[1] From: David Green <david@ninch.org> (42)
Subject: AHDS Draft Report: "Scholars' Information Requirements
in a Digital Age"
[2] From: Jim Coleman <jwciii@sulmail.stanford.edu> (45)
Subject: New Web Site Devoted to History of Science
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 14:51:21 -0500
From: David Green <david@ninch.org>
Subject: AHDS Draft Report: "Scholars' Information Requirements
in a Digital Age"
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
September 22, 1998
AHDS DRAFT REPORT: SCHOLARS INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS IN A DIGITAL AGE
<http://ahds.ac.uk/public/uneeds/un0.html>
>Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 13:48:03 EDT
>>From: Nbeagrie@aol.com
>
>Scholars' Information Requirements in a Digital Age
>
>=====================================
>Apologies for cross posting
>
>This report results from a broadly consultative, year-long investigation
>into how to encourage scholars to make more and better use of digital
>resources and information technologies in their research and teaching.
>
>Though focusing in particular on the needs of arts and humanities scholars
>within UK universities and colleges, its conclusions and its strategic and
>policy recommendations will be of interest to in library, heritage,
>archives, and schools sectors whether working in the UK or elsewhere.
>
>Comments on the consultation draft are welcomed and should be sent to the
>editors at info@ahds.ac.uk Those comments received by 31 October 1998 will
>be considered when the report is revised for final publication in November.
>
>
>The report is part of the AHDS's "Managing Digital Collections"
>publication series which deals with strategic issues of interest to those
>who develop, manage, and encourage use of digital scholarly and heritage
>collections. Other titles include:
>
* "A Strategic Policy Framework for Creating and Preserving Digital
Collections"
* "Discovering Online Resources Across the Humanities. A Practical
Implementation of the Dublin Core"
>
>All titles in the series are available from
>http://ahds.ac.uk/manage/manintro.html
>
>
>Daniel Greenstein, Director
>Arts and Humanities Data Service
>
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:39:58 -0700
From: Jim Coleman <jwciii@sulmail.stanford.edu>
Subject: New Web Site Devoted to History of Science
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE MAKING
The Internet is becoming an ever more important resource for scholars and
students. Although many faculty members make increasing use of the World
Wide Web for teaching, it is less frequently used for primary research.
Science and Technology in the Making (STIM), a project supported by a
two-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, experiments with
exactly that: historical research over the Internet. The participating
primary investigators from Stanford, UCLA, MIT, Brown, and UC Berkeley
ence and technology) are interested in finding out if, and
to what degree, Web-mediated scholarship is possible. Tim Lenoir, Professor
of History, organized the original grant. Stanford University Libraries
provide project coordination, and editorial and technical support.
STIM uses the Web and network technology to develop innovative approaches
for investigating and documenting recent events in science and technology.
The five sites are devoted to the history of the mouse, theNew York
blackouts in the '60s and '70s), the making of PCR, the Boston Artery
Project (Big Dig), and Electronic Vehicles. The main goal of the five STIM
projects and their associated Web sites is to use the interactive
capabilities of the Internet to gather survey information and personal
histories, encourage dialogue among the makers of history, and provide an
(inter-)active archive in which focus groups are invited to contribute
material. The "In the Making" part of STIM 's title is a result of the
fact that major players in STIM projects are still alive and serving as
active creators and participants. Their contributions in the form of
stories, artifacts, and written accounts are part of the history presented
on the Web sites. According to Lenoir, this leads historians "to multiply
the perspectives of contemporary history and engage the community who made
the technology in a collaboration to write their own history." Thus, the
traditionally silent subjects of a historical study become personally
involved in the writing of their community's history.
Each project team is building an online archive to make "core" material
such as journal articles, archival documents, and government publications
available in electronic, hyper-linked formats. For instance, the Big Dig
site employs a unique bibliography of key documents in the history of the
Boston Central Artery/Tunnel project. Those documents are also linked to a
chronology of events that helps contributors recall the sequence of events.
Project coordinators are also taking special care to index the archives so
that they are searchable in the same ways as other library collections.
STIM is expected to contribute to Stanford's various and
multi-institutional attempts at defining the role of computing in the
humanities. The project will conclude with an international invitational
conference to be held next year at Stanford. If you would like to learn
more about STIM, visit the Web at http://sloan.stanford.edu, or contact Jim
Coleman (jim.coleman@stanford.edu).
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Humanist Discussion Group
Information at <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
=========================================================================