Chapter 3 Innovative Digital Projects The Library of Congress, Digital Collections & and the Revealing of America exhibit uses Flash. In Programs this particular Lewis & Clark exhibit, the user is given a www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html virtual tour of the Lewis & Clark exhibit gallery currently on display at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress, Global Gateway: There are multiple resources available for teachers, World Culture & Resources educators, researchers, publishers, librarians, families, http://international.loc.gov/intldl/intldlhome.html and disabled persons to access, use, and teach with these The American Memory Project digitized resources. This is a wonderful Web site/portal http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/help/view.html for experimentation, exploration, and learning. The American Memory Project Listing DigiCULT http://memory.loc.gov/ammem www.digicult.info/pages Library of Congress Digital Exhibits DigiCULT Newsletters www.loc.gov/exhibits www.digicult.info/pages/newsletter.php Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the DigiCULT Technology Watch Reports Revealing of America www.digicult.info/pages/techwatch.php www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/virtualtour July – August 2005 – August July DigiCULT Thematic Issues The Library of Congress, Digital Collections & www.digicult.info/pages/themiss.php Programs Web site features many of the digital collections and exhibits of The Library of Congress. Many of them are DigiCULT’s mission is to benefi t the cultural basic digitization projects, but there are a few that meet heritage sector, particularly in Europe, by assessing and the criteria set for this book. monitoring emerging and existing technologies to help The American Memory Project has a number of optimize the development, preservation, and access to collections that feature audio, maps, and video (the main Europe’s cultural and scientifi c heritage, especially within page provides information about downloading free plug- the emerging digital cultural economy. As such, this group www.techsource.ala.org www.techsource.ala.org ins in order to use the site’s interactive features). A listing has issued a number of groundbreaking and informative of American Memory projects is also available. Many reports that list many of the innovative digital projects in of the audio and video segments are housed under the the humanities currently underway in Europe. Performing Arts, Music category. Thus far, this group has produced nine newsletters Many of the digitized maps use the DjVu software (between 2002 through 2004); three Technology Watch program, which allows users to zoom in and access Reports, focused on presenting six technologies in depth greater detail on the maps. I Hear America Singing and their current and future impacts on cultural heritage is another digital project that incorporates multimedia projects; and seven Thematic Issues, which detail news, Library Technology ReportsLibrary Technology elements. The Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark software products, current projects, and digital initiatives 24 of interest to the cultural heritage community. It’s other CERHAS projects, most dealing with the Argive impossible for this report to detail all of the interactive Heraion in ancient Greece. and innovative projects detailed in the publications of this group, which is why this general annotation with specifi c Humanities Exhibits Interactive links is provided. www.humanities-interactive.org/a_base_UD.html The Humanities Exhibits Interactive site incorporates De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius Flash software throughout, which serves to amaze the http://vesalius.northwestern.edu user through the project’s navigational and visual effects. The De Humani Corporis Fabrica Web portal, Produced by the Texas Council for the Humanities, it’s available in both Flash and no Flash versions, is a digitized, one of the most innovative front-ends I have seen for a interactive presentation of one book, the Renaissance humanities Web site. anatomical atlas On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543, The opening Flash movie takes the user directly to the 1555) by Andreas Vesalius. front page, where access to seven interactive categories When entering the site, the user is presented with a is available. Clicking on any exhibit makes the Web frames-type structure, where the left-hand frame column page come alive with movement, shuffl ing the headings provides navigational and content available by clicking and categories around so the user is visually stimulated on the topics in the bar at the top of the page (Contents, to continue to explore the content. For instance, the Images, Essays, Index, Bibliography, and About). The book Ancient Cultures category contains seven exhibits, all of has been translated into English, and this translation is what which contain interactive properties. Each digital exhibit is presented to the user (in other words, only the woodcuts/ contains digitized photos and essays on the topic as well illustrations from the actual document have been digitized as some type of interactive game to challenge the user and are available to the user, not the Latin text). regarding the content of the exhibit. It is the woodcuts (images) from this book that are Under the Medieval World category, and within the real attraction. The user can view the images by name The Art of Chivalry exhibit, for example, the interactive or body location. Once an image is chosen, the user can Medieval Knight game asks questions of the user, and if utilize four buttons that allow for zooming in, zooming a correct answer is given, a knight’s armor is constructed out, access to information about Macromedia Flash, and gradually (piece by piece, per right answer), after which for going directly to the part in the text that discusses he mounts an armored horse. that particular image. This Web site truly is a discovery zone, created to be The Essays section provides commentary on some of used by teachers and educators to inform and instruct Reports Library Technology the language and instructions Vesalius uses in his book, K–12 students on topics usually not covered in the while the Index provides a glossary of Latin medical traditional school curriculum. terms and where they appear in the book. A substantial Bibliography is available in PDF format. The VRoma: A Virtual Community for Teaching Finally, the About section details many of the and Learning Classics project’s processes for accomplishing the presentation www.vroma.org and also includes useful and instructive Help and Site The VRoma: A Virtual Community for Teaching and Information section. Learning Classics project, originally funded by a 1997 NEH Teaching with Technology grant, is a “virtual online EarthWorks: Virtual Exploration of the Ancient environment,” generally known as a multi-user networked Ohio Valley environment (MOO), which is built on a cultural and www.techsource.ala.org http://earthworks.uc.edu spatial metaphor of ancient Rome. Faculty and students Using virtual computer reconstruction and digital can meet and interact in real time, collaborate, hold restoration, the Center for the Electronic Reconstruction classes, and access various materials for learning. of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS), in Users become a VRoman (a virtual character, or avatar), cooperation with the University of Cincinnati and various and can enter two different spaces: Rome (modeled on Rome other entities, has constructed EarthWorks: Virtual around 150 CE), or Offi cina (ancient life simulation spaces, Exploration of the Ancient Ohio Valley to showcase and faculty “offi ces”). Users must register in order to log in, various photo and video recreations of the ancient Ohio after which they can explore these virtual spaces, virtually 2005 – August July Valley. This site is actually a preview of a CD-ROM product interact and collaborate with other avatars currently in the available for purchase through CERHAS, but the user can system, all the while learning about ancient Roman culture access some very sophisticated and interesting virtual and civilization. There’s also a large archive of teaching reconstruction videos here. There are also links to some materials available, including digital images. 25 MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, MATRIX provides not only multimedia content in and Social Sciences Online all of these projects, but also educational curricula and www.matrix.msu.edu materials for teachers and students. In addition, MATRIX is developing best practices standards in digital sound The Flint Sit-Down Strike digitization, a digital archive structure for multimedia www.historicalvoices.org/fl int materials, federated archives, delivery mechanisms for OYEZ Project diverse users, and metadata standards. www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map Earliest Voices: A Gallery from the Vincent Voice www.megalithic.co.uk Library The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map Web site www.historicalvoices.org/earliest_voices contains the world’s fi rst interactive multicountry map History and Politics Out Loud of megalithic and other prehistoric sites. It covers all of www.hpol.org Europe, with other areas of the globe under construction. More than 10,000 prehistoric monuments have been The African Digital Library plotted, and there’s access to more than 12,000 pictures. www.aodl.org The site comes in both frames and no-frames versions; The Michigan Writers Network no plug-ins required. The Megalith Map, constructed www.michigan-writers.org