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Technological Tools |
Carolyn L. Bowman UW MLIS Portfolio |
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Technological Tools I regard technology as an adjunct to human reasoning, with respect to how we gather, organize, retrieve, evaluate, and disseminate information. However, I harbored a skepticism about technology when I entered this graduate program; today I possess a deep respect for the tools technology provides. Most of my growing competence with technology was gained through hard work on my own. All the same, I owe a heartfelt thanks to the Technical Services gurus, and especially to Joshua Ayson, Grace Whiteaker, and Scott Barker. I could not have created the website described below without access to the technology and expertise provided by the iSchool. I conducted oral history interviews and collected photographs in order to create a website that begins to archive the history of the Laurelhurst Sailing Fleet. In the beginning, it did not occur to me to preserve artifacts online, let alone how it could be done. I knew nothing about oral history and I was skeptical (as is the oral historian with whom I consulted) about the long-term preservation of any body of work online. But my vision for the site was changed—shaped—through conversations with Fleet members. Eventually, I developed the concept of creating slide shows featuring photographs and audio clips from the interviews. The description below comes from the first journal entry for what I call the Laurelhurst Sailing Fleet Project: Several circumstances intersected during January 2005, such that I am involved in an oral history project with members of the Laurelhurst community…A friend of mine, Felix Moitoret, passed away in early January. My partner, Phil, and I spent many days sailing with Felix in the San Juan Islands, but Felix's relationship with sailing extends far beyond the archipelago. He was an expert sailor and builder of a wooden boat designed by Seattleite Ted Geary, called the Geary 18, or "Flattie." [Coincidentally], soon after Felix's death, members of the Laurelhurst community requested help gathering and organizing stories, pictures, and documents related to the neighborhood sailing fleet. The Flattie has been the most popular boat in the fleet since the 1930s. This project seemed a perfect way to honor one part of Felix's legacy; broaden my experiences related to sailing; learn about oral history by engaging in it; and last (but not least), participate in a wonderful project with a group of people who want to preserve the unrecorded memories of a dwindling generation of sailors. Ironically, technology is not mentioned in my summary, yet it became a significant component of the project for me. The LBC Sailing Fleet website truly reflects my vision and the creation of a substantial piece of work from the design stage onward. I interviewed five people, selecting them from recommendations given by Fleet members and decisions of my own regarding a desire to represent a variety of historical perspectives. I recorded approximately six hours of interviews with a digital recorder; indexed the interviews and extracted audio clips from them using a software program called GoldWave; created slide shows using Macromedia (now Adobe) Captivate; and loaded them onto a website. I presented a collection of slide shows to the Laurelhurst crew and the narrators at the end of October 2005 and unveiled the site at the end of December, on the 66th anniversary of the Fleet Charter. The Home page of the site describes the project and the layout of the site. My friend, Felix Moitoret, is featured on the Flatties page, with other inspirational characters. This project exceeded my expectations as a learning experience. Although it was a phenomenal amount of work for one person, I appreciated the opportunity to engage in all aspects—all levels—of a complex project. I gained perspective on each of the components of an endeavor that gathered and organized information, in addition to designing and creating something new. Along the way I experienced a steep learning curve and the project included several false starts:
Chris Erdmann provided web support for the project by setting up a host for the site, creating the navigational structure for the site (my design), and setting up a Blog and Photo Gallery. (I have not yet loaded the content into the Photo Gallery.) Chris chose to create the includes (header and footer) and navigation using PHP scripting language. With his help, I became familiar with PHP and its advantages. Future plans for the site include access to a database of Fleet race results, as well as various dynamic communication tools. The Laurelhurst crew was thrilled, expressing gratitude in emails I blush to recall. The goal, described on the Home page of the site, is for the project to continue with more interviews and artifact collection. I intend to remain involved with whoever takes this on in the future (perhaps another iSchool student!). I have provided CDs of the interviews to the narrators and to the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, as well as digital copies of all photographs, interviews, audio clips, and slide shows to the Laurelhurst Sailing Fleet. This project included a substantial academic component, described as part of my intellectual growth. <<back to Service<< >>go on to Intellectual Growth>>
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