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The site aims to connect people with the records, using Web 2.0 tools as a means to an end, not the end in itself. Her main points were:
- Meaning Making: Different audiences are looking for different types of meaning and will use the records differently. If you create a site that allows the users "social space" to add their own stories, be prepared for them to add very different types of information than what you might expect!
- Shared Authority: Recognize that others have expertise and might be able to both correct your information or add to your information. It can be a great way, for example, to collect those missing names on photographs, or to make the connection between two correspondents that had eluded you.
- Distributed Curation: This allows you to personalize the user's experience. Have them register for the site so they can make comments, and maybe even allow them to create a profile to share with other users.
What is the role of the archivist in all of this? Yakel suggests these possibilites:
- Technological/Interface Determinism: Being merely the creator of the social space, providing the site and the documents.
- Archivists as Social Beings: If you allow users to leave comments, how involved should the archivist become in responding? how much responsibility do we have because we created the site? how much time does it take away from our other duties? do we allow the social space to become a reference interaction? (Yakel suggests "no" for that last question.)
- Shared Mediation: If there isn't already a real-life community to draw on, can you create a virtual, online community for your collections?
Interesting ideas to think about when developing a new webpage or thinking about digitizing collections.
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