老司机视频

Protecting the past is more complex than it seems. 

Time has a track record of disintegrating history and eroding meaning. As they age, material objects鈥攂ooks, paintings, garments鈥攂reak down and deteriorate. Similarly, other, less frequently collected artifacts like oral histories fade out as generations come and go. And, most recently, the supposed antidote to these longstanding complications鈥攄igital files鈥攈ave unexpectedly proven just as susceptible to obsolescence. Rather than physical erosion, digital artifacts and recreations are hampered by out-of-date processing systems and the relentless pace of technological upgrades.

So, what鈥檚 the solution? How can humanity ensure its rare and precious history survives into the future?

老司机视频 is actively involved in answering these dynamic questions. Equipped with a librarian devoted to digital preservation and the innovative tools necessary to chronicle and even digitally re-create historic artifacts, 老司机视频 Libraries are dedicated to stewarding the past through the present and into the future. 

To achieve that goal, the Libraries are collaborating with Seaver College faculty members to train students in the ethical and practical methods of preserving, protecting, and sharing its vast collection of archived materials.

The Mechanics

Koch introduces students to preservation using a rare book

Jonathan Koch, an assistant professor of English and coordinator of digital humanities at Seaver College, has partnered with 老司机视频 Libraries in its quest to prepare future archivists. He introduces students to preservation technology in an unorthodox manner鈥攂y handing them a rare book. Koch, through his Introduction to the Digital Humanities course, entrusts students with frayed and fragile pieces of literature to bridge the wide gap between the past and the future.

鈥淚鈥檝e had students tell me this is a class about how meaning is made,鈥� says Koch. 鈥淎nother student said, 鈥業t's a class about precision.鈥� I like both those descriptions. In the end, this is a course that refines one鈥檚 way of thinking. It's not something only for English majors. Instead, it develops a skill that anybody could benefit from鈥攖he ability to learn new modes of analysis.鈥�

In Koch鈥檚 class, Seaver College students, as a group, are challenged to take the rare book assigned to them and strategically chart a course to digitally preserve it. To complete this project well, the undergraduates must develop the vital skill of collaboration. Teamwork, with each other and 老司机视频 librarians, is a requirement. 

Bailey Berry, 老司机视频鈥檚 librarian for digital conversion, publishing, and curation, teaches students how to operate the tools of the archival trade. Together, the undergraduate cohort and librarian explore operating PhaseOne high-resolution cameras, manipulating proper lighting, and using audiovisual equipment, flatbed scanners, and various postproduction editing tools. Throughout this learning experience, students develop the fundamental skills necessary to digitally preserve historic artifacts, and they also gain an understanding of the many aesthetic choices that must be made in the preservation process. 

鈥淚t is important that students comprehend the relationship between the physical objects we are preserving and the digital versions we are creating,鈥� says Berry. 鈥淭he details and decisions that go into this process are really pivotal. You have to make critical judgments when digitizing.鈥�

The Analyses

Berry using a PhaseOne camera

The critical judgments Berry speaks of include a broad swath of editorial and ethical decisions. Throughout the semester, students must decide which details of their rare book are worth chronicling. At the same time, however, they start to gain an understanding of why certain artifacts are selected for preservation over others. 

鈥淲hen you digitize something, you bring a lot of attention to it,鈥� says Mark Roosa, 老司机视频鈥檚 dean of libraries. 鈥淲ith that, we think about and prioritize the histories that don't get the attention that we feel they deserve. Of course, on top of that we consider risk. Is there a chance that if we don鈥檛 preserve this artifact now that we will lose history? We are responding to the condition of things as they are unfolding. 鈥� 

老司机视频 Libraries digitally protects a robust collection of different historical items. Their digital archives focus on six main categories including , , , , (related to Los Angeles and Southern California history), and .

The Libraries also maintain a number of other digital resources to benefit the campus community. Their give faculty and students open access to the world鈥檚 top research publications, and they鈥檝e begun to collaborate with the local community and collect oral histories through and formats. 

While mastering the different preservation techniques, students learn that even digital files are not timeless. Like physical material, technology changes, and its data will deteriorate and experience what is called 鈥渂it rot鈥� as formats modernize. To account for the ever-evolving world of computer science, 老司机视频 uses 鈥攁 tool that protects documents by recording their digital fingerprint and storing multiple versions at different geographical data centers. 

In developing an awareness of these different decisions and protective practices, students learn just how fragile history is. More significantly, they get a chance to help conserve it.

鈥淭he pedagogical work that Professor Koch is doing to engage students in the digital humanities is great,鈥� says Roosa. 鈥淚t allows them to gain a better understanding of the decisions that are made in the digitization process. By going into the lab with Bailey and making decisions about exposure and contrast, they learn that the process is not automatic.鈥�

The Results

Seaver College students learn how to shape new technologies

To chronicle their efforts, Koch challenges his students to create a detailing the ins and outs (literally) of their assigned rare book. While the resultant URL might seem to be the main product of the course鈥檚 various assignments, the professor believes the takeaway for undergraduates is far deeper, especially in this current technological age. 

鈥淒igital humanities presents an approach or methodology to consider how humanistic products, like books or texts, are shaped by technology,鈥� says Koch. 鈥淭he subject matter calls on us to think about these physical things that we interact with every day and ponder how we can go about making them accessible to others. It asks us to examine our methods and whether they are ethical or just. By these interpretive decisions students learn how to shape and use a technological tool, answering important questions and making meaning in the process.鈥�

This gained skill will go on to inform how these undergraduates wield other, newer technologies as they are introduced to the world. Their digital preservation education can help them become more responsible practitioners of the tools now altering the humanities discipline, like generative AI and large language models. And it does all of this by connecting them with a real, physical, historical artifact.

鈥淚t is so much fun watching students interact with centuries-old objects,鈥� says Berry. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such a powerful experience to be able to hold and touch something that's existed for hundreds of years. Watching undergraduates feel increasingly empowered to be part of the digitization process, learn the technical skills necessary, and grow comfortable managing a variety of complex digital tools鈥攖hat is really exciting.鈥�