Elevator Speeches

I love the term “elevator speech.” The idea of being in an elevator with a stranger and having to talk to them sounds like so much fun! I love talking to strangers (and friends). I guess that is my extroverted self! The following are scenarios that are actually possible .

It’s the start of the fall semester and you’re early for a class. Your professor is already in the classroom. They make small talk and ask how your summer went.

My summer was really great. I spent it here, at Gettysburg, in the Library. I was a Digital Scholarship Summer Fellow. The fellowship consisted of 6 students and a cohort of several people in the library who helped us and taught us how to use different tools. The goal of my project was to research sheet music during the Civil War and presents it digitally. I research the song Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!. I looked at the cover, researched the composer, and did other background research. I really enjoyed learning more about the Civil War and the implications of music. Then I created a website that showcased my research. For example the sheet music cover has five vignettes on it. Each image has a caption and the caption is a song that composer of my piece, George Frederick Root, wrote. With the digital tool that I used, you can click on each one of the images to learn more about the cover. It is really interactive. If you would like to look at my website here is the link.

A librarian from another school is visiting Musselman Library and you happen to be studying on the Main floor; a member of the digital scholarship committee introduces you both and you find out quickly that the librarian is really excited about digital scholarship work.

Last summer I really learned a lot about digital scholarship and digital humanities. I am really excited to see how the field will progress over the next few years. My project looked at the song Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!. I researched the cover, researched the composer, and did other background research. I really enjoyed learning more about the Civil War and the implications of music. I used WordPress as the platform of my website. I then used Storymaps JS to annotate the sheet music cover. I also used TimelineJS to create a timeline that would help to provide context to the song. I believe that because I presented my work digitally, it can be more easily understood by others. If you would like to see my project, here is the link. It was so nice meeting you! I would love to continue this conversation and hear about your work with digital scholarship.