May 11, 2004
Digital Libraries, Connecting Disparate Physical Objects
The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative is a joint project of UCLA and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Essentially, the larger idea for the digital library is to amalgamate and collect under one umbrella the extant global tablets containing cuneiform for research and study. Because these objects exist in disparate physical locations, basic research and comparison for the past 150 years has been hampered. This entry looks at this effort at systematic digital documentation and electronic publication.
Essentially, the CDLI data set consists of text and image, combining document transliterations, glossaries, digitized originals and photo archives and operates on a global scale. Related projects are listed and the website uses an intuitive frame-based navigation system. Archival searching is also made possible through an extensive field-based search tool. The digital library itself brings together artifacts from diverse sources ranging from St. Petersburg to Paris to Berlin to USC to Iraq. Excellent here is the consideration taken in producing different size image/views for study.
Along with the actual archives themselves, separate sections exist devoted to 'education' and 'publications'. The website here again seems clearly focused and with a terse thought out presentation of information. Similarly, the publications section contains thought out digital library bulletin and digital library journal sections.
To generalize, while the digital library interface here is not stellar, it is a solid model that can be fairly easily adapted and built upon. The next stage involves innovations with regards to interface and multimedia possibilities.
May 5, 2004
Design, Digital Libraries, Online Exhibitions
Current academic digital library projects tend to collaborate between different entities to put together larger projects. This entry looks at "Extra Ordinary Every Day: The Bauhaus at the Busch-Reisinger", a physical exhibition and digital library collaboration currently at Harvard museums and libraries and built as a collaborative effort between Harvard University Art Museums, the Harvard University Library Collections and several design partners. By deconstructing and looking behind the veil of these digital projects, it is possible to think a little more deeply about digital library construction.
The exhibition description reads
Taking advantage of the electronic web environment, this installation combines mixed media, mobility, and linking to an online database. The objects are materially diverse, and whereas gallery spaces in the museum tend to create divisions between works often based on medium specificity or fragility, these objects coexist in a virtual space of exhibition. Furthermore, the electronic web environment facilitates the possibility of showing movies in connection with the objects in the museum’s collection, such as László Moholy-Nagy’s film Lightplay: Black White Gray of 1930. Finally, the installation is augmented by links to other works by the artists in the database that represents the collections of the Harvard University Art Museums. The links in the exhibition text in black send the visitor directly to the collections online, whereas the links highlighted in red connect to objects inside the virtual exhibition.
In other words, the microcosm of the digital library lead to the macrocosm of the Harvard libraries larger 'collections and holdings. In this way, the digital library acts as a marketing and outreach tool. Looking at the exhibition's credits, it is possible to see this as a collaboration of many voices: curators, librarians, web designers, programmers, communications and publications department people, photographers, archivists and academics.
Technically, the site is divided into a Dreamweaver front end giving a general 'exhibition text based overview' and a more focused 'flash-based' exhibition module'. The Dreamweaver html/database wrapper contains overviews on the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Specific "Library Study Room Resources", Archival Collection History of the Holdings", "List of Specific Artists with links to the Library/Museum Holdings and specific exhibition holdings in the larger library system including objects, images (objects/artists/descriptions/library location).
The focused 'Flash exhibition' (a virtual installation) highlights five Bauhaus objets d'art: lamp, chair, house, stage, auto. Through the microcosm of these objects, the larger 'story' of Bauhaus design ideology is revealed. Technically, the 'Flash' exhibition uses motion graphics in a very elegant (and Bauhaus-like) use of virtual space. Reflexively, form follows function to reveal Bauhaus ideology. The writing is minimalist. The larger choices together present a pointed description of Bauhaus.
To step back, the larger idea is that a digital library need not be a 'silo' or 'repository' based on volume but more of a marketing tool based on elegance and presentation. The 'image' contains the pointer to the larger physical and rigorous and scholarly 'Busch-Reisenger' archives. The physical world of libraries here are not replaced but augmented.