Wikipedia - Use It or Lose It

This week I am discussing Wikipedia. There is lots of debate in the academic world about the use of this site. One of the best discussions out there is this one “Debate over Wikipedia at Middlebury College”.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia) they report that several studies have been done about their reliability. The study by the journal Nature reported the site was up to the accuracy of Encyclopedia Britannica. They state while the site is open to editing all the editing is checked and vandalism is removed right away.

I looked at four entries having to do with Robeson County: Alice B. Russell Micheaux, African-American actress; Angus Wilton McLean, NC Governor; Malcom McLean, and the town of Maxton, NC.

I had never realized before that there was a tab for the history of revisions to the entry and also one for discussion about the entry.

The entries seemed factual until I studied Malcom McLean’s entry. It contained numerous errors that would have only been known by someone familiar with his life. I am planning on making corrections and will back up with primary and secondary sources that are in my files.

The entries for Micheaux and Malcom McLean are part of the WikiProject Biography. While the one for Angus Wilton McLean is part of the WikiProject North Carolina and

WikiProject U.S. Governors, the Maxton part of the WikiProject North Carolina and WikiProject North Carolina To-do.

In looking at the history of revisions Micheaux had not had any updates; the changes in Angus Wilton McLean and Maxton had been mostly to clean up and changed banners and the like. Malcom McLean’s entry has had several updates and changes and it appears that a lot of facts were changed that now make the entry not as useful.

So as with most things found on the internet you need to look closely at the sources and if in doubt never use.

Science Literacy Maps

FREE Webinar on Using
National Science Digital Library
Science Literacy Maps

Monday, October 29, 2012 from 4:00-5:30 p.m., EDT

Whether you work in a science center, planetarium, aquarium or zoo, community youth organization or a K-12 classroom, you are invited to attend a free online webinar designed to help you get the most out of the National Science Digital Library's Science Literacy Maps and the digital science learning that are linked to them.

Sign up for the Webinar today.

Online Exhibit Group Project

There are two words I dread hearing any time I take a class – group project. In high school, undergraduate and graduate school I would do anything possible to get out of doing a group project or either would take on the entire project only leaving small things for others to do in case they were not great to have on team. Well this will not be the case with the current group I am in made up of Sarah Beaver, Amanda Elzey, Andrew Pack, and myself.

At first it appeared that we were going to have problems when the remaining project to choose was not something anyone but me wanted to work on and we had to try and come up with something else. Dr. Cox suggested we look at the WBT/WBTV collection and see if anything there appealed to us.

We chose the WBT/WBTV Digitization Project: Women of the Year Award that will look at the Woman of the Year contest from 1955 to 1989. The project will make use of the WBT/WBTV collection in the Atkins Library archives. We hope to post photographs and profiles of select women from each decade and working to provide historical context to discover why they were chosen.

It was easy to see a clear division of labor with the project the four of us each took a decade to be our main focus there by allowing each person to be focused on a smaller group instead of one person trying to hand a big chunk.

If the project goes as smooth as the process for choosing a project and doing our contract has then we should have a great working relationship.

A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln

The online exhibit A House Divided: America in the Age ofLincoln is base on the book of the same title by Eric Foner and Olivia Mahoney. The exhibit is broken into the same sections as the book Lincoln’s America; Slavery; Slavery Debate; Impending Crisis; Civil War; War, Politics & Society; and Aftermath.

Each section of the exhibit has a great introduction section followed by the exhibit artifacts. For artifacts they did a great job of using 3-d objects, newspapers, photographs and other ephemera. Each artifact can be enlarged and includes a wonderful description. 

Overall the site is a great example of an online exhibit. I think that most age groups could enjoy the site and learn from it.

Omeka’s Contribution Plugin

I am looking forward to beginning to use Omeka to design online exhibits for my museum. This is a wonderful tool to bring our collections to the public.  One of the plugins that I think in my position that would be great is the Contribution plugin. This plug in allows visitors to the site to add their stories and images to the archive. While at first the thought of outsiders being allowed to add to the project might scare you off from this plugin there is a safety net in the form of the reCAPTCHA box that prevents spamming.

The plugin allows a lot of customizing to fit your needs as an institution. You can pre-select what types of items you will allow to be added. You can also set up the form with questions that you want the contributor to have to answer.

One exhibit I am wanting to do at the Robeson County History Museum is to use my personal post card collection and use this plugin to gather visitors’ memories and stories of the places portrayed on the postcards.

This seems like a perfect way to collect additional content for your collections and add to the experience for everyone.

How much Klout do you have?

According to the Klout website everyone has influence. In the past the people who had the most influence were people in the traditional media but social media has democratized influence.

The company started in 2008 to help you measure and leverage your influence. According to their website “Klout measures influence online using data from your social networks. Anywhere you have an online presence, you have the opportunity to influence people by creating or sharing content that inspires actions such as likes, retweets, comments and more. The more engagement your posts receive, the more influential you are. Klout uses this information to provide you a Klout Score that measures your overall influence.”

Why Study Digital History?

Posted by W. Caleb McDaniel on August 31, 2012 (full article)

Dr. McDaniel talks briefly about the fact that his graduate program did not have a digital aspect but that recently he had decided to learn about digital history. He stated four reasons for this change in attitude:

1. He realized that more and more primary sources are being digitized and it would be counterproductive not to make use of these readily available sources.

2.Even if he chose not to use computers and digital history all his peers writing on subjects that he was interested in and need to study were using them. He also felt that he must know how to use these sources to be able to teach his students how to use them effectively.

3.He spoke about how when he was working on his dissertation he used a printed map and drew the movements of American abolitionist Henry Clarke during his European tour. HE realized how much easier and beneficial this could be done now using GIS software.

4. Finally he found that working with digital history was fun and did not make him a nerd.

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

If you have not checked out the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center then you need to take a look at the digitization project. They work with cultural heritage institutions from the coast to the mountains to promote access to their collections. Their latest newsletter is here.