Collections Reading Response

The process of finding the sources and uploading it to Omeka proved to be not a simple task. Not only did you have to find primary sources but you also had to make sure that you described it correctly to the best of your ability and in a standard way. I learned this in more detail through the article, “Metadata: An Introduction” by JISC Digital Media. By doing that exercise, it not only help me to prepare for my project by having some sources but also have me think more deeply as to what sources I want to show my audience.

I knew that I wanted to collect newspaper articles, images, cartoons, government documents, etc. as my primary sources. With that in mind, I had to choose content that I believe not only described the historical event accurately but also was interesting to my target audience.

I chose cartoons, poems, newspaper articles, etc. that would prove this point. With these items I need to engage the audience in some way or at least tell them the history of the Great Irish Potato Famine from 1845 to around 1850. I also thought it would be interesting to show the impact of the Famine from various angles, for example. from London, America, African American newspapers, American Congress, Irish documents, etc. This will give my audience a chance to see what the public reaction was to the Famine.

I’ve noticed from the digital public history exhibit examples, that three out of five of the them had the user import artifacts related to their historical topic. The other two had them transcribe and/or tag the primary sources. I want to do something along those lines but I still need to narrow it down as to how and will it fit my historical topic. I’m still figuring out the best way to have my Omeka items interact with my audience, probably through some kind of plugin or basic idea, but I think that this is a great start.