Bridging the Digital and Physical: Increasing Engagement with the Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz

Abstract

The UC Santa Cruz University Library supports the creation of digital projects which aid student scholarship, enhance on-site exhibit experiences, engage broader communities through online exhibitions, and promote our unique collections. This case study explores the use of a digital tool, ThingLink, to create a virtual 360° tour of a library exhibit space which features material from the Grateful Dead Archive. Librarians and students created this virtual tour (https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/loveonhaight360) in order to promote the library’s collections, engage students in creating new forms of scholarly work, preserve a record of a physical exhibit after deinstallation, and increase use of library resources.

Keywords:

• Exhibits
• outreach
• annotated 360° images
• special collections
• archives
• digital humanities

Notes

Notes

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6 “Center for Archival Research and Training (CART),” https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/cart (accessed May 31, 2019).

7 “UCI Libraries Special Collections & Archives - Access the Collections,” https://special.lib.uci.edu/access-the-collections (accessed May 31, 2019). The Virtual Reading Room is discussed in the article: Michelle Light. “Managing Risk with a Virtual Reading Room: Two Born Digital Projects,” in Reference and Access Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections, ed. Kate Theimer (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014), 17–35, https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/lib_articles/463.

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10 Thomas Flynn. “What Happens When You Share 3D Models Online (In 3D)?” in 3D/VR in the Academic Library: Emerging Practices and Trends, ed. Jennifer Grayburn, Zack Lischer-Katz, Kristina Golubiewski-Davis, and Veronica Ikeshoji-Orlati (Council on Library and Information Resources, 2019), 73–86, https://www.clir.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/02/Pub-176.pdf.

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12 Wendy A. Thomas and Sheila Carey, “Actual/virtual visits: what are the links?” in Museums and the web 2005: Proceedings, eds. J. Trant, D. Bearman (Toronto: Archives & museum informatics, 2005), http://www.archimuse.com/mw2005/papers/thomas/thomas.html.

13 Calvin Pohawpatchoko, Chip Cowell, Jamie Powell, and Jerry Lassos, “Developing A Native Digital Voice: Technology and Inclusivity in Museums,” Museum Anthropology 40, no. 1 (2017): 52–64.

14 “International Spy Museum,” https://www.spymuseum.org/, accessed May 31, 2019. While working on this project in 2018, the virtual tour on the Spy Museum website was available for us to reference, but has been removed as of 2019.

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18 Zebulun M. Wood, Albert William, Ayoung Yoon, and Andrea Copeland. “Virtual Bethel: Preservation of Indianapolis’s Oldest Black Church.” In: Research Methods for the Digital Humanities, ed. lewis levenberg, Tai Neilson, David Rheams. (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018), 195–210.

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21 “ThingLink,” https://www.thinglink.com/ (accessed May 31, 2019).

22 “Love on Haight Virtual Tour,” https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/loveonhaight360 (accessed May 31, 2019).

23 “Calisphere - UC Santa Cruz Library Special Collections & Archives,” https://calisphere.org/institution/30/collections/ (accessed May 31, 2019).

24 “Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information (CASRAI) CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy),” https://www.casrai.org/credit.html (accessed May 31, 2019). This taxonomy is described in the article: Marcia K. McNutt, Monica Bradford, Jeffrey M. Drazen, Brooks Hanson, Bob Howard, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Véronique Kiermer, Emilie Marcus, Barbara Kline Pope, Randy Schekman, et al., “Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, no. 11 (2018): 2557–2560.

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26 “ThingLink Accessibility Statement,” https://support.thinglink.com/articles/education-faq/thinglink-accessibility-statement (accessed May 31, 2019).

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alix Norton

Alix Norton has been an Archivist at UC Santa Cruz since 2015, where she oversees the Elisabeth Remak-Honnef Center for Archival Research and Training (CART), a fellowship program that trains PhD students from various disciplines in archival processing and exhibit curation. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan School of Information and the University of Washington.

Kristina Golubiewski-Davis

Kristina Golubiewski-Davis, PhD, has worked in the Digital Scholarship Commons (DSC) at UC Santa Cruz since 2017. In her position first as Digital Humanities Librarian and currently as Director of the DSC, she helps to manage the DSC Lab and VizLab, focusing on incorporating media capture, 3D modeling, and VR support into the library. The DSC provides software, hardware, and support for students and faculty interested in incorporating digital tools into their research and pedagogy. Prior to UCSC, Kristina held a post-doc at Middlebury College and completed her dissertation work in Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where she integrated 3D scanning and morphological analysis to examine prehistoric networks of craft knowledge by examining Bronze Age swords.

Ann Hubble

Ann Hubble is a Librarian in the Digital Initiatives department at UC Santa Cruz. She investigates new technologies and processes for the UCSC Library and provides support in the development and management of the Library’s website. Ann consults with faculty and students on digital exhibit building tools such as CONTENTdm, Omeka, and Story Maps.

Reed Scriven

Reed Scriven is a UCSC alumnus who worked as a DSC Student Assistant in the Digital Scholarship Commons since 2017. Through his education spanning Computer Science game design and Anthropology, he is able to work on the technical side of a project while still understanding the large scale message that the project is working to convey. By working on multiple Virtual Reality projects, website redesigns, graphic design, and photogrammetry, Reed adds valuable insights into every team that he is on and helps to improve quality across the board.