The Past's Digital Presence, February 19-20, 2010
18 - How-To Digital Humanities: "Camera, laptop, and what else?: Hacking Better Tools for the Short Archival Trip"
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-20-2010
Abstract
This talk examines the finer points of doing archival research with the aid of a digital camera, drawing on my experience with these methods at about 15 archival repositories across the US. Here, I focus on my work with the papers of the US Children’s Bureau, a large (1400 cubic foot) collection held by the National Archives, which holds important primary sources about American women’s history. First, I discuss some practical details of hardware and procedure for shooting research-quality photos of archival materials. Second, I describe the techniques and tools I’ve found useful for organizing my research images, both at the library and away from it, and I explore some of the challenges I think historians face in using commercially-available software tools to organize our research. Finally, I propose some ideas for future software–desktop, cloud-based, and social— that could make this style of work less frustrating and open new avenues for creative, collaborative research.
Recommended Citation
Landrum, Shane, "18 - How-To Digital Humanities: "Camera, laptop, and what else?: Hacking Better Tools for the Short Archival Trip"" (2010). The Past's Digital Presence, February 19-20, 2010. 19.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/beinecke_pdp/19
This Article is Open Access