This session looks at how we make transitions work for us rather than becoming moments of failure in archival and digital history work. Donors and communities rarely share the same expectations of a relationship with an institutional partner as an archivist, a scholar or project designer. After the project starts, we start to see that the words we use actually mean different things. “Preserve” can equate to a sense that an artifact will be permanently displayed. “Create access” can suggest that physical objects should be loaned out for community events. Donors may interpret deviation from their own perspectives to be a betrayal of the promise to “tell the story” of a community.

These mismatches are teaching moments, even opportunities for reconciliation between social groups in a community, as well as between community people and those of heritage institutions. Professionals and scholars engaged in documentary projects with non-academics who help us to preserve, create access to and tell the stories of a community’s past need to be resilient enough for handling difficult discussions with our partners. Only through those conversations can we find agreement about our common vocabulary and how to put it into practice.

Bring your stories of how your projects have earned trust or missed opportunities because critical connections were not made, as well as what you have learned about deciding when to sunset or dramatically revise a community project. What conversations and skills can make that an honorable process?

Proposed by Haven Hawley, who has experience working in a community museum and with ethnic archives, and who is currently chair of Special and Area Studies Collections at UF.

Do you want to create a digital collection of 3D objects? Statues, vases, coins, inscriptions, or anything else you may want to study professionally?

This workshop will demonstrate live 3D scanning using 5 of the state-of-the-art 3D scanners (by Artec3D, Occipital, Microsoft, Autodesk, and Cyberware) and play with real examples of 3D printed objects. The workshop will answer the following questions:

• How can I scan in 3D for free or with low budget?
• What type of 3D scanner should I use?
• How to disseminate my 3D collection on-line as an open-access digital collection?
• How to print in 3D my scanned objects with low budget?
• What type of 3D printer should I use and what parameters should I choose?

You will play with the 3D scanners and learn how to use them and play with several 3D printed objects to understand the differences between the various 3D scanning and 3D printing technologies.

In August of 2013, the UF George A Smathers Libraries received a $325,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to digitize 100,000 pages of historic newspapers. The UF libraries are working in conjunction with the library system at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a program created from a partnership between the NEH and the Library of Congress. As part of our participation in the program we are digitizing newspapers from both Florida and Puerto Rico that were published between 1836 and 1922. With this session I hope to inform you of what the project entails, the overall process, as well as update you on our progress thus far.

Every time I work on an online exhibit, it seems that a timeline would enhance the content and sometimes could even cover the entire exhibit.  An interactive timeline would be even better.  In this session, we look at a variety of timeline applications available online, some free, some not, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each, and consider different ways timelines can be used in or as online exhibits and as tools for course assignments.  Applications will include, but not be limited to, Tiki-Toki, Dipity, Capzles, and MyHistro.

Have you wondered about how successful DH grant-seeking is achieved? It begins with conversations about what we have in terms of resources, what we have done in the past, and what we want to do in the future. “Sharing experiences through stories is emerging ….as a powerful way to exchange and consolidate knowledge.” (Storytelling in organizations, Deborah Sole, 2002) Join us for a Talk session to explore the birthing of collaborative grant-seeking projects awarded to the Smathers Libraries and its partners. We also will brainstorm possible projects that might be hidden among session participants, and talk about the first steps to turn these project ideas into competitive proposals.

As librarians who work with digital scholarship, particularly undergraduate and graduate Theses and Dissertations and other items that find their home in Institutional Repositories, we understand that the landscape of the content is changing. Our “Talk” session is envisioned as a conversation between scholars and those who help make projects, research, and supporting materials available in a digital world. What kinds of materials, and in what formats, should we seek to support?

While our initial conversation topic was sparked by the needs of undergraduate and graduate students as they work on their theses, dissertations and other requirements for graduation, we recognize this conversation has broader impact in the digital humanities community. What technologies and solutions should we be looking at – what are the problems (current and upcoming) faced by scholars that we could help address?

-Submitted by Christy Shorey and Sarah Norris

Omeka continues to be a popular content management platform for scholars, libraries, and museums interested in displaying digital objects or content. Its flexibility and search features make it attractive to a range of users with various interests.

This session aims to discuss Omeka as a tool and the types of plug-ins, for example, it contains.  It also aims to examine a few applied cases, such as  Digital Archiving Resources, Florida Memory, and Samsula Historical Archive, where it has been used successfully in and outside the classroom, and to better understand its limitations and possibilities.