Writers Respond to the John Jonson Collection
The first of this year’s releases of the John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera has just been announced.
The publication is a series of fourteen specially commissioned essays that respond to a diverse selection of items from the John Johnson Collection.
These concise and illuminating studies – which have been contributed by Rob Banham, Troy Bickham, Robert Colls, Simon Eliot, D. J. Taylor, Michael Twyman and Mariana Warner – are available in the John Johnson Collection alongside digital facsimile images of the items to which they relate.
The complete list of essays is accessible via a link on the John Johnson Collection home page or by clicking the Responses link in the toolbar that appears at the top of every screen in the John Johnson Collection.
New Content
Facsimile images of more than 13,700 items have been added to the John Johnson Collection with this release, bringing the total number of scanned items to 62,421 (a total of 167,356 images), including more than 19,700 pieces of theatrical and non-theatrical ephemera from the Nineteenth-Century Entertainment category and more than 9,500 items from the Booktrade category.
Over 10,900 Popular Prints are now available in facsimile form, along with more than 20,700 items from Advertising and over 1,400 from Crimes, Murders and Executions.
Future Developments: Enhanced Records for Crime, Murders and Execution
Of the five major categories of material included in The John Johnson Collection, the Crimes, Murders and Executions section is one of the most popular and most often consulted, providing documentary evidence which supports research in various aspects of social history.
The Bodleian Library and ProQuest are enhancing this material, with the help of JISC e-Content funding, by mapping individual records to the appropriate entries in a number of external online resources that contain references, citations or other related material, thereby offering users the scope to explore more easily themes and narratives encountered in the John Johnson Collection.
The project will guide researchers to other information directly related to their line of enquiry, and allow them to build connections or follow trails between different resources.
The resources that the project will link to are:
- Old Bailey Proceddings Online
- Harvard law School Library’s digitised broadside collection: Dying Speeches and Bloody Murders
- Newgate calendar
- Bodleian Library’s digitised catalogue of broadside ballads.
More information is available about the project on the JISC website for this project.
Alice in Wonderland’s adventures digitised
I recently blogged about the launch of the University of Exeter’s Digital Collections Online.
Some of the amazing images that were digitised and added to the repository demand to be highlighted in more depth.
With all the hype about Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland film, it seems appropriate to highlight the amazing collection of images that the archive holds on film and cinema (and the optical and visual more generally).
The image of Alice included in this piece, is taken from a box of slides that come originate in a Magic Lantern Collection.
This pre-cinematic invention used a series of slides that were projected onto a wall. Smallscale shows were put on by travelling lanternists using a candle to project the images.
Occassionally visual tricks were employed to engage and capture the audiences attention – not dissimilar to 
our ongoing fascination and the appeal of 3D at the movies!
But, the link between the past and present is not the only value of digitising and making these collections available online.
The collection held by Exeter is fascinating, not only for what it can tell us about the history of cinema and film; but also how the edges of each object and collection of objects touch upon, and overlap with other areas of study and research.
Many of the slide collections are incredibly rich resources for researchers and students looking not only at, for example, cinematic history, but also the subject matter and content of the images and objects themselves.
Magic lantern slides cover subject areas including, astrology and zoology offering a rare and primary source glimpse into Victorian culture and ideas.
The project has attempted to provide preliminary pathways through some of the content by creating ‘curated’ collections and e-learning packages centred around certain themes.
It seems this collection cannot help but cross new boundaries and inspire new ideas and avenues of thought.
Centre for Digital Excellence Captures Chaucer on Camera!
The Codex (Centre for Digital Excellence) project at the University of Manchester recently visited National Trust Petworth House in Sussex to digitise a medieval Chaucer manuscript.
The project aims to establish partnerships with museums, libraries and archive repositories throughout the region, and beyond, to develop and test collaborative models for digitisation.
This was the projects first visit to a collection to photograph and digitise a collection, and also gave the team at Petworth House a chance to ask the team questions and watch them work.
The event was captured by the BBC and includes an interesting piece of film with the curator at Petworth House.
Digital Collections Online is launched
Tuesday 16th March saw the launch of Exeter University’s Digital Collections Online.
Delivering images and digital objects from Exeter’s most prestigious research collections, including over 2000 images showcasing Victorian culture, openly available for teaching and research.
The website includes e-learning packages to help embed the collections use within the university’s teaching, learning and research.
Highlights of the collection include historic popular culture images from Queen Victoria to Alice in Wonderland.
The Launch was preceeded by a workshop on the Digital Futures of Special Collections.
Partly as a response to the Enriching Digital Resources programme, the workshop examined many of the issues Special Collections and Archives face in delivering digital resources to users in the twenty-first century and beyond.
Some of the themes that emerged from the presentations and discussions are worth sharing:
- Students don’t care where (physically) an object is stored: they simply want access, whenever they need it. Linked to this is:
- Objects must be easy to use and find: especially for students who will often take the path of least resistance in searching for content.
- The digital doesn’t replace the physical, instead it facilitates a dialogue between the object and its simulacra.
- Metadata is not dead, yet. Descriptions allow users to find the objects. But how do we overcome shortages of resources and expertise to enrich metadata?
- As much as possible content should be shared and set free. There are many challenges to this, but where possible this should be the norm, not the exception. This may also help answer the issue of enriching metadata.
- Sharing and opening up content is not a loss of authority or power… rather it is empowering others.
There were many others, some of which may inspire future blog posts, but these were the ones that stuck with me.
The workshop was collaborative and challenging as anything worthwhile should be, and it seems a fitting vehicle to launch a new online digital collection.
Pre-Raphaelites project wins award
The Pre-Raphaelites online resource has won the BETT Award for best digital collection and resource bank after being recognised as one of the UK’s leading educational websites.
Further details of the award can be found on the Birmingham City Council’s website.
This latest accolade follows earlier victories in the BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) and DADI (Drum Award for Digital Industries) Awards.
This continued acknowledgement of the websites design and usability helps highlight the importance of making these areas an integral part of a projects planning and execution.
Key features of the site include:
• full record information for each image
• zoom-in function, to allow users to examine images in great detail
• browse and advanced search
• background resources on the Pre-Raphaelite movement and artists
• exemplars of learning resources, such as “Gender and Sexuality”, as well as the facility for teachers to create their own
• personal collection, a functionality which allow users to group and theme images from the collection as well as take part in online discussions
The Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource was funded by the JISC Digitisation programme and created by the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
Opening up regional newspapers – 100,000 pages of new content added to 19th Century British Library Newspapers
An additional 100,000 pages of digitised newspaper content have now been added to the 19th-Century British Library Newspapers interface.
This is the first part of the second phase of JISC funding to add 1 million pages of new content to this unique resource in early 2010, published by Gale, part of Cengage Learning.
The initial 100,000 new pages of JISC content will include selected issues from the following 19th-Century Newspapers from around the UK, with a strong focus on regional newspapers.
- Blackburn Standard
- Bury and Norwich Post
- Bradford Observer
- Cheshire Observer
- Royal Cornwall Gazette
- Isle of Man Times
- Leicester Chronicle
- Nottinghamshire Guardian
- Sheffield Independent
- Dundee Courier 1845-1900
- Daily Gazette for Middlesborough
- Southampton Herald and Isle of Wight Gazette
- Huddersfield Chronicle
- Lancaster Gazetter
- The Essex Standard
- Isle of Wight Observer
- The Standard 1883-1900
The new pages added to the collection in December 2009 will be an exclusive preview available to UK Further and Higher Education institutions as part of the JISC licence agreement. Access to the newspapers remains via institutional gateways.
Victorians find themselves in Second Life!
Last week saw the launch of the Resurecting the Past Project from the University of Bristol.
The project has built a 3D model of the Pompeii Court from the Crystal Palace exhibition in the virtual world of Second Life.
The project aims to:
- to make accessible to the public knowledge of the Crystal Palace and its collections.
- to increase awareness of and stimulate research into the Crystal Palace and to broaden our understanding of the place and perception of Classics in the nineteenth century beyond the universities and museums by reconstructing the collection and display techniques of a private speculative enterprise that shaped and reflected mid century ideas of taste.
- through dissemination and evaluation of our project to stimulate new approaches to teaching & learning, to encourage dialogue between academic institutions and the wider community and to encourage the increasing use of digital technology within the Arts and Humanities to reach its full, interactive potential.
The project launched with a party in Second Life on Wednesday 16th December, and can be visited by following the link from the project webpages.
More details about the project can be found on the JISC webpages.
Learning Impact Awards Competition 2010
Don’t procrastinate! Submit your nominations now for the Learning Impact Awards and Recognition Program. Nominations for the 2010 Global Competition are due by 31 December 2009.
It’s easy to submit your nominations, just fill out the nomination form online.
The Learning Impact Awards (aka LIAs) recognize the use of technology to support and enhance learning, featuring the highest levels of innovation, adoption, and learning impact.
The LIA awards are unique in that they recognize the use of technology in context. Nominations include not only information about the technology, but how it is used by an implementing organization.
To find out more about the Learning Impact Awards and see previous winners visit the website.
Don’t forget to save the date for the Learning Impact Conference!
Join Us in Long Beach, California for Learning Impact 2010 and The Summit on Global Learning Challenges the 17-20 May 2010 at the Long Beach Hilton.
This 8th annual event again brings together the world’s leading architects, influencers, and users of learning technology to participate in program tracks focused on ascertaining the state of and trends in learning, technology, and standards.
The format will be a highly engaging combination of the Learning Impact Awards showcase and associated program tracks, executive keynotes and panels providing insights into the perspectives of key industry leaders, and workshops featuring demonstrations of the latest use of IMS standards.
Find out more at the Learning Impact Website.
Furer-Haimendorf Photographs Launch Event
Friday 30th October sees the launch of the Fürer-Haimendorf archive at the School of Oriental and Arfican Studies in London.
The day will includ
e a seminar, 10am-5pm, and an evening launch event from 5pm-7pm.
The photographs of Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf are the world’s most comprehensive picture of tribal cultures in the himalayas and naga hills in the mid-twentieth century.
With this launch, they will be available to everyone on the web.
The uses of these photographs in contemporary fieldwork and the significance of digital archives will be discussed at the semina
r.
More information about the launch of this amazing collection of photographs can be found on the SOAS website.
More details about the project and the 25 projects that make up the Enriching Digital Resources programme can be found on the JISC webiste.
Unlocking 20 years of independent radio news
In 1973 a group of Fleet Street journalists, with no experience of radio broadcasting, came together and set up the UK first “independent” (commercial) radio service, at the time the only alternative to the BBC, without quite knowing where this would take them.
Today, through the digitisation of the London Broadcasting Company/Independent Radio News (LBC/IRN) archive, members of the UK Higher and Further education sector have the chance to delve into 20 years (1973 – mid-1990s) of independent radio programming covering national and international news such as the Falklands war, the troubles in Northern Ireland, the years of Margaret Thatcher and the death of Princess Diana as well as feature programmes and audience phone-ins, a first of its kind at the time.
Leading up to the official launch of the LBC/IRN digitisation project, Sean Street, Director of the project, talks to Steve Allen, from LBC, (Steve discovers the LBC archive) about the early days of the LBC and how the team at the University of Bournemouth carried out this challenging project of preserving and making accessible a slice of our more contemporary history.
The LBC/IRN digitisation project was funded by the JISC Digitisation Programme.