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As a graduate student in public history with a professional interest in archival management, it was a privilege to manage the digitization of a select portion of the John R. Hickman Collection. Based on my two-month experience, I created guidelines for other graduate students in history who might find themselves engaged in similar initiatives. While these suggestions are based upon my specific work with audio digitization, they are applicable to other projects as well.

• Cultivate relationships with professionals outside the history department. Simply stated, without the expertise of archives, library science, information technology or audio technology plus helpful input from copyright law, the John R. Hickman Digital Collection project would not exist. History graduate students should look outside the traditional history realm for inspiration and support for digital initiatives.

• Be directly involved. Historians must actively participate in all facets of the project, even if other experts provide technical skills. From a practical perspective, the digital project must be consistent in terms of overall theme and messaging so it is imperative the historian coordinates the effort. These initiatives also serve as tremendous learning experiences where historians can soak up information necessary to more knowledgeably plan future digital initiatives.

• Find a champion. As a graduate student, it helps to cultivate the support of faculty or staff to further the project along. It was crucial for me to have the assistance of the American University head archivist to initially secure necessary permissions to move forward with this initiative and champion this project as needed while underway. Using her name to garner other assistance during the effort didn’t hurt either!

• Don’t hesitate to ask foolish questions, but do your homework. As much of the technology involved in the digitization effort was unfamiliar to me, I made mistakes or initially provided incorrect direction. I tried to rectify this by reading as much as I could. For instance, I brushed up on standards for digitizing audio to acquire a basic understanding of ideal formats and speeds for digitization. I still asked what might be considered silly questions of my technical experts, but having a small amount of knowledge was nevertheless helpful.

• Develop an expanded vocabulary. I rapidly acquired new terminology relevant to the technical processes of building a web site and digitizing audio and the archival management/library science processes of working with metadata. I incorporated this new vocabulary as quickly as possible since it made providing instructions or asking questions of experts working with me much easier.

• Be politely persistent and appropriately grateful. Engaging the participation of so many individuals was one of the biggest challenges and opportunities with this project. Historians must rely on other experts for assistance instead of conducting all the work themselves. As a graduate student, it is difficult and uncomfortable to clarify what seem to be basic technical issues, but often necessary to ensure the success of the endeavor. Frequently the individuals that you are working with also have limited time and many other priorities besides helping you. If you are brushed aside, be politely persistent. Also remember to thank these individuals for their time, skills, and assistance. Most people appreciate being recognized for their effort and generally are much more willing to assist when appropriately recognized.

• Budget wisely. As a technical novice and graduate student juggling other classes and projects, I learned to allow extra time for each phase of the project. When engaging in a digital endeavor, expect to encounter technical hurdles that you must determine how to troubleshoot, equipment problems that you need to resolve, and time to get up to speed on technology.

• Remember this is still a history project. Although historians must engage other disciplines to create a successful outcome, history should remain at the core of the initiative. At times, I wore several hats (archivist, audio tech, IT staffer, librarian) and needed to remind myself to keep the historian’s perspective top of mind. As the site’s chief purpose is to serve as a digital repository, I did not develop a particular historical argument. However, I inserted a historian’s perspective where possible. For instance, I was very conscious of the fact that the reels are cultural resources, representative of a particular time and place. Equally important, since this is a test project, I decided which reels should be digitized, choosing news clips discussing noteworthy events, such as President Roosevelt’s famous declaration of war speech from December 8, 1941. In addition, I though about the historian’s needs as a researcher, wanting the metadata to be presented clearly and coherently with minimal technical information about the audio/digitization process and ample background on the overall collection itself.

Recently, I led a test project to digitize a select portion of the John R. Hickman Collection, housed at American University Archives and Special Collections. Donated in 1994, the Hickman Collection consists of more than 10,000 broadcast quality audio recordings of vintage radio news and entertainment programs, from the 1920s through the 1970s. It contains reel-to-reel tapes, metal and vinyl discs, electronic transcripts from studio masters, wax cylinders, and books. The Hickman Collection includes a wide variety of entertainment programs, including comedies, detective shows, dramas, mysteries, quiz shows, soap operas, talk shows, and westerns. The collection also boasts historic radio news broadcasts and commentary from such notable broadcasters as Edward R. Murrow, H.V. Kaltenborn, Robert (Bob) Trout, Mary Margaret McBride, Robert Baukhage, and Fulton Lewis Jr.

I first encountered the collection during the spring of 2005 when, during my part-time work at the American University Archives, I began taking inventory of the reel-to-reel tapes and building databases with metadata about the news programs and some of the classic series, such as Cavalcade of America, Gunsmoke, and The Lone Ranger. At the start of 2006, however, none of the collection had been digitized or even recently played, offering a significant opportunity for a history graduate student like me to work with an untapped collection. For my “Digital History” project, therefore, I sought to combine my archival and historical interests, experience with the Hickman Collection, and personal enjoyment of vintage radio programming to kick-start the effort to digitize reel-to-reel tapes in the collection.

American University is part of the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) and WRLC already boasts more than a dozen digital collections, each of which has its own website, allowing users access to the digital material. Nearly all of these collections, however, are visual collections, including digitized letters and other documents, photographs, and cartoons. There is currently one collection featuring audio interviews, but none with radio programming. My specific objective therefore was to create an online WRLC repository for the Hickman Collection, digitizing ten hours of tape for this test project.

While managing this two-month effort, I glimpsed the future role of the historian in the digital realm. Unlike a basic term paper in which a student independently conducts research and writes her analysis and conclusions, digitizing the Hickman Collection provided a very tangible sense of how historians must work fluidly with other disciplines and professions in order to create relevant and meaningful scholarship using technology. Prior to this experience, I had some technical background, such as working knowledge of computers and familiarity with the Windows environment, and basic skills, like scanning images. The scope of the Hickman Collection project, however, gave me an entirely new understanding of technology and the inter-connections of the historian with IT specialists, audio experts, catalogue librarians, law professors, and archivists.

Phase One: Audio Digitization
After securing permission to proceed from the American University Library Archives and WRLC, the next and, perhaps most important, step was to find a way to play the reels and transfer the data. This involved approaching American University’s Audio Technology Department to secure access to equipment to digitize the reels and find student assistance to help with the effort. Thankfully, the Audio Tech Department was only too happy to assist, as its current students rarely (if ever) have an opportunity to use the analog equipment required for the digital conversion process. One of the Audio Tech professors explained to me that letting his students work with analog technology was akin to allowing an auto enthusiast to peer under the hood of a Model T!

With a designated audio technology student as my constant mentor and guide, we jumped into the project. For the audio digitization effort, we used a Digidesign Digi002 analog to digital converter and a NAGRA reel-to-reel tape player (also used on movie sets in the past) as capture devices plus Pro Tools version 6.9 audio software as the capture software. We captured the audio as 24-bit, 96 kHz uncompressed WAV files, which were subsequently bounced to MP3s at 128 kps using Toast. While we planned to stream the audio online using MP3s, we are keeping the WAV master files on the server for archival posterity. Overall, despite a few hurdles, the audio digitization process was relatively smooth. Since we could not play the reels in the Hickman Collection without this newfound equipment, I found that relying on the information listed on existing labels on the reels was one of the biggest challenges. While this information generally turned out to be valid, a reel labeled “John Kennedy Inauguration Address” that I wanted to digitize inexplicably turned out to be a short clip of bluegrass music instead. In addition, I learned that several of the reels had previously been stored incorrectly, we needed to affix leader tape to each reel in order to not cut off any of the audio while feeding it into the NAGRA machine, and it takes approximately two minutes to digitize every minute of audio.

During this phase of the process, I needed to select which of the hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes in the collection to digitize. After discussion with the head archivist at American University, I chose eleven news programs and nine entertainment programs to provide a balanced reflection of the collection. They range in length from approximately fifteen minutes to more than forty-five minutes, totaling approximately ten hours overall. Mindful of the needs of future researchers who might use the collection, I sought news clips of historic importance with notable commentators from multiple time periods. Since the majority of the most noteworthy news clips in the collection are from World War II, however, my digitization project reflects this constraint including news coverage literally an hour after Pearl Harbor was bombed, early reports from D-Day, commentary from President Roosevelt’s funeral, President Truman’s speech on V-E Day and live reports from the Pacific on V-J Day. We also digitized Marian Anderson’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 and episodes from two popular radio shows — Cavalcade of America, which recounted stories of U.S. history, and Biographies in Sound, which related the life stories of famous Americans through clips of voices from their lives – as the Hickman Collection houses a significant number of episodes of each.

Phase Two: Metadata
Although I had been collecting and recording metadata about the reels in the Hickman Collection for nearly one year, I had not planned to digitize the collection and build a web site with WRLC when I started working in the archives. Therefore, once I had to think about presenting metadata to researchers online, my approach changed. For instance, I needed to consult Dublin Core elements to plan the appropriate metadata fields, add subject fields to allow users to search and browse by the names of important events or people referenced in a specific broadcast, and include technical information about each audio clip, both the original analog format and the new digital one.

These additional steps created new challenges. The head archivist recommended only using Library of Congress Authorized Subject Headings for the subject fields, but I learned that this pool of headings is not as comprehensive as I assumed it would be. For example, several of the news programs are from the Mutual Broadcast Network (which is no longer in operation), the NBC Blue Network (today’s NBC) or the NBC Red Network (today’s ABC), but the Library of Congress has no headings for any of these stations. Therefore, I included the network name in the description field, which users may search by key word. My boss and I also disagreed with WRLC about how much of the metadata to show to actual users of the site. For instance, WRLC consulted with a catalogue librarian who insisted we have a field for language although every item in the collection is recorded in English. From the historian’s perspective, I believe that is extraneous information, cluttering the screen and making it more difficult for a researcher to find the information he or she needs on the web page. However, WRLC agreed not to include metadata on the web site that lists all of the technical specifications for the capture process, illustrating the art of compromise in this type of project.

Phase Three: Web Component
Once we finished the audio digitization and built a new Access database to list the metadata, I needed to upload the WAV, MP3 and Access files to WRLC’s server. As I was previously unfamiliar with FTPing and needed to use a Mac in the Audio Tech Department for digitization and a PC in the archives to create the metadata file, I spent about one week educating myself and evaluating different FTP program options for Macs versus PCs. While the library’s IT staff ultimately installed an FTP program on my PC, we downloaded a free trial of Fetch on the Mac. Prior to FTPing the metadata, I converted it from Access to XML, requiring me to repeatedly correct errors in the metadata that occurred during the conversion process.

As WRLC has other digital collections, there already is a customized web publishing system set up that I was able to tap into, learn about, and ultimately work with thanks to the help of WRLC’s very patient IT personnel. Two IT contacts at WRLC moved the metadata and audio files to the Digital Object Catalog or DOC, a DSpace repository to manage and preserve the files, and then imported them to Greenstone in XHTML. However, after this initial configuration, I’ve been able to make all changes, imports and updates in DOC templates, which then are automatically uploaded onto the site. I also drafted all text for the site and created the banner image in Photoshop.

Although WRLC’s digital collections boast a similar look and feel, I insisted on several unique navigation components for the John R. Hickman Digital Collection. This includes dividing the clips into two series, news and entertainment, with entertainment further broken down by program. In addition, the entire site is searchable by keyword and browseable by title, subject, date, person, and series.

Historian as Coordinator
Although I am a graduate student and a part-time employee in the American University Archives, my boss has a great deal of confidence in me and provided permission to lead the Hickman Collection digitization test project. Hence I coordinated and actively participated in all phases of the effort, secured support from other departments at American and WRLC, and provided regular status updates to the head archivist. If there was a problem that needed addressing, I handled the situation, from the most mundane, such as securing a spare key to the audio studio where the digitization took place, to the complicated, including obtaining permission for Mac server space and resolving issues with FTP programs and XML conversion. In addition, during the project, I consulted with a law professor at the Washington College of Law who was already familiar with the Hickman Collection about potential copyright issues. His input was especially helpful in determining whether to allow only the WRLC community or the general public to access the audio clips at this time. Metaphorically, I felt like the conductor of a potentially disparate symphony, always ensuring that I effectively wove together various sections of my little orchestra.

Summing It All Up
Overall, I believe the John R. Hickman Digital Collection test project meets my expectations for the semester. Although I began planning for this project in late February/early March, several steps required more time than I originally anticipated, such as FTPing uncompressed WAV files which actually took longer to upload than the length of the actual audio clips. However, I am overjoyed that we were able to digitize so many reels and create a clean, navigable site that will be of use to historians and radio enthusiasts even as a test initiative. This type of archival online repository spans both academic and public history. Classic radio programming is an important audio resource that may be used by social or cultural historians, but simultaneously appeals to members of the general public with an interest in old-time radio.

Unfortunately, this intensive effort only digitized a minute fraction of the entire John R. Hickman Collection. Under ideal conditions, I would arrange for the entire collection to be digitized, providing researchers and enthusiasts with access to hundreds of vintage radio programs. Perhaps this test project will serve to garner grant funding to a allow for a larger-scale digitization effort.

However, I would even love to be able to just listen to all of the reels in the collection myself, determine if the labels on them are accurate, and then evaluate if the episodes in the collection are particularly unique in the world of radio. For instance, less than sixty of the 1928-29 syndication recordings of the now controversial show Amos ‘n’ Andy are known to survive, and even fewer episodes have surfaced from the show’s 1929-43 network run. According to unconfirmed labels on the reels, the Hickman Collection boasts three reels from Amos ‘n’ Andy’s 1928-29 syndicated season and one, possibly, two reels, from the 1929-1943 period. Similarly, Bing Crosby starred in more than 300 Kraft Music Shows during World War II, but complete recordings of most of the hour-long broadcasts did not survive the War. In 1971 NBC donated its entire collection of radio recordings to the Library of Congress including just six Kraft shows aired prior to 1944. A few NBC affiliates recorded some of the wartime Kraft broadcasts, and their recordings serve as the source of the few early shows that currently circulate. However, the Hickman Collection boasts one original reel believed to include a 1943 episode.

Currently, the John R. Hickman Digital Collection resides on a test server with plans to migrate it to a production server and make it accessible to the WRLC community shortly. As a next step, I plan to engage in copyright research at the Library of Congress this summer to determine if the site may be opened to the general public. In addition, the head archivist and I are going to use Dreamweaver to add pages to the site to simply list metadata about the other news programs we have in the collection, and then perhaps create similar lists of the other Biographies in Sound and Cavalcade of America programs. Based on the results of the copyright research, more select digitization may commence in the fall semester as well.

Here is the link to my project - the John R. Hickman Digital Collection.

Roy Rosenzweig’s article on Wikipedia and its place in the digital history realm was intriguing. His comparisons between Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias were enlightening as I would have thought Wikipedia entries would have been chock full of errors. And the fact that vandalism happens less often than one might expect surprised me. Most significantly, however, I thought it was very telling that because “experts carefully vetted” content on Wikipedia’s “predecessor” Nupedia, it only published 20 articles in its first year and a half of existence. That’s miniscule compared to Wikipedia whose format encourages just about anybody and everybody to contribute. After reading about the phenomenon of Wikipedia and its lack of association with professional historians, I believe historians will only analyze Wikipedia from a distance as a digital, cultural or social event in history rather than become active collaborators on the site.

My personal Wikipedia entry edits were minor, but I think they were important. As an undergrad I read a number of published diaries, letters, and memoirs by U.S. Army officers’ wives on the post-Civil War American frontier. On the page about Elizabeth Bacon Custer, widow of George Armstrong Custer and author of three memoirs of her life with him, I noticed the entry referred to her as both “Libby” and “Libbie.” As I think it’s important to be historically accurate (and consistent) about the spelling of her nickname, I changed all of the references to Libbie.

While low on graphics and visuals, Pepys’ Diary (http://www.pepysdiary.com/) is a clever way to share material culture for historians and the public. And it’s very helpful to link to more background within the diary entries. However, I thought this was a verbatim digitization of his actual diary at first. I was glad that the project manager noted: “It should therefore be remembered that this is not Pepys’ diary as he wrote it, but a 19th century transcription which has in turn been used to create an electronic version.” After reviewing portions of History Carnival, this approach of using a blog to showcase a historical diary appears to be more popular than I realized.

I had no idea that History Carnival (http://historycarnival.blogsome.com/) even existed! I love the idea that each “issue” is created by a different contributor and looks different in addition to hosting a new topic each time. It’s interesting that the site is so upfront about the parameters for who can submit a blog for possible inclusion. For example, there is no formal definition of “historian,” enthusiasts as well as academics are welcome, giving this site a very welcoming and open feeling not usual found in the academic world. Like Wikipedia however, the major downfall of this approach though is the trustworthiness of the information shared. While a blog might look “credible,” can visitors accept the analysis as valid? However, the site appears fairly stricter about topics for inclusion. For instance, only blogs that tie current controversies to analysis of past events will be included.

Blogosphere (http://clioweb.org/blogosphere/) included an intriguing section on academic blogging that talked about the various arguments for and against it such as the potential for stealing a historian’s work or acting as a deterrent against theft. One article (http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/emn/index.php/archives/2005/09/so-why-would-i-champion-academic-blogging/) talked about the benefits of blogs, sharing research ideas and the sense of community when one blogger said nice things about another’s site. However, given that the history blogging world is still small relative to the entire academy, will this sense of camaraderie evaporate when more historians actively engage in the digital realm? Or will early history bloggers abandon their blogs when it becomes more commonplace to do it? I’m not sure what the answer is, but thinking about other technology trends, it’s possible. For instance, Apple/Mac users consider themselves an elite and special group, but now that Apple has revolutionized music with the iPod, has it turned off some of its diehards by becoming too mainstream? In addition, I thought about acceptable behavior in today’s history blogging world and how that might change as the concept grows in popularity. Not to criminalize traditionalists, but are early adopters of technology more inclined to try to promote community and advance the use of blogging technology by behaving nicely and not pilfering from the research of fellow historians? Will it become easier to “borrow” from another historian’s work when so much more of it is available online in draft form?

This week’s reading was very informative and extremely relevant to my semester project which involves digitizing vintage radio broadcasts currently stored on reel-to-reel tapes. Rosenzweig and Cohen state that “multimedia historians will probably spend a great deal more time fretting about legal issues than their text-based counterparts” and this certainly seems true from my perspective. I already have a number of questions for Peter Jaszi. For instance, while American University already has production copyright for many of the tapes in the collection I am working with, it does not own all copyrights nor can it authorize permission to cite from these sources. In addition, I understand that some radio programs have multiple copyrights, such as production, writing, etc. Given this situation, my digital archive will be housed on a test server at first and I plan to research copyrights for the recordings at the Library of Congress this summer in order to share the collection with the general public. However, if the situation does not work out as I hope, I’d like to see what Peter Jaszi thinks of some of our alternatives. For instance, could we include short excerpts of recordings where copyright is uncertain? Or only allow the American University community to access all or part of the recordings? On the bright side, it is possible to successfully create a digital archive with audio. Within the consortium, UDC features a web site with a digital collection of sound recordings of full-length interviews.

The discussion of orphan works also addresses a potential fear of mine involving my planned copyright research this summer. What if I cannot locate the copyright holder or his or her estate? It’s also possible that a syndicate may own copyright to some of the radio programs that I have recordings of. How does that impact the situation? Finally, what if the copyright holder is located, but simply does not respond to requests regarding copyright and permission to use the materials? What happens then?

Completely separately, I was astounded to learn in the readings that Corbis and other companies are selling images that researchers may obtain for free from institutions like the Library of Congress. I guess I should not be surprised at companies trying to take advantage of historians or others who might be unaware that royalty free versions of the same images exist, but it seems so cut throat.

The site I selected is the Natural History Museum in London that I simply stumbled across one day.  There is a very eye-catching and colorful frog that sits on the main page with his legs trailing down.  I like it because the site is peppered with information and resources but is not so busy that users do not know where to visit first.  The sections of the site are color coded - a very practical approach to navigation (ex: the kids only section is purple while the visit us section is red).  As the museum is targeting the general public, its site is clearly designed to appeal to a broad audience and does not have flash or other more sophisticated graphics built-in which some users might not be able to view. 

For this week’s readings on web design principles, I really liked Cohen and Rosenzweig’s discussion of control of a web page versus a book. Designers clearly grapple with such challenges as how a site looks in different browsers, whether a user has Flash or broadband access, and the limitations of software packages like Greenstone with overall design capabilities. During this semester, I’ve found significant differences with viewing our class web site on my Safari web browser on my Mac at home versus viewing the site on the PCs at AU with Internet Explorer. For example, I cannot insert a hyperlink or make text bold or italicized at home as those options do not appear on the screen with Safari. Instead of displaying this particular tool bar, the section of the screen is blank.

I also appreciated Cohen and Rosenzweig’s paraphrasing of the old adage that one must first learn to crawl and walk before one learns how to run. In some ways, I feel like I’m back in primary school learning about Dreamweaver and basic tools of web design. This has not been easy as a grad student. For instance, how can I convey compelling historic arguments if my technology skills lag far behind my current reading, research, writing, and comprehension skills? However, the readings and class discussion have offered reassurance that I do not need to be a computer science major, professional web designer or even the most technically savvy person to work effectively as a historian in the digital world.

As Josh notes, the historian can serve as a bricoleur, pulling together a digital project using various resources as long as he or she has a sound background in the fundamentals or basic rules of thumb for history web sites. For instance, for my class project, I’m working with AU’s Audio Technology department to use their equipment, software, and expertise for digitizing reel to reels. I’m also working with contacts within the library system who have already used Greenstone to create archival collections web sites and will benefit tremendously from their guidance and experience. While coordinating with these groups, however, I already have an understanding of what elements work and what does not online, and am keeping the needs of the historian foremost in mind regarding site structure, navigation, and design.

Separately, I also found the section on accessibility and Section 508 compliance to be an interesting parallel to class reading in my public history practicum this semester. We often read about federal regulations regarding physical accessibility for museums and historic houses. If a museum cannot adequately adapt its physical environment for the disabled, it must provide a legitimate alternative experience. The Tenement Museum in New York leverages the Web for this purpose as it could not reconstruct its interior to accommodate some physically disabled visitors. As a result, there is a fairly decent audio tour with slide show with 360 degree viewing capabilities on the museum’s web site. I had never thought, however, about maximizing accessibility to information on the Web in a similar fashion to maximizing accessibility to buildings.

For my semester project, I propose a digital audio/archival web site initiative, which relates to my professional interests in archival management. During my part-time work at the American University Archives and Special Collections, I have been cataloging the John R. Hickman Collection, which includes thousands of hours of radio programming from the 1920s through the 1970s. The programming includes major news events, such as D-Day and the funeral of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and entertainment, including musical performances and classic radio series like Gunsmoke and The Lone Ranger. Hickman, an on-air personality and producer at what is now WAMU, donated these materials to American and the majority of the collection is housed on seven and fifteen-inch audio reels. Currently, the collection may only be played on twenty to forty year old audio equipment, such as Otari or NAGRA reel-to-reel machines, making it almost completely inaccessible to researchers.

To share this collection with a wider audience, including historians and radio programming enthusiasts amongst the general public, Archives and Special Collections ultimately intends to digitize the content and I propose to kick start this major effort. I plan to digitize approximately ten hours of content which will be accessible through a prototype WRLC (Washington Research Library Consortium) special collections web site. In order to complete my project, I am working with a number of different groups within the American University community in both coordinator and participant roles. I am already working with the American University Audio Technology department to use their reel-to-reel equipment (NAGRA) and Mac software to digitize select reels from the collection. (My first lesson went quite well!) I plan to create a high quality master file of the audio programming and convert it to MP3 or WAV format to stream online. I have selected some of the best examples of the collection to digitize, including news coverage from key historic events, and vintage entertainment programming. I am also working with WRLC to create an online repository for the collection. WRLC prefers to use Greenstone Digital Library software to build its digital archives and my project must conform to these standards. However, I have flexibility regarding the way the site is built and content presented online. For example, I will be setting the parameters for search and browse capabilities.

In terms of design, I am keeping the historian’s needs foremost and plan to create a written methodology to accompany my online project, describing the site’s structure and how it (hopefully) encourages online historical research. The front page will include a banner image of reels in the collection and an overview of the collection. Users will be able to browse by selecting news or entertainment programming and then by choosing title, date, and subject of programming. They will be able to search news, entertainment programming or both by key words. I plan to include a biography of John Hickman connected via a link to the main page as well. Each of the reels will have its own individual web page listing Dublin Core elements about each reel, such as its subject, date of program on the reel, format, etc. For the reels that have been digitized, there also will be a link to the streaming audio. As my project also is a trial run for eventually digitizing more of the collection, I am seeking permission from the American University library’s IT department to house my prototype site on the library’s test server.

For me this project exemplifies several class discussions this semester. As I’ve been working with the physical Hickman collection for several months, this project is a natural progression into the digital realm. It also shares an important collection that is currently inaccessible to researchers (and, for some of the reels, in potential danger of falling apart) with a larger audience by digitizing the content and placing it in a formal web site. This type of archival site also spans both academic and public history since vintage radio programming often is used by social or cultural historians in their primary research, but simultaneously appeals to members of the general public with an interest in classic radio. Finally, since this is a project also related to my ongoing job, I ultimately hope to expand the digitization efforts and the web site during the summer months.

I have one quick follow-up comment to my web review presentation.  Rod asked me if the digital collections housed by some of the model university archives and special web sites appear in Google searches.  They do and are listed quite high with results.  For instance, I showed the class the Overland Trail collection at BYU.  When a user types Overland Trail into Google, this collection is the fourth web site to appear.  The Dolley Madison Papers at UVA appear second on a Google search for Dolley Madison, just after the link to the official White House bio on this First Lady!