Data Visualization – led by Georgia Institute of Technology’s own Lauren F. Klein
According to the New York Times, the “next big thing” for the humanities is data. And yet, as scholars of early America, we’ve long wrestled with how to make sense of the journals and ledger books, and other charts and tables that constitute such a large part of our cultural record. This workshop will explore several basic tools for visualizing literary and historical data. We’ll briefly touch on the eighteenth-century origins of data visualization, while gaining hands-on experience in the creation of visualizations of our own. No prior technical experience is required.
Link to Lauren Klein’s presentation slides: lmc.gatech.edu/~lklein7/2013/02/27/data-visualization-for-early-americanists/
Intro to Omeka – led by CHNM’s Amanda French
Omeka, for those who don’t know, is a nice easy piece of software that lets you create online archives and exhibits. Think of it as a way of creating a searchable scholarly database of your primary sources with all of information that scholars want, plus a way of creating an interpretation and analysis of those sources. Here’s a great sample of an Omeka site related to early America: the John D. Rockefeller. Jr. Library of Colonial Williamsburg. Here, too, is a lovely Omeka site by Indiana University Libraries on the War of 1812.
