Archive: 06/2011
Shape-Shifting and Sharing Data
When institutions archive data, they capture and organize it in digital formats that make the most sense to them, based upon their specific group of users, needs, and technical options that are available at a given point in time. But what happens if, for example, institutions decide that it makes sense to enhance their mission by their presenting data collections in less proprietary and broader contexts? How might they best pool and share data with institutional partners, including those who might choose to use or visualize it differently?
An article published earlier this month by FastCompany.com, suggests that a free software platform called “Recollection” currently under development by the Library of Congress, information architects, and a group of project partners, may make those goals more easily achievable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hTzID5HmGE
"Abstract Green," Clay animation, courtesy of mamshmam.
The Recollection project is expanding upon institutional options for the circulation and re-formatting of information. As a result, huge and previously unwieldy database content will not only become available but will also be customizable. Information found in one institution’s Excel spreadsheet could, for example, be extracted and re-presented by a partnering institution in the form of a map, an interactive timeline, or as a tag cloud.
As another recent report about Recollection noted, the project both respects local decisions about the best ways to organize and store data and allows it to be imported and translated into other formats and, as a result, to be accessed by new groups of users. To see a sample of how that works, click here.
Link Love: 6/24/2011
- Headed to DC soon? Leave your thoughts at the National Museum of American History’s TalkBack Board, and then whether you’re in the capital or elsewhere, tune into the NMAH’s Twitter feed for #TalkBackTuesdays, where they’ll feature the best questions and comments from the board.
- The Museum of Photographic Arts has just joined Flickr Commons, and their photos include some gorgeous shots, as well as a wide variety of portraits, landscapes, cityscapes, architectural images, and photojournalism.
- The Smithsonian’s Johnnetta Betsch Cole, writes about her experiences with race growing up in the South, as a cultural anthropologist, and now as the Director of the National Museum of African Art in honor of the upcoming exhibition, RACE: Are We So Different?
- A World War II mystery about a chilling Nazi photo album is solved in a matter of hours with the power of blogging and the social web [via Rachael Woody, Freer | Sackler Archives].
- Apparently, Man Ray’s signature has been hiding in plain sight in one of his self-portraits for years. Find out how a photographer recently discovered Man Ray’s mischievous and playful trick.
- The National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), gives insight into how careful conservation of Cornelis Verbeeck's 17th century wartime paintings, transformed the museum’s understanding of these works:
“Verbeeck's Battle: Restoring War in the Conservation Lab,” Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art and Art Babble.
Produced by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. For copyright questions, please see the Terms of Use.
