Comments on: DH2009: Digital Curiosities and Amateur Collections

By: Gary Roberts

Gary Roberts — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:52:04 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree. Having recently retired from the library and archives field, I can safely say it’s a task of pulling people kicking and screaming into the real world. I’ve been blogging and running a website or two for a number of years, all focused on the topics of books and ephemera of early tools and trades. Tons of cross-linking, cross-commenting between bloggers, discussions in public forums, etc., serves to drive traffic up.

The tools are there, but too many institutions take an insular approach. “We serve our community” becomes a byword for not learning about how to utilize the social networking or blogging community. On a whole, I’ld say there is more information available now in the general community than there is in the restricted institutional realms.

True, institutions have to abide by rules, such as paying attention to their own particular mission. But in doing so, they often forget that part of their mission is often to attract attention to their collections and services.

All it takes is an internet connection.

Gary

By: Ben Brumfield

Ben Brumfield — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:57:37 +0000

I also enjoyed corresponding with Melissa, and can’t wait for her to share the results of her research. Many thanks to you, Jeanne, for writing up your notes. For a lot of us, this is the only way we’ll encounter this information.

By: Jon Williamson

Jon Williamson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:31:43 +0000

I just wanted to thank Melissa for her efforts, I enjoyed corresponding with her as she was conducting research.

Also, the scans on Flickr seem to be gaining momentum as the hit count now stands at 133,000 since reaching the 100,000 milestone just over a month ago.

Jon

P.S. Nice site!