Creating faculty collaborations in digital collections

New developments in digital humanities allow for more successful dissemination of information. Today’s library patrons make use of the cumulative innovations to optimize their research. Many valuable tools can be synchronized by creative minds to aid in that endeavor. Innovations such as SobekCM facilitate the spread of information in organized and easily accessible forms. Open Access is the general socio-cultural push for the democratization of information. Advanced scanning technology, as well as word processing and image processing programs, allow for the integration of information in a comprehensible and aesthetically pleasing manner.
As the collection manager intern for the IR, over the last six months, I have been in charge of creating and organizing Dr. T.J. Walker’s collection, found at ufdc.ufl.edu/tjwalker. Given my academic background in the humanities, organizing a STEM professor’s 58 years of research material seemed a daunting task. Challenges, such as adopting a new scientific vocabulary, tracking down lost materials from decades ago, making sense of the material enough to make an organized and intuitive collection, researching rights statements and copyright permissions and heading a pilot program in this effort, were overcome by creatively using the technologies at hand. In my presentation, I would like to demonstrate the work so far, discuss these challenges and how they were overcome, generally gauge the interest people may have in viewing or creating such collections of an individual researcher’s materials, and gather any other feedback. If anyone is working on similar projects or would want any questions answered, they would be welcome to bring those up.