Reflection on Archiving Irish History

This semester, students in Robert Barone's HIST 411/511 seminar have been studying the History of Ireland and have created a digital archive of items pertaining to Ireland's history. The final result is an Omeka site, The History of Ireland, which features pictures, videos, primary source documents, and other items related to the political and social life of Ireland.

Students from the class will present their digital exhibits in the J.A. Brown Room in the Carmichael library tomorrow, April 15 from 6-7 PM. The presentation will also include a roundtable discussion on the process of digitizing historical objects and creating digital history exhibits with Omeka. Some of the questions we'll consider include:

• What is the value of doing Digital History as opposed to doing traditional forms of historical research? 
• What kind of research did you do to create items on the Omeka archive? How did it compare to the historical research you've done? 
• What are some difficulties you had with completing the Omeka project? What do you wish we could've done differently? 
• What other or future uses do you see a tool like Omeka serving? Can you think of any examples on campus? 

 If you're interested in digital history methods and and would like to know more about this process, please join us for the discussion. Anyone is welcome to attend. Light refreshments served.