Only top few images are shown; page breaks shown as lines across page with page numbers noted at top of each new section.
From a New England Woman's Diary in Dixie in 1865:Electronic Edition. Ames, Mary, 1831-1903 at USC's Documenting the American South
Contents List on Left Pane, Transcription on Right -- Not for this Exhibit; this model also uses specialized software
The Model Editions Partnership
American Memory are arranged different ways to reflect what is most important/userul about the collection--or what is available. I
n the case of the manuscripts of famous people (for example, Washington and
Jefferson) sometimes the images have been made available even though they have not managed to transcribe all the letters.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are some things that are available only as transcriptions without any graphics. (See, for example,
Early Virginia Religious Petitions.)
When both are available, the typical approach is to provide a list by date and/or topic, a "bibliographical" page on each item that provides a kind of catalogue card including linked subject headings, and the option to link to "view image" or "view transcription." Sometimes this is done with a text transcription with a page by page option to link to image (one example is
Report of the arguments of counsel, in the case of Prudence Crandall in the
Slaves and the Courts: 1740-1860 collection) I other cases, the viewer is given the option either to view the text or the images. (For example, see "
Letter from Lillie Oblinger to Uriah W. Oblinger, December 3, 1900.")
If at all possible, we may want to follow the American Memory Collection/Lib. of Congress Exhibition standards as much as possible, keeping in mind both the fact that this is becoming a standard AND that we could someday develop a relationship.
Important: This may also give us a way of conceptualizing the "exhibit" part of our work and the "digital collection" section. American Memory colllections always have a graphic logo, and have begun to incorporate short thematic exhibits as introductions to their collections. Let's look at these and see whether they may provide a format for us.
We should also take a close look at Mass Historical's treatment of the Adams papers. See
Guide to Adams Resources on this Site. Although this is more tecchie (with appearing and disappearing layers, etc.) than we need or want to be, it also attempts to provide an exhibit--"John Quincy Adams: One President's Adolescence"--in combination with a digital archive, an editorial project, and curricular materials. Let's look at the options they provide and the language they use for describing what they're doing. For example, here's how they describe the exhibit: "This exhibit is a document-based directed study featuring ordinary and extraordinary letters, diary entries, and parental advice from JQA's early years. The content and curriculum for this exhibit was prepared by Robert Baker, teacher at Needham High School and 2001 Swensrud Fellow. View Online"
I think
African-American Women On-line Archival Collections Special Collections Library, Duke University may use one of the cleanest (for user and reader) layouts of image and text. If you used this approach, you would still want to let people link to a printable version (plain transcription).
The best options may be to provide a transcription of each letter
