Great project, Dan! I love this kind of stuff :)

I'm currently working on something similar for San Diego Museum of Natural
History, transcribing field note journals that we had digitized at the
Internet Archive. There are three separate projects, but we're working on
the software side of things before we start adding functionality. In the
past couple of weeks, our interns have transcribed 200 pages, and the
developer has added in some visualization for subjects (to see frequency of
topics around a central subject) as well as status updates. The software,
FromThePage, is available open source (
https://github.com/klauberpilot/fromthepage ) and Ben Brumfield, the
developer, is really responsive to change requests, so we've really come a
long way since December. We're looking to follow a similar model as you
propose, for these journals, as well as some 1905 bird counts that will link
to a contemporary count for comparison.

Please contact me privately for the link to the Klauber journal
transcription project and the user manual/walkthrough to see how it works
and if it'd be a fit for your project (we're still talking with the family
to see how much they're willing to open up the project, so I don't want to
share the link on the listserv, but they're not hesitant re: sharing amongst
interested parties. If anyone beside Dan is interested, please feel free to
drop me a line, too)>

~Perian

Perian Sully
Project Manager: Digital Asset Management & Online Access
Balboa Park Online Collaborative
[log in to unmask]

On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 6:36 AM, Dan Bartlett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello All:
>
>
> The Logan museum has a collection of over 300 objects, extensive field
> notes (hundreds of pages in 5 very thick binders) and (eventually we hope)
> up to 3000 images. These are the life’s work of an avocational
> anthropologist. She collected textiles, mostly from across Oaxaca, between
> 1949 and the mid-1990s. We have been discussing how to process this
> collection into a unified, indexed whole. All of the collection objects have
> been photographed and each page of the notebooks has been scanned. We would
> like to create an index linking specific pages in the notebooks to specific
> objects in the collection. It would allow researchers to search for a
> village name (for example) and get back results relating that village to
> specific objects and notebook pages. The index would eventually be launched
> on line using our existing collections management software.
>
>
>
> One idea is to create a web portal and use the power of social networking
> to allow people interested in Oaxacan textiles do the indexing for us. We
> would post the materials on line, create a portal and forms for linking key
> words and specific objects to notebook pages, and manage the online indexing
> by engaging with affinity groups and interested individuals in an
> environment that allows participants and museum staff to work together in a
> social and collaborative online environment.
>
>
>
> My question is whether anyone knows of similar indexing projects done
> either in-person and in-house, or by way of social networks on line. In
> either case what were the strengths and weaknesses of the approach? What
> advice on setting up the systems can you give? Are we crazy to even consider
> this?  And thanks to Nina Simon for the inspiration (or insanity,
> whichever it is).
>
> Dan
> --
> Dan Bartlett
> Curator of Exhibits and Education
> Instructor of Museum Studies
> Logan Museum of Anthropology
> Beloit College
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