Real World Uses for Digital History

The three digital histories I chose to look at online included:


1. The Digital History projects of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln:
http://digitalhistory.unl.edu/


2. The Virginia Center for Digital History from the University of Virginia:
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/index.php?page=VCDH


3. The Pasadena Digital History Collaboration for the town of Pasadena, California:
http://pasadenadigitalhistory.com/about.php


These digital history sites all argue that their purpose is to educate both the public and scholars by giving access to certain historical information through the use of digital history. The Digital History site of UNL also gives its readers reviews and an opportunity to study the major online projects relating to digital histories online.


Another theme of these sites is the relevance of digital media at this time. The Virginia Center for Digital History claims that the "digital age" creates a need for resources to be available to a scholarly audience through "innovative applications of technology for digital history." The Pasadena Digital History Collection stresses the importance of being able to access vast amounts of information through one portal: their website.


These websites have different types of audiences. UVA's digital history page is structured for scholarly research, which may develop from their vast amounts of collections and their increasing need to open accessibility to the many scholars hoping to utilize their sources. UNL claims access for both researchers and the public (and their site is organized in such a way as to be helpful to both). The Pasadena site, however, seems to be set up generally for the public. I believe this is a result of their local study--the scope of their collection is quite small compared to the other two sites being surveyed.


All three of these sites are very authoritative on their subjects. UVA and UNL are institutions of higher learning and offer scholars and historians easy access to their sources. While the Pasadena collection is more directed to the public, it is a collaboration of all cultural institutions in Pasadena, CA. These local history focused organizations are reputable.


I read a few articles on the use of digital media to produce and present history, including a conversation by historians relating to the use and practicality of digital history as well as it's important qualities. One historian even claimed that now, scholars must struggle with abundance of resources, not scarcity. While I won't go so far as to agree whole-heartedly with this statement, my own work in researching digitized sources reveals a more abundant selection than I imagined.


Where digital history fails, articles agree, is in the amount of time and energy it takes to accurately present history via digital media. This is a slow process, slower than people in the "digital age" are used to and can hinder the quickness of pulling up a source from your own computer instead of traveling 1,000 miles to an archive for a few days. That being said, however, the sources that are digitized are such an amazing help and resource that the digitization process, in its infant stages, must continue.