From Data to Narrative

From Data to Narrative: Digital Collections and Cultural Heritage Collaborations

Wednesday, July 15, 2:15-3:15 pm ET

What stories can be told with museums’, libraries’, and archives’ digital collections? Can researchers contribute to cultural heritage institutions’ already robust collections? Is it possible to collaborate with community partners to dig into data that may reveal untold facets of our communities’ rich histories? How might we illuminate historical data through narrative?

To address these questions, panelists from MUSE Winston-Salem, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and Wake Forest University’s Special Collections & Archives will highlight their institutions’ digital records and collections and discuss potential applications for teaching and research. Additionally, presenters will offer ideas for partnerships in which community members create digital showcases or otherwise expand on and add to these holdings.

Overall, the panel aims to generate conversations about animating community stories through exploring and building digital collections. A Q&A will follow to allow time for questions about institutions’ digital records, potential projects, and collaborative possibilities.

Panelists

Alanna Meltzer-Holderfield is Operations and Program Manager at MUSE Winston-Salem, where she has worked since 2014. In this role she leads the museum’s oral history initiative, curates community programs, works on marketing/communications, development, supervises interns, and more. She also serves on the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission.

Gary Albert is the Director of Research for the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) at Old Salem Museums & Gardens in Winston-Salem. He oversees the museum’s research initiatives and facilities, including the Anne P. and Thomas A. Gray Library. Gary led a ten-year initiative to digitize the museum’s research and collections assets and now uses those tools to tell digital stories in our increasingly online world. He is also Editor of the museum’s scholarly journal and the 2019-2020 President of the Consortium of Online Decorative Arts, a collective of international museums and archives committed to providing and producing material culture research digitally.

Tanya Zanish-Belcher is currently the Director of Special Collections & Archives (SCA), and University Archivist (2013-) for Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was named an Society of American Archivists Fellow in 2011 and served as SAA’s 73^rd President (2017-2018). She oversees SCA, a Team of 9 FT archivists and librarians, in addition to student employees, interns, and volunteers. Over the past several years, Special Collections & Archives (SCA) Team, working with students and faculty, has made a significant effort to better integrate the use of primary sources and other special collections across the Wake Forest curriculum. SCA’s unique resources—including digital collections numbering over 58,000 items organized in over 60 collections—are available for consultation 24/7.