Last week, we had the opportunity to think through some of the issues around using digital humanities for recovery work with African diaspora source material. This is one of the very important uses of digital humanities - taking material about stories that haven't been told publicly or aren't well known and shedding new light on them.

This week, we're going to start the process of thinking through what it would be like to tell the story of "Black Moochie" and Salem State through a digital archive. We'll read an article on engaging students with local history as archives, look through some examples of digital archives and exhibits created using Omeka, and brainstorm ideas for a digital exhibit on "Black Moochie."

The purpose of our work this week is to engage you in some of the thought processes around how to create digital exhibits.

Here is your to-do list for the week:

1) Read the Godfrey essay

2) Look at the examples of digital archives/exhibits using Omeka, which is a content management system for working with archival materials. Thinking about the "Black Moochie" incident at Salem State, which features of different projects do you think would be useful for telling our story? Which features are relevant? Which features are irrelevant?

3) Look at the document with links related to "Black Moochie." How would you imagine using some of them in a digital exhibit that would tell the story? What kind of materials do you think we would want and need to tell the "Black Moochie" story? What kinds of artifacts would help tell this story? What features of the archives/exhibits that you considered be useful for telling this story? What kinds of research in secondary sources would you need to do and what information would you need that you don't currently have? What kinds of themes/threads/narratives are sticking out to you as important for telling this story?

4) Post your thoughts on #3 to the discussion board - your initial post and follow-up posts.