand the complex requirements for deep maps and showed how a deep map can support a humanistic interpretation of the role of space in historical processes

Understanding value in digital humanities: a case study from a community oral history archive

This thesis investigates concepts of value and the ways in which it is assessed in the digital humanities. It does this by examining digital cultural heritage projects created by a community oral history archive. Pressures such as increased oversight, funding cuts and changing audience expectations make it necessary for digital humanists to demonstrate the value of their projects. While both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used, long-form qualitative approaches are rarely applied. My research makes an original contribution to the scholarly literature by using a long-form qualitative methodology (participant observation) to study digital projects in context, within the organisations in which they are created. By looking at the “behind the scenes” processes, I have constructed an account of value for my digital project work that concentrates on meaning rather than on measurement. This approach examines criteria such as distinctiveness, the ability to challenge expectations, usefulness, the contribution to fulfilment, whether the material is worth it for its own sake and the contribution that a project can make to public engagement. I argue that, rather than solely examining value through the actions of the end user, value also accrues through making, the process of creation. This thesis also examines the sensitivities and ethical conundrums that emerge when material collected from living subjects is disseminated online. Digital humanists generally endorse open access. In contrast, oral historians frequently adopt a curated approach to online dissemination (because of concerns about ethics and privacy). Drawing on empirical data collected during my digital practice, I argue that it is important to eschew dogmatic and binary positions (curated versus open), and instead adopt reflective approaches to the material that we disseminate online. The ethics debate in digital dissemination is not resolved or over, it part of a cycle of engagement that is nuanced, ongoing and relational

Digital Sport History: History and Practice

From the digitization of analogue physical materials, to the recovery of materials stored on early media formats like floppy disks, to the harvesting of web and social media platforms that document the hundreds of thousands of sports forums and events, sport historians of the future will certainly have to confront digital artifacts and platforms when they write sport history. The entry point for most sport historians to digital sport history is through the consumption of digital resources in the form of digital archives and digital libraries. Digitization has enabled the identification of sport history sources in far-flung locales through digital catalogues, finding aids, and digital repositories. Digital project demonstrations at annual meetings, born-digital publications enabled by editors of press series and flagship journals, and the inclusion of peer-review of digital projects without hesitancy would go a long way to moving digital sports history from the periphery to the mainstream of our scholarly practice

Visualizing Early American Captivity - Mapping and Graphing Narratives Published Between 1682-1800

This Interactive Qualifying Project used data visualization and mapping to interpret early American captivity narratives from the Evans TCP archive. Using Neatline we developed data point maps to help analyze the deeper context of captivity narratives and how their content was influenced by the time period. Excel was used to develop graphs that supports the data mapped and provided further analysis of the captivity narratives. This project aims to provide the scholarly community with a tool that will help them understand and contextualize the captivity narrative