As a Senior Digital Scholarship Fellow, I was thought I was well prepared to learn any new type of digital tool. I by no means would call myself a digital tool master, but I thought I was pretty capable of learning a new platform. So when R.C suggested I try to use Mukurtu as my digital platform, I thought to myself “I can totally do this” “It will be like learning WordPress and Scalar. Right?” I was WRONG, completely wrong. Learning Scalar was a walk in the park compared to Mukurtu. Learning Mukurtu is like a walk across No Man’s Land.
To give a visual representation, my Scalar dashboard looked something like this…
And my Mukurtu dashboard looks something like this
My research has also been incredibly frustrating. I have been able to identify some of the people in the photographs but these identifications have often lead to dead ends. I really want to use these photographs to tell a story. Specifically a story through the Indigenous lens. Although Dickinson’s resource center has been incredibly helpful, there is only so much an online archive can do. Additionally, most the information available and saved are from the perspective of school administrators, not the students themselves.
Although both Mukurtu and my research have been a confusing and frustrating, my confusion and frustrations have taught me a valuable lesson on research and failure. I find myself comparing my DSSF 2017 experience to my DSSF 2016 experience when I shouldn’t. Last year I chose a project that Special Collections could easily pull material for and I chose a platform that people were familiar with. This year, I chose a topic that Special Collections did not have a lot of information about and a platform that no one knows how to use. Comparing my two summer experiences is like comparing apples and oranges. Instead of beating myself up, I should remind myself that I am simply learning and growing as a scholar. Research takes time, a lot of time. My frustrations over dead ends and my failures show that I care deeply about my research. While failure is frustrating, it is also the biggest motivator to research and work harder. Failure is okay. You might not be able to build a castle in 10 weeks but you sure can make a log cabin.
Best Wishes,
Keira