Hi everyone! I just wanted to share this with everyone, http://www.philaplace.org/ I actually did some work with HSP this past summer as my internship. I haven't had the chance to play around with the site but I think it's a great resource to have for Philadelphia.

I thought this post might be of interest in light of our discussion about digital media.  An additional way that digital technology affects public historians, or at least places where we work, is the ability for consumers to comment in a public forum.  A friend of mine had a negative experience at one museum and a positive one at another.  She shared her experience directly with museum staff while there.  She also blogged about it.  Her thoughts can be found here.  I also found interesting her reaction to rules museums set.

~ Lyndsey

The Task of the Curator:
Translation, Intervention and Innovation in Exhibitionary Practice

Location: California

Deadline: 2010-02-05

Description: CALL FOR PAPERS ACADEMIC CONFERENCE: FRIDAY, MAY 14
2010 THE TASK OF THE CURATOR: TRANSLATION, INTERVENTION, AND
INNOVATION IN EXHIBITIONARY PRACTICE Museum and Curatorial
Studies (MACS) at UC-Santa Cruz brings together museum
professionals and scholars from a variety of disciplines to
study the poe ...

Contact: macs@ucsc.edu

URL: macs.ucsc.edu/conferences.html

Announcement ID: 171961

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=171961

To go digital, or not to go digital--why is it still a question?

Here's a great starting point for discussions about making collections available online:

http://usingdata.typepad.com/usingdata/2009/03/web.html

The "Holy Land Experience" in Orlando
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/10/29/holy-land-experience/

A great new preservation resource:

http://www.ccaha.org/education/videos

Recall that, for next week, we'll be reading excerpts from Handler and Gable and Patricia West alongside Tilden's *Interpreting Our Heritage*.

Also, in preparation for November 30, please make the following adjustments to your syllabus:

-Include Cary Carson's "The End of History Museums" with your November 9 readings (currently scheduled for 11/30).

-Include "Museums and Society 2034" with your November 23 readings (currently scheduled for 11/30).

-Disregard other readings assigned for November 30.

-Note that class will not be held on November 30, but that your Wagner groups should plan on making use of the time to prepare presentations due the following week.

-Wagner groups will present final projects on December 7. Plan on submitting final portfolios, however, by Monday, December 14. Extending the portfolio deadline will create enough time for each group to include a narrative assessment of their accomplishments. More on this to come.

Dr. Charles McGovern, College of William & Mary, “It Will Stand!: Popular Music as Public History,” Thursday, October 29th 4:00—5:30, Temple University Gladfelter Hall 9th Floor, Weigley Room. McGovern is a former curator at the National Museum ...of American History; co-edits Duke U Press's Refiguring American Music series; and author of *Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945 (2006)*.

I just stumbled upon this and I'm excited to share it!

http://www.lettersofnote.com/

WEB Reviews

It's not too soon to begin thinking about topics for your upcoming WEB review assignment. With that in mind, check out this great new site from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: http://www.texascccparks.org/.

Civic Engagement

Art Museum Images in Scholarly Publishing

Public History as Deep Play

On the march toward Monday's conversation about popular historymakers and authenticity, check out this article in today's New York Times.

Museum/Exhibit Reviews

Toward identifying a museum or exhibit to review, consider this list of regional sites culled from a recent Inquirer listing.

Popularity, part II

A lot of the fun in blogging results from discovering how diverse one's audience can be. But how do you know who's reading what you write? If you'd like to get a sense for who is visiting your blog, when they visit, and what they do while there, consider using a free web tracker. There are many of these available--Google "free web tracker" for a sample. I've had good luck with StatCounter. Most of these will provide easy instructions for setting up your tracker. Once you do, I think you'll be surprised by what you learn.

Lump of Coal

Check out this new take on Becker's "Everyman his Own Historian" fresh from the pen of AHA president and historian extraordinaire, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Does Ulrich's analysis require that we rethink last week's discussion?

For a good sum-up on THE problem facing Philadelphia public historians right now, check out Dana Dorman's recent post.

Popularity!

How quickly your blog appears in a Google search depends, in part, on how many websites link to your own. Toward building your popularity, and your peers' popularity too, try linking to one another's blogs. You're all linked on Temple's public history website and our course dashboard--try linking to those sites as well for added search hits. And, how about the Wagner? And, etc., etc., etc...

If you are trying to copy and paste your blog posts from Microsoft Word and finding that it isn't working properly, paste it into ms notepad first, then paste it into the blog.

Wagner Plan

Great discussion today! Here's a reminder of how I'd like you to proceed with the Wagner project. By September 28, each team must:

1. meet outside of class and discuss strategy for moving forward;
2. initiate a preliminary review of relevant photograph/video policies;
3. devise a work plan that identifies how your team will proceed. This should include a tentative statement of goals and a clear explanation of how each member will contribute to the project;
4. submit to me a written summary of #2 and #3.

Also, be prepared with questions for the Wagner's staff and start thinking about how virtual copyright and usage rights may bear on your project.

September 21 Readings

The link to Kim and Jamal's "Touristic Quest for Existential Authenticity" in our syllabus is broken. Click here for the pdf.

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post here and say I've been messing with my blog for the past few hours. the formatting won't work properly but I wanted it to be up for you all to read. Trust me when I say I do write with capital letters. I'll keep trying to fix the formatting but it's up.

Best,

Javier

Hi everyone ~ I have a quick housekeeping note.  The need arose to migrate my blog.  You will find it now at http://wyndsofhistory.blogspot.com/  ~ Lyndsey

The Weeks Ahead

Thanks everyone for forwarding your blog urls. You'll notice that links to your blogs now appear on our course dashboard. Explore each other's posts, sign on as followers, and make a point of keeping up with your classmates' updates. Also, feel free to explore new blog templates as the semester progresses. How you present your thoughts can be as important as the thoughts themselves. To change your blog's layout, explore Blogger's template tab. Those of you with html background can fine-tune your blog with code. For the rest of you, tools like PsycHo provide a fun way to develop and explore new layouts.

As I mentioned at our last meeting, although we will not have a regular class meeting this week, we will be visiting the Wagner Free Institute on 9/11 to discuss our semester project. Meet me in the History Department lobby at 1:30 and we'll walk over together.

Also, as you've probably inferred, I will use our course dashboard as my primary means for communicating with the class. Check here often for updates. I also recommend subscribing to the RSS feed (see upper left portion of dashboard) to have updates appear in your preferred feed reader. Please ask me if any/all of this doesn't make sense and I'll be sure you get up to speed asap.

See you Friday!

Tech Workshops

Temple's Computer Services will be offering a number of technology workshops this semester that will not only help you think about the possibilities for new media in public history, but will also enhance your ability to develop a media-rich final presentation in conjunction with our Wagner project. You will receive one point for completing any of the sessions listed below and providing evidence that you have. This is not a required assignment, but I encourage all of you to attend as many of these sessions as possible--especially because they are free!

Point-worthy sessions include:

• Welcome to Final Cut Pro!
• Welcome to Audacity! The Audio Production Solution
• Learn How to Podcast Like a Pro in 60 Minutes!
• Utilizing Social Media: How Can Social Media Tools Work for You?
• Dreamweaver CS3 series
• The 60 Minute Graphics Series: Scan and Color Correct a Photograph

To learn more about each session, view schedules, and register, visit the TU Seminars & Workshops calendar. Search for the above sessions by entering each title in the "keyword search" field.

Here we go...

Thanks, everyone, for a fun first meeting. Today's exercise was intended to get us thinking about challenges faced by public historians in various settings. During our next regular meeting, we'll delve deeper into the problem of definitions, think more broadly about what exactly public historians do, and try to make sense of the field's broader historical context.

Until then, be sure to:
1. Let me know if you can attend next Friday's meeting at Wagner.
2. Join H-Public.
3. Get your blog up and running--and let me know when you have.
4. Review important dates (assignments, discussion leadership, etc.) and let me know about any conflicts asap.
5. Explore the course dashboard.
5. Get a head start on readings for 9/14.

Good luck!

Welcome to Managing History!

This course introduces the practical considerations and theoretical issues concerning the public management, ownership, and interpretation of historical resources. Emphasis is placed on resource management policy, museum practice, historical preservation, historical society governance, digital history, and other elements related to the dissemination of public memory. We will find out who manages our shared heritage and determine how historians can best contribute to the formulation and preservation of a shared past.