News
October 28, 2003
Dickinson College is pleased to announce the launching of a digital project titled "Their Own Words"
The "Their Own Words"
project presents full page images and text
transcriptions of (currently) more than 23,000 pages from select books,
pamphlets, letters, and diaries, all drawn from the college's Archives
and Special Collections. In addition, information about the authors of
the texts and contextual information about the publications and
manuscripts are also available through browsable links in order to
assist users with the understanding of the digitized materials.
The materials in the "Their Own Words"
collection date from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth century and reflect,
generally, the history of the United States. These materials cover a
variety of topics including: colonial American politics; U.S. politics,
government, and foreign relations; historical biography and
autobiography; slavery and abolition; the American Civil War; the
temperance movement; foreign travel; economics; medicine; philosophy;
and theology. This online resource is made freely available, and we believe that it will be of
value to teachers, students, and researchers at all levels of instruction.
"Their Own Words"
was supported in part by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and
Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. This project focused on LSTA's goal of providing people
with access to information - more specifically in this case by offering access to unique
and rare materials.
"Their Own Words"
utilizes CONTENTdm digital collection management
software to organize and present its materials online. CONTENTdm allows
for the virtual recreation of hierarchical materials online, making it
possible to read through a book or a series of letters on screen as you
would with the physical copy in hand. Another key feature of
CONTENTdm's Document Viewer is its ability to display page images and
full-text transcripts side by side; this vastly simplifies the process
of reading 18th-century penmanship while still allowing the reader to
appreciate the style and format of the original writing. Finally,
CONTENTdm allows full-text searchability of the materials in the database.
Dickinson College is pleased to have the opportunity to share materials
from its Archives and Special Collections with a global user community.
Any questions or comments about this project may be directed to Jim
Gerencser (gerencse@dickinson.edu
- Project Director for "Their Own
Words" and Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Dickinson
College) or John Osborne (osborne@dickinson.edu
- Project Coordinator and Associate Professor of History at Dickinson College).
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