Digital. Digital. Digital.
We have the pleasure of presenting another issue of Practical Technology for Archives that is full of great information on dealing with our digital content.
Allison O’Dell, “Using Swipebox to Create a Side-Swipeable Image Gallery for Finding Aids”, writes about giving users digital content in a format they have become accustomed to: swipeable images. Swipebox lets you present your images, or scanned text, in a gallery that people can swipe through on their phones or touch-screen computers. Ms O’Dell’s article explains how she implemented it.
Citing the high cost and other barriers to creating true 3D scans of three-dimensional objects Monish Singh gives us an alternative in “Creating 360 Degree Objects for Marist Archives Using Open source Technology”. Using JQuery Reel he takes a file of 36 images, taken at 10° intervals around the object, and presents it a quasi-three-dimensional image that users can rotate to view at any angle. This is a relatively low-cost and simple way to let researchers examine three-dimensional object without handling it, or even journeying to the archives.
Erin Wolfe, in “Creating a Large-Scale Digital Exhibit on a Small-Scale Budget”, gives us some insight into how the Dole Archives was able to digitize over 12,000 pages of documents and provide a flexible interface that works well for phones, tablets, and desktop computers.
In “’Exploring’ CollectiveAccess at the American Alpine Club Library”, Elizabeth Surles explains how the American Alpine Club Library implemented the free, open source content management system, CollectiveAccess.
I hope you will find these articles as informative and exciting as I did.
Looking forward to our next issue, Issue no.6, which will mark the end of our third year of publication, I admit I am feeling like a bit of a Luddite. I would really like to see some articles addressing the physical side of processing. So if you have a particular technique you use to process collections, why not share it with others who might find it helpful. This is the platform for it. Of course we are also looking for more articles on the digital side of things, so submit those, as well. The official call for proposals for Issue no.6 will go out in February 2016, but feel free to send in a proposal at any time.
All the Best,
Randall Miles
Managing Editor
Practical Technology for Archives 