Library and Information Science Commons^™

Safeguarding For The Future: Managing Born-Digital Collections In Museums, Kimberly Kruse

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Over the past few decades, advancements in technology have changed society entirely. Every bit of information about world news, popular culture, and art is just a tap of a touchscreen away. So many aspects of the contemporary world have become digitized so that it was only a matter of time before museums would have to face the issue of born-digital media in their collections. From videos to web-based art, museums have to tackle how to save this new form of cultural heritage. Museums have to do so now before it gets lost forever. The challenge of born-digital objects lies in …

Evulation Of The Usability Of The Libraries Page With Bgsu Students, Rebecca Lord

Honors Projects

This research project explores the usability and usefulness of the “Libraries” webpage located within students’ MyBGSU account through usability testing. Usability testing is a method in which participants are asked to complete tasks within a platform (e.g. webpage, mobile app, etc.) that mimic a typical user in order to understanding their behavior, challenges, and thoughts about it. Ten Bowling Green State University (BGSU) students of various majors and years were randomly selected and asked nine questions about their opinions regarding the “Libraries” page, such as what they like and don’t like, and what they find useful, as well as things …

Portraits, Preservation & Pedigrees: An Introduction To Photographic Portraiture, Photographs As A Means Of Genealogical Research, And A Preservation Case Study Of The Howard D. Beach Studio Collection Of Glass Plate Negatives, Kirsten Feigel

Museum Studies Theses

Photography is an established art form that combines the knowledge of chemistry, light, and optics to render an image. Initially, the image is captured on a flat surface coated with emulsion and combined with an exposure to sunlight or another illuminating source. Today, images are captured by digital methods. Artistically, the photograph may reveal sceneries of landscapes, of treasured belongings and of people, as they are seen to the human eye. Photographic portraiture is the oldest style of photography next to landscape imagery, due to commercial photographers setting up studios and experimenting with photography’s many cameras, plates, and emulsions. In …

An Intersectional Examination Of The Portrayal Of Native American Women In Wisconsin Museum Exhibits, Erica Rodenbeck

Theses and Dissertations

This project examines how White curators at four museums in Wisconsin portray Native American women based on a number of institutional and individual curatorial choices. Intersectional Theory is used to explore how museums and museum professionals navigate questions of representation of a traditionally marginalized group. It places specific emphasis on the relationship between Community Curation and Intersectional Theory and explores whether or not the involvement of Native groups noticeably impacts representation of Native American women.

The study examines the exhibits of four museums: The Abel Public Museum, The New Canton College of Anthropology, The Pineville Public Museum, and The Wisconsin …

Teach Your Children White?, Katelyn Johnson

Senior Theses

Through exploration of early childhood literature - focused on those intended as read aloud and including illustrations – this thesis will investigate the impact and influence of cultural and racial diversity and representation in books on the development of a child’s identity as well as broader world view. The thesis will also research the histories of cultural diversity and representation in children’s literature. The research parameters for this project are focused on Marin County and will include: access to culturally diverse literature in public libraries throughout the county; library procurement policies and the impact on cultural diversity within the collection; …

Aura Of Authenticity: The Impact Of Original Objects In The Museum Guest Experience, Alyssa Frijey

Museum Studies Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to defend the maintenance of original object-based collections in museums with the argument that they provide profound, unique, and irreplaceable experiences for museum guests. Authenticity of an artifact carries with it an aura of importance which is a highly valuable means of connection within museums. Such meaning is the direct result of the manner in which human beings interpret material culture. Keeping in mind that this value can only be fully experienced through that which is original, it is crucial that original objects should be maintained in these institutions.

Museological Cinema: An Ideal Approach To A Modern Art Form, Steven Groff

Museum Studies Theses

Abstract:

This paper is dedicated to finding a way to better incorporate cinema into museums. The answer as to how came through a number of ways that some museums currently operate that could be adopted by others, a few new ideas, as well as an expansion in the number of museum theatres. A key theme of this is to expand the limited selection of films typically found in museums and galleries to include more popular fare, which would better attract visitors with frequency. I also endorse the idea of constructing new theatres for museums that do not already possess one, …

Controversy In 20th Century Museum Exhibits: A 21st Century Perspective, Jennifer K. Weber

Museum Studies Theses

This paper examines how museums can be impacted by public responses to their exhibits. This is accomplished by studying two specific contexts from the late 20^th century: first, observing the changes and influences that occurred over a relatively short period of time involving the National Endowment for the Arts funding in the late 1980s, and another compares the social responses to the same exhibition, “Sensation” as shown in two different countries. The social and political responses to museum exhibits can play a huge role in how the exhibits, the museums, and the artists are viewed. This can have long-lasting …

Literacy Revolution: How The New Tools Of Communication Change The Stories We Tell, Molly Gamble

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The transmission of culture depends upon every generation reconsidering what it means to be literate. The way we consider ourselves to be a literate species is changing, which puts us at a unique turning point in human history. Verbal literacy, or the ability to read and write, is slowly being replaced by visual literacy as a primary tool for human communication. As a culture, we tend to underestimate the creative ferment of our increasingly visual world. The linear, structured pathways of traditional literacy are shifting towards a creative and participatory pursuit of unstructured information that emphasize dimensional thinking. The acceleration …

The Demographic Profile For Female Textile-Design Bloggers, Khadijah Baaqil

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A review of existing literature demonstrates the need for additional research on female home-based business owners. This study aimed to partially fill the literature gap by exploring the demographic profile of female home-based textile-design bloggers, a unique segment of the female home-based business world.

The findings of the qualitative content analysis of the 30 designers’ blogs and 138 blog posts included the findings of their age, nationality and ethnic identity, current place of residence, family status, educational background, occupation, and socioeconomic status. These findings were then reduced into numbers and percentages. Findings of the analysis show that designers vary from …

Early American Cookbooks: Creating And Analyzing A Digital Collection Using The Hathitrust Research Center Portal, Gioia Stevens

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Early American Cookbooks project is a carefully curated online collection of 1450 cookbooks published in the United States between 1800 and 1920. The purposes of the project are to create a freely available, searchable online collection of early American cookbooks, to offer an overview of the scope and contents of the collection, and to use digital humanities tools to explore trends and patterns in the metadata and the full text of the collection. The project has two basic components: a collection of 1450 full-text titles on HathiTrust and a website site to present a guide to the collection and …

A Long Strange Trip Through The Evolution Of Fan Production, Fan-Branding, And Historical Representation In The Grateful Dead Online Archive, Anna Richardson

Masters Theses

This study explores how a digital music archive tells the story and contributes to the public memory of cult bands. Utilizing the Grateful Dead Archive Online (GDAO) as the primary data source, the researcher obtained a population of 26,835 items and categorized them by the production method of fan or band, item type, era, and logo. Content analysis illustrated themes within the archive in relation to the fannish production and activity within the fandom of the Grateful Dead. The span of this specific fandom spreads across five decades and sheds light onto the ways in which the fandom surrounding cult …