Christine Parker

TEI Workshop at Brown University

Christine Parker — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:27:31 +0000

This past week I was able to attend “Introduction to Contextual Encoding with TEI” – a 3 day workshop held at Brown University through the Women Writer’s Project. The workshop was taught by Julia Flanders and Syd Bauman, and it covered some of the basics of TEI and XML along with specific strategies for encoding context using the language.

Before going I had introductory knowledge of XML but no TEI experience. After the first day alone I was amazed with everything I was learning and hungry for more. I knew that you could mark up texts online and that TEI was created for that purpose. But I had no idea the level of granularity TEI is capable of – most especially in regards to representing manuscripts or other unique primary source materials online. You can represent the text, the ideas, and even the document itself! It’s possible to mark where a translation or reading might be in dispute, or where the handwriting is unclear. You can create your own “facets” through interpretive keywords, or taxonomies of classification. “Personographies” (prosopographies) can let you specify individuals in a text and then specify as much or as little information about them as desired – including relationships with other people. One of the most powerful abilities in TEI seems to be the ability to link any element to any other via various attributes and thus add layers of meaning and context to the TEI document that outside programs can later extract and analyze.

I was very impressed with what I learned at the workshop and definitely hope to be able to attend another in the future. Brown offers a large range of TEI classes from beginner to advanced, check out the schedule at www.wwp.brown.edu/outreach/seminars/ to see a list of upcoming sessions. I have to add that Julia and Syd are great instructors and are great at communicating complex ideas in understandable terms!

THATCamp New York 2012

Christine Parker — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:14:56 +0000

This weekend I attended THATCamp New York, a digital humanities “unconference” held at Fordham University. Never having attended a THATCamp I didn’t quite know what to expect. I arrived Saturday morning (there were also events Friday night that I was unable to attend) and was greeted by coffee, friendly faces, and a roomful of people on their laptops. I was in heaven. The day was organized by people voting on session ideas that were either suggeted on the camp blog beforehand or thought of last minute on the day of. Then the schedule was made and we were off! I attended everything from a JSTOR workshop on their Data for Research tool, to mapping tools, to my own “Omeka for Rare Books” session. The idea of THATCamp is that everyone participates, and running a session was a lot of fun! I met lots of great people, exhanged business cards and ideas, and learned about a lot of great tools out there. I will definitely plan to attend a future THATCamp when it comes around again!

SAA 2012: Beyond Borders

Christine Parker — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 04:08:08 +0000

I attended my first professional conference this year in San Diego, and boy am I jealous of the weather in California!
I arrived midday on Wednesday and was able to stay through to the end Saturday afternoon. The list of choices for sessions to attend was a bit overwhelming at first – but after an amazing keynote speech by Jon Voss of HistoryPin I knew I wanted to learn as much as possible about linked open data and digital technologies in the archive. The panels I was able to listen to were great and I took as many notes as possible. Mostly I furiously scribbled down acronyms and URLs so that I could look them up later. There was certainly a wealth of information to be had for a graduate student like myself.

I was also a poster presenter along with my classmate Justin Mancini. We presented on our 709 Capstone Project – Digitizing Don Quixote (see the tab above for more details on the site). This was such a wonderful experience because it gave us a chance to network, meet new professionals, and get a chance to talk about topics dear to our heart with like-minded folks. We chatted away about the Queens College rare book collection, Omeka, and interactive digital access. We exchanged business cards and were engaged enough that I temporarily forgot about the amazing-man-I-wish-I-had-one-of-those-super-cool book scanners about 10 feet away from us in the exhibit hall.

The trip to SAA 2012 was more than worth it, and I can’t wait for New Orleans 2013. It’s experiences like this that get me really excited for my unfolding career in archives, and I’m ready for the new academic year with a renewed sense of purpose – go archives!

Blogitty Blog

Christine Parker — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:25:16 +0000

Well, now that I’ve started one I suppose that means I should figure out what it is I want to use this blog for! I’ve resisted joining the blog community for a number of years. Mostly I think I’m just confused on what the purpose is. It makes sense if you’re an organization or a larger entity – in that case there are things you want to communicate to others about your group and the blog is a perfect method to push out news content. But for an individual like myself? I’m sure no one cares one way or the other if I sat in traffic for hours today or if I brushed my teeth this morning (we’re not face to face after all). So I don’t intend to make this my online diary. Diaries are meant to be private anyways – or are they? It’s interesting that one of the most useful materials for research once it ends up in an archive is the diary. It is the day to day experiences of people, ordinary rather than extraordinary, that record history in a meaningful way. After all, we don’t want the historical record to include only the actions of big-wigs and superstars do we? We need it to be inclusive of a plurality of voices, and most people just don’t leave evidence of what they do on purpose because they don’t think anyone could possibly be interested. Maybe blogs can counteract this. The medium can empower people to think, “well I don’t know if anyone would be interested in what I have to say… but who cares?!” I’m in the “privacy” of my own home writing to who-knows-who because I can. I can write a diary, or use it to speak out about issues I care about – or I can just type zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for an entire page and laugh at my own absurdity. Oh the power!!! In the end it’s probably more important that I just add my voice to the stream, whatever it is I end up saying, because who knows? Maybe one day a researcher of modern history, hyped up on five cups of coffee and poring through pages and pages of content will stumble upon my words. He or she will stop, re-read the last sentence over again. Their eyes will grow wide and the breath will catch. AH HA! This is it!!! The missing piece of the puzzle that sheds a light on the history of people in the 21st century!

Or maybe not.

Hello world!

Christine Parker — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 04:30:00 +0000

This is my first-ever blog post. I guess I’m published now! Hello to all who have found my page. As my blog title will tell you I am a lover of libraries, as evidenced by my chosen field of study. I am also studying archives and special collections at Queens College. I look forward to conversing with the wide world out there via the blogosphere!