Nicole H. Garrett

This past weekend, I attended Great Lakes THAT Camp. This “unconference” was hosted by my alma mater, Michigan State University.  The topic: humanities and technology.

The format was very interesting and different from what I’m used to.   We started at 8:30 AM; people shouted out session proposals and if there was enough interest, it was put on the schedule.

Most of the sessions were helpful and I made some great contacts.  I’m really excited to work with LookBack Maps.  This website overlays historic photographs on a google map to give you a geographic way to search images.  It’s very user-friendly and allows for proper citation of the photographs.  I’m looking forward to adding to the collection!

The other session I was particularly interested in was a demo of KORA, a content management system created by MSU Matrix.  I’m always interested to see the strengths and weaknesses of the different CM systems out there.  I had never heard of Kora, so it was a great learning experience.  I really like the ability to include GIS coordinates as part of the metadata.  Currently, there is no front-end web template, but that could actually be an asset.  From working with CONTENTdm, I have seen that sometimes it’s better to have web designers customize a site that fits your institution’s needs rather than try to make your site fit in a auto-generted template.  But….that gets into IT support and financial abilities; not all repositories have that option.

All in all, the conference was a great event.  I found that I really like the “unconference”….when discussion is expected, I participate much more.  It’s also more interesting to hear different opinions and viewpoints than to listen to a speaker lecture on a topic for an hour.  It will be interesting to see how archives conferences adapt to this new trend.

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A few weeks ago, I visited the Ann Arbor Civil War Round Table (AACWRT).  My coworker, Bob Garrett (no relation) was giving a talk on Civil War resources at the Archives of Michigan and I tagged along to field questions about the projects I’ve been working on.

It’s always fun to hang out with other people passionate about history, and the AACWRT definitely fits that description!  One member sports an Abe Lincoln beard and dresses up as the former President for educational programs around the state.

After my coworker’s presentation, there were a lot of questions.  It was great to see such interest in the Seeking Michigan projects I’ve been working on (by 2011, all of the Archives’ civil war material will be online).

I have to give a “shout out” to my colleague and friend, Tom Nanzig for arranging our field trip to Ann Arbor.  It was a lot of fun!

Oh, and I ended up drawing myself in the raffle and got a book on a POW from Michigan.  Can’t wait to start reading it!

Tom and I hanging out after the show

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