#digitalarchives – Humanities Now!

Blog #1

The relationship between technology and digital archives is linear. As our society modernizes we turn to technology more than ever before. With that being said, our society is now the most efficient it has ever been. Digital artifacts is an example of how much more efficient our society is, in ways we probably never expected.

With one click we can see a variety of data presented in graphs, charts, tables and maps. Digital artifacts can draw conclusions in the form of visuals that physical words cannot. The variety of visuals “help us to perceive patterns in data that we might otherwise miss” (187). As Whitley says, “they challenge us to read texts differently than we otherwise would” (186). Digital artifacts open the door to a lot more than words can and ever will. Although Whitley addresses that some literature scholars may argue that words are considered data, cognitively words cannot conclude the same patterns that visuals can.

Digital artifacts have many advantages as they can reach a much larger population in a short amount of time. The accessibly is increased to anyone who is interested and has internet available. Those who are interested don’t have to travel to these physical artifact sights, they can simply find the information they need in a couple of clicks at most.

However this lowers the value of the physical artifact. The historical value is lost as all the information is taken from it and displayed for anyone interested online. I believe that as our society is advancing we are losing value in physical objects. Is this necessarily good or bad? I am not sure. I believe there should be some value in the physicality of objects and artifacts. Seeing the true artifact is rare and much more moving than seeing the same words typed in the same font online. The general population is starting to lose this attachment to physical objects because of the benefits and normality of having digital copies so accessible.

Having the same information, if not more, available online is much more efficient and productive. This shift towards digital value does shape our interests. There is a bigger focus on developing the skills needed with technology. There are computer sufficiency exams for many jobs and education programs as well as a push towards computer science and technology based skills. Because of the massive amount of jobs that need to be filled, the push towards these majors has increased. Years ago, computer science and digital humanities was not anywhere near the popularity it currently is. These areas of interest are constantly increasing as the need for them is growing.

There are many jobs available to continue to digitize our world. This can be seen as a disadvantage because of the amount of money it costs to change artifacts into accessible digital artifacts. It is an economic investment that will pay off in the long run. After exploring the Moravian Lives website as well as the Old Weather project, a similarity I found was that they both are crowdsourcing. This search for large groups of people to help with a project is an example of how the public is being asked to help modernize our world.

The opportunities that the use of digital artifacts brings to our society seem to outweigh the disadvantages. I believe we should continue to use the technological advantages to benefit us but to keep using printed sources for certain aspects of life.

Carly Pavoni

Carly Pavoni is from Fairfield, CT. She is a freshman at Bucknell University that is undeclared in the arts and sciences school. She is on the track and field team at Bucknell University.

Pros and Cons of Digital Text

The concept of creating a highly digital world is something that is very prevalent in society today. Personally, I believe that if these digital archives are created correctly they can be incredibly useful and elevate the efficiency in which people study, but the digital texts that we mainly use in school I find slightly aggravating. In school, from a personal experience, if the material is online it is simply a picture of the text. In this very scenario I will go to the library and print out the reading so I believe that today we still see majority of the resources on paper. I do however see a trend that is shifting with the waves of better technology. As time goes on more and more school will be done completely digitally providing easier access for students.

The advantages that come with creating digital artifacts are obvious. For one, the majority of people on the earth today own a smart device. A smart device is defined as an electrical gadget that will allow an individual to access the internet, surf the web, and connect with others. With the majority of text becoming digital and the overwhelming ownership of smart devices these digital texts become far more convenient for people to access than the actual written text. Furthermore, the more advanced digital archives allow a much easier way to dissect the information making studying easier and easier. If a digital archive is paired with some sort of visual analysis it allows the viewer to gain a broader understanding of the information before diving deeper into the real material. For this very reason I think that most school readings are done and distributed digitally. That being said, all digital readings I am given I will still print out because of personal preference While there are obvious positives, there are also some serious negatives. I personally find it much harder to retain information from a digital source than the physical text. While sifting through an actual book it is much easier take notes in the margins or even underline meaningful information. For those very reasons I still much prefer physical text to a digital version.

There is a lot of room for digital archives to grow and when they are perfected they will provide an efficient way of portraying information that hasn’t been seen before. The aspects of actual text that I find most useful are the abilities to take notes and highlight the important information. I understand that certain sites allow you to highlight the digital text but I still find it less than useful. If the archives kept a record of which pages you highlights it would make it much easier to go back and sift through the work you had done before much easier than archives I have accessed in the past. Another adjustment that I believe needs to be made is the use of margins. Today, we see a spaces underneath the test that allows you to take noted for the entire page, but with the actual text and a margin you can take notes directly next to the section of the reading you find important. With the addition of a visual component that provides a brief summary of the information and the ability to take clear concise notes on the digital texts I could see written texts becoming obsolete.

Clayton Wright

Clayton Wright is an economics major at Bucknell University. He transferred to Bucknell from Bowdoin College in 2017. Before college, he grew up in Summit NJ and attended The Pingry School.