2012 SNCA Annual Meeting
Kristen MerrymanSPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTER
Tractor Building and Tobacco Curing: Exposing Agricultural Collections
BACKGROUND
Cultivating a Revolution Digital Project
• 2 year LSTA funded project
• Digitizing agricultural innovation research at NCSU materials from 1950s-1970s
• Outputs:o 20,000-25,000 individual page scans from 15 archival collectionso 114 16mm films (14.5 hours) reformattedo K-12 Teacher Resources (Related Topic Essays and Lesson Plans)
• Online access at the folder level
• Materials are accessible at http://go.ncsu.edu/cultivatingarevolution
BACKGROUND
Cultivating a Revolution Digital Project
BACKGROUND
Cultivating a Revolution Digital Project
BACKGROUND
Cultivating a Revolution Digital Project
BACKGROUND
Goals of Outreach Efforts
Outreach not a primary grant goal – BUT!
• promote knowledge and use of project materials
• if people don't know the project and accessible materials exist - what's the point of digitizing them?
• Conversations with potential users influence how we provide access and what is included in the grant - flexible plan for material inclusion
• Strong effort to get word out in Year 1, so materials are already being used by Year 2 and before the end of the project
Challenges
• Materials being digitized aren't easily understood - scientific/research data heavyo We need to think differently about our
resources and how they can be used - how can students use them beyond paper writing
• Appealing to "non-traditional" userso Non-traditional = not a historian (esp.
not a social/political/economic historian)
o tend to be less invested because it is harder for them to see use cases - more effort on our part to get them to talk to us, nevermind discuss uses
OPPORTUNITY
NCSU is an Ag School, First and Foremost
Despite Challenges - Big Opportunities
METHOD
Potential Users• Sociologists• Agriculture people (faculty,
students, Alpha Zeta, student groups)
• Horticulturists• Weed Scientists
• Scientific Organization Historians
• History of science and technology
• Environmental Scientists and Students
METHOD
Internal and External Outreach
• Department colleagues
• Library/Institution colleagues
• Student employees
• Academic departments/faculty we have a relationship with already
• Special academic programs (Jefferson Scholars, Honors Program)
• Student Groups
METHOD
Capturing Interest
METHOD
• drop-ins are your friend!
• casual conversations work better than formal presentations
• have ready examples for how students and faculty can use your materials - either through projects or as research topics
• be able to bring up specific examples of materials to grab their interest
• bring along technology to show it off!
THE END
Conclusions
• Utilize people you already know (both internally at your institution and externally)
• Take advantage of programs that combine humanities and sciences
• Have casual conversations to create working relationships that will last
Kristen MerrymanDigital Project Librarian for Cultivating a Revolution
(919) 513-3359 [email protected]
