Author: Christina Noto

What is the link to the project?
http://daniellasnyder.sites.gettysburg.edu/maps_as_art/

Who created the project? Why did they create the project?
Daniella Snyder. She was a Mellon Fellow and created it to showcase her research.

Who is the audience for the project?
-Art Historians
-Historians
-Map Historians
-Special Collections
-Future DSSF Fellows
-Future Kolbe Fellows
-Professors
-Graduate Students
-Map Collections
-The Gettysburg College Community

What research question does the project appear to be asking? Is there a central thesis?
Daniella was looking to understand and analyze Willem Blaeu’s “Noca Totius Terrarum Geogrpahica ac Hydrographica Tabula” map A 1643 print, after a 1606 original. Her main question was “how can maps be pieces of art work?”.

How easy is the project to navigate and use? Is there an inviting home or front page?
The project is very easy to navigate. There is a navigation bar, a home page, and all of her scans are hyperlinked. If someone did not have much technological knowledge they would be able to navigate through this website. She even explains how to explore the website. I think the home page is very inviting. I wish the navigation bar was centered differently, but other than that, it is great!

Is the writing clear, succinct, and precise, or does it read like a traditional scholarly paper?
The writing is extremely strong. As Daniella analyzes the different aspects of the map, it becomes more scholarly because it uses specific art terms, but I think for her audience it is okay. She is very detailed but does not write too much. Each page and section of the Storymap is manageable.

Is there an About page, or other information page? Is there any technical information about the creation of the project?
There is an about page on the website. It explains who Daniella is, what a Mellon Grant is, some of the research she did and the people that assisted her during her work. She does discuss the digital tools that she used.

What kinds of digital assets are used? Is metadata available?
Daniella used scans of her map on her website. I did not find any metadata about the map.

What kinds of digital tools are used for the project? Why were they chosen?
Daniella used WordPress and StoryMapsJS. She does not have a section on her website explaining why she used each tool. I believe she used StoryMapsJS because it is very easy to annotate images.

What can you learn from this that you couldn’t from a traditional research paper?
This project allows users to interact with, visualize and understand  the map and the parallel images that the border is based on. This would be very hard to do with a paper especially if there were no images in the paper. I think this project is best as a DH project.

I really love this project and really enjoyed watching her create it. It has helped to inspire my project for this year. I hope to see more projects like this one!

Wow. Most of the content of this article went right over my head. I took a 300 level feminist theory course which had difficult readings, but this is especially tough. To truly understand this article I think it needs to be read very slowly, annotated, and read over again. I would really like to hear the authors speak about this. I would hope it would be easier to understand. I understand that Barnett, et al. want to break down different hierarchies, but they are writing in such a way that only certain people with great educations can understand. I think I would really benefit from the Cliff notes version of this. I want to be able to get on board with the idea, but I can’t if I don’t understand it.

What are the key features of this digital tool? How is this digital tool distinct from other ones similar to it?
As RC mentioned in our Mapping with Esri StoryMaps and StoryMapJS session, StorymapJS is PowerPoint like which helps to make the tool user friendly. A user does not need to know HTML or CMS to use the tool, but a basic coding understanding is required to embed other maps into it. Because maps can be embedded, the user can choose what type of map to annotate. For example one user may use a map from the 15th century while another may use a current map of the United States. Images and pictures can also be embedded into StoryMap making them very easy to annotate. On the down side, other aspects of StoryMap are not easily customizable and a Google log-in is required.
Other similar interactive mapping tools include: Esri StoryMaps, Fabula Maps, and Google Tour Builder. There are also some data visualization tools with maps which include Carto DB, ArcGIS and QGIS. In our session we worked with Esri StoryMaps as well. The tool has a default map that is not customizable and there is a 99 map point limit. Storymap JS on the other hand can have an unlimated number of points plotted on the map. Esri StoryMaps is a paid tool, making it more stable, but less accessible.

What kinds of research questions might this digital tool help you answer?
There are several different research questions that this digital tool can help to answer. By creating points on a map someone’s life, journey, trip, ect. can be shown. Paintings, photographs, lithographs, ect. can be annotated to help understand the imagery and symbols.

Is the digital tool free, or is there a cost to use it?
StoryMapJS is free but a Google log-in is required. There is no monetary cost, but because a Google log-in is required StoryMaps can collect the user’s data. I personally see issue with this, but some people do not have a problem with it.
What kinds of data/input does the tool require?
-Text
-Variety of images, audio, videos.
-Location
-TimelineJS and other similar tools can be emended.

Could you use this digital tool for your project? Why or why not?
Yes. I am planning on using this tool to annotate the lithograph on the cover of the sheet music I am analyzing. I believe StoryMapsJS is a great tool and I am really excited to start working with it more.

I have really enjoyed using the different Knight Labs tools— TimelineJS, StorymapJS, JuxtaposeJS and SoundciteJS. I like the fact that they are relatively user friendly, have a good user experience and can handle a lot of content. I also like that they are open source! I think the future should look more like Knight Lab opposed to Microsoft or Apple. I understand that money plays an important role in accessibility, but I think people should be able to have access to web based tools regardless of the economic status. My only frustration with these tools is that you need a Google log-in to access them.

I really enjoyed seeing and talking about the DH community! I think it is extremely powerful and helps others to create amazing projects and give others support that they might not have. At Gettysburg the 2016 cohort, the 2017 cohort, the working group and other members of the college are all there for me as I am completing my project. These recourses and people are easy to seek out. I think it is a bit more difficult, but my no means impossible to have a bigger community of practice. This can be credited to conferences like PaLA, the Slack Page and Twitter.

Now that I am a digital fellow I feel as though I am part of a larger community that is much bigger than Gettysburg. I think this is evident by that fact that we are able to ask questions on twitter and follow other important people in the digital world. At the conference I did not get the chance to talk with many people. Lauren and I both spoke to Laurie Allen and asked her a few questions. Other than that, I did not speak to many people face to face. I did on the other hand follow several people on twitter. This was made possible because of #dssf17 and #crdpala2017. I am now able to follow people that are active in the community, learn from them on twitter and ask them questions through the web if needed. I think having a hashtag is really helpful when trying to build a community.

I have been very active on twitter since our twitter session. I followed all the people that RC suggested to follow. I have also used #dssf17 and #dh a lot. I also try to tweet to the creators of the digital platforms that we are using. I think maintaining a community of practice takes work, but once that community is established, the people are there to help. I am going to try to be more active on Slack the next few weeks, I think Slack is very helpful if I wanted a quick detailed response.

I think it was very evident at PaLA that people are there to help each other. The conversations we had and the questions that were asked made this very clear. For example, some people wanted to learn how to make a digital fellowship so they listened closely to RC and Sarah speech. I think this community has to be present because people face many difficulties in the DH world. We need to be there to help each other succeed.

Title: Civil War Sheet Music Analysis (This will change. I need to come up with a more creative title)

Project Owner: Christina Noto

Summary:

I plan to analyze, contextualize, interpret, and compare two pieces of Civil War sheet music. I want to gain a better understanding of the use of music during the war. I will research the backgrounds of the composers, lyricist, artists and publishers. I will also research the lithographs on the cover of the sheet music. My guiding questions are why are these pieces significant and how did they impact the war effort? After the research phase of my project I plan to make a website possibly using WordPress and StoryMap JS or Omeka and Neatline. I will annotate the image and lyrics.

Bulleted list of deliverables:
• Primary Sources- Sheet music
• Secondary Sources- I have a few recommendations; I need to find more.
• Scanned copies of the sheet music.
• Understanding of Sites, WordPress, Scalar, Omeka, TimelineJS, StoryMap, Neatline, Zotero, Trillo
• Project Schedule
• Research Questions
• Mentors
• Research

Timeline for completion:

Week 3
Continue Research
Understand Music Terms
Answer research questions about the image
Look at more digital tools to potentially use

Week 4
Continue Research
Finish analyzing the image
Start analyzing the lyrics
Continue looking at potential tools, look more deeply into potential tools.

Week 5
Continue research
Finish analyzing the lyrics
Start writing
Get audio for project

Week 6
Continue writing
Start wire framing

Week 7
Finish writing
Start putting content on the website

Week 8
Wrap up all research and writing
Continue putting content on the web. Upload audio

Week 9
Work on website

Week 10
Finalize everything

End of life issues:

Ideally I would like to maintain the website, but after I graduate I think it will be difficult. I will make sure everything is a saved and I have access to make changes. If my project is extremely successful and valuable hopefully someone else will be able to maintained it after I leave. The sheet music collection has a lot of research potential- maybe a class will continue research. I really want people to continue learning from my work.

The task of defining digital scholarship and/or digital humanities is very similar to trying to define love, happiness or leadership. It is very hard to find one definition for DH or DS because like love, it means so many things to so many different people and it can look like so many different things. In our sessions this week we discussed what projects were considered DS and which weren’t. Sometimes we all agreed and other times we debated whether or not something was DS.

Is Wikipedia DS?

Is metadata DS?

The list goes on.

Instead of focusing on what is or isn’t DS/DH I think it is important to understand its values and how impacts scholarship. That being said, here is my definition:

Digital Scholarship is an umbrella term that encompasses all scholarship that is done digitally. It is about using digital tool to enhance scholarship making it accessible to people regardless of their background.

 Digital Humanities is very similar to digital scholarship, but instead it focuses on digital scholarship in the humanities.

I believe that DS and DH have great values. Amanda Visconti defines them very well in her piece A Digital Humanities What, Why, & How (DLF eResearch Network Talk). At times I believe these values are more like ideals, because some of the values cannot be completely achieved. When we discussed our DH values we, as a cohort, couldn’t all agree and I think that is reflective of the DS/DH community. Different people value different things.

I believe that DH should value many things including:

• Openness and Accessibility: People should have access to materials and should be able to contribute to scholarship regardless of their race, gender, class, socioeconomic status, etc. There shouldn’t be a price tag on scholarship or digital tools. (Note: I also realize that it if was not going to liberal arts college like Gettysburg, if I wasn’t encouraged my by parents to apply for this and if I needed to make more money of the summer I would not be able to participate in this fellowship or learn about DH. I have worked really hard to be here, but I also recognize my position of privilege that has gotten me here. As DS continues to value accessibility and breaks down the hierarchy, these conversations need to be had because the hierarchy still exists in some ways.).
• Collaboration- I believe that collaboration is extremely important. Having others to help you along the way from our cohort, the committee, to the DS twitter world and the DS Slack Page, community is essential to this work. I think valuing openness goes hand and hand with valuing community and collaboration.

Food for thought: I think everything is political whether it intends to be or not. These are a few questions I have:

Is DS/DH political? If so, in what ways?

In what ways can aspects of DS be considered political?

Is DS liberal or conservative?

Does DS happen to embody different liberal and/or conservative values, or is it intentional?

How do the people that make up the DS community impact the values of DS?

Maybe I am looking for a connection to politics that is nonexistent. My answers to some of these questions might be different from yours. Some of these questions might not have answers. I think our answers, and our feelings towards the questions I just posed are an outcome of how we as individuals define digital scholarship and how we see it impacting the world.

Christina Noto
My name is Christina Noto
And there’s a million things I haven’t done
But just you wait, just you wait

Hi my name is Christina and I am a rising junior at Gettysburg College. I am a History major and a Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies double minor. Last summer I was a Kolbe Fellow and created a digital project using Scalar about the experiences of Women at Gettysburg College from 1965-1975. You should check it out! HERE is the link!

This summer I will be analyzing a few pieces of sheet music from the Civil War Sheet Music collection. I will not only analyze the lyrics, but also the lithographs on the cover. My goal is to create a website that is both interactive and informative.