DH 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar

FDR: HU
Credits: 3

Winter 2018, DH 180-01: FS: Born Digital (3). First-year Seminar. Prerequisite: First-Year class standing only. This seminar explores the concept of “born digital” archives and our relationship to them as humans and scholars. The information that we create, consume, and communicate is almost entirely digital. Entire libraries fit in our pockets and every day sees 500 million new tweets of human expression. We now have constant access to a vast archive of human record - or do we? The average lifespan of a webpage is 100 days. Studies show that that 20 percent of academic articles contain broken links. How will future scholars understand our world of fragmented and fragile knowledge production and storage? Through discussion and lab time, students explore methods for studying and preserving contemporary culture and events. We examine issues related to the ethics of appraisal, privacy, digital obsolescence, under-represented communities, media studies, and collective memory. Students learn the basics of archival theory, practice, and technology in order to create a web archive of their design. (HU) Brooks. Winter 2018 and alternate years.