Historic Markers of Washington, D.C. An Online Collection J. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Historic Markers of Washington, D.C.

An Online Collection

• J. Koivisto, K. Rodda, J. Rothbart

LSC 652 Spring 2014

Historic Markers of Washington, D.C.

Our Collection

Federal Triangle Heritage Trail Columbia Heights Heritage Trail Downtown Heritage Trail

With more to come...

Cultural Tourism DC

Neighborhood Heritage Trails

←--- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail Columbia Heights Heritage Trail ---->

National Park Service

Meridian Hill Park, National Historic Landmark

Marker Building

Purpose and Audience

• We created The Historic Markers of

Washington, D.C. digital repository to create

• ne centralized collection of historic markers
• Our collection can be used by anyone who

would like to learn more information about the history of Washington, D.C.

Introduction

• What our collection documents
• Assumptions

○ Audience ○ Significance (value-added features)

■ Browse by subject ■ Geo-location

• Methods

○ Capture, catalog, ingest, design, UX

Statistics

• Number of items digitized

○ 64 photos

• Staffing

○ 3 full-time staff

• Project duration

○ ~2 months

• Equipment Used

○ Canon Rebel T3 DSLR ○ Canon Powershot A1000 IS ○ Canon Powershot G10

Stakeholders

• Our users (audience)
• Cultural Tourism DC (www.culturaltourismdc.
• rg)
• National Parks Service
• Additional historical societies, community
• rganizations

Challenges

• Capturing digital photos of geographically distributed

subjects

• Creating consistent standards for cataloging objects

captured with different cameras

• Customizing interface to facilitate ease-of-use and

dynamic engagement

Methods/Procedures

• 1. Capture photos of historic markers
• Each repository member captured photos
• Documented locational information

Methods/Procedures

• 2. Catalog photos
• Cataloged using Qualified Dublin Core

Application Profile

• LCSH
• Google-generated Lat. / Long. readings

Methods/Procedures

• 3. Ingest Photos into CONTENTdm
• Individuals uploaded, approved, and QA’d

each submission

• Added metadata created from step 2
• Normalized metadata (capitalizations,

etc.)

Methods/Procedures

• 4. Public-facing site design
• Decide on bonus features/pages

○ Google Earth Engine

• Design elements (breadcrumbs, header,

footer, etc.)

• Finalize site for usability testing

Methods/Procedures

• 5. User experience/usability testing
• Selected user group
• Demographic Survey
• Three tasks

○ purposes: check thoroughness of metadata, check usability of map & “browse by subject” features, situational test/object assessment

Resources

• w3school PHP tutorial

○ resource to help with customizing CONTENTdm pages

Resources

• Google Earth Engine

Resources

• Library of Congress Subject Headings

Interface

Interface

Findings

• Everyone searches differently!
• Consistency of interface is important
• Providing larger thumbnails while

simultaneously reducing the dissemination file size to reduce object load time

• More methods of discoverability to support
• ur first point

Key Contacts

• Curatorial & Web Admin Team

○ Katie Rodda - katherine.rodda@gmail.com ○ Joseph Koivisto - 23koivisto@cardinalmail.cua.edu ○ Justin Rothbart - justine.rothbart@gmail.com

Sources

• Neatrour, A., Morrow, A., Rockwell, K., & Witkowski, A. (2011). Automating the production of map interfaces for

digital collections using Google APIs. D-Lib Magazine, 17(9/10).

• The University of Utah. (2011). Western Soundscape Archive. Retrieved 20 March 2014 from http:

//westernsoundscape.org/googleMap.php

• w3schools. (2014). PHP 5 Tutorial. Retrieved 20 March 2014 from http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/.
• Cultural Tourism DC. (2014). Cultural Tourism DC. Retrieved 18 March 2014 from http://www.culturaltourismdc.
• rg/portal/
• Google. (2014). Google Earth Engine. Retrieved 20 March 2014 from https://earthengine.google.org/#intro.
• Library of Congress. (2014). Library of Congress Subject Headings. Retrieved from http://id.loc.

gov/authorities/subjects.html.