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The Red, White, and Black (RWB) project was conceived as a human-guided walking-tour about African-American history at NC State University. The current generation of mobile devices has enabled us to publish this interactive guide on the web, so that anyone with a smart phone can explore this important aspect of university history. This talk outlines the creation of the RWB mobile application, which integrates existing digital collections and infrastructure to provide access to events, images, and audio that highlight the lives and experiences of African-Americans at NC State. This project is one example of the ways NCSU Libraries is creating opportunities for situated discovery and learning. We will explore some of the challenges and possibilities of repurposing special collections materials to provide new avenues for learning, discuss the technologies and infrastructure that make this possible, and highlight future directions for exposing library resources using mobile devices.
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Handheld Librarian Conference, July 2011
Genya O’Gara & Cory LownSPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTERDIGITAL LIBRARY INITIATIVES
History at HandCombining Special Collections and Mobile Technology to Engage Students and Faculty with African-American History
BACKGROUND
Familiar Scenes
BACKGROUND
Mobile Website
BACKGROUND
Augmented reality has strong potential to provide both powerful contextual, in situ learning experiences and serendipitous exploration and discovery of the connected nature of information in the real world.
New Media Consortium Horizon 2007 Report
In Situ Learning
BACKGROUND
Augmented Reality Spectrum
Paul Milgram’s Reality-Virtuality Continuum
BACKGROUND
Connect students to university history – in their spaces
Engage users with the people, events, and environment that shaped campus
Surface archival materials in new ways
BACKGROUND
Instead of this…
WHY
Show them this…
WHY
While listening to this…
BACKGROUND
When they’re standing here…
Initial events
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Walking Tour
BACKGROUND
Opportunity
BACKGROUND
Opportunity
RED, WHITE & BLACKTOUR
RED, WHITE & BLACKTOUR
RED, WHITE & BLACKTOUR
RED, WHITE & BLACKTOUR
RED, WHITE & BLACKTOUR
RED, WHITE & BLACKTOUR
EDITING CONTENT
EDITING CONTENT
EDITING CONTENT
EDITING CONTENT
TECHNOLOGIES
• Ruby on Rails with MySQL
• jQuery Mobile
The Mobile Web App
TECHNOLOGIES
•Touch-optimized interface at low cost
• Simplified cross-platform/browser support
•Familiar HTML/JavaScript development environment
jQuery Mobile (Beta 1)
TECHNOLOGIES
• Solr Index of content and metadata
• Djatoka image server
The Digital CollectionsInfrastructure
FUTURE
Special CollectionsStudentsAlumniClassesOrientationRecruitingAfrican American Cultural Center
Uses
REFLECTIONS
PartnershipsExternal
History Faculty
African American Cultural Center
Students
Internal
Programming & Outreach
Special Collections Research Center
Digital Library Initiatives
REFLECTIONS
Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous.
--Thomas King
REFLECTIONS
CHALLENGES
In-Browser Audio
• Should be easy
• It’s still tricky
• http://diveintohtml5.org
CHALLENGES
JQuery Mobile is Beta (was Alpha)
CHALLENGES
Quality Assurance
• Audio must agree with text (names, dates).
• Audio recording quality can vary
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Plans
• Add content to Red, White, and Black
• Use back-end application as framework for other projects
• Other library apps (Library tours? Staff-facing applications?)
The End
Questions?
Cory LownDigital Library Initiatives
(919) 513-2309 [email protected]
Genya O’GaraSpecial Collections Research Center
(919) 513-2605 [email protected]
