Davis McCarn Award: Digital Curation Innovation Center
Original Story by The Citizen, Pg 7
The Newsletter of Citizens for Maryland Libraries (CML)
Since its inception in 2015, the Digital Curation Innovation Center (DCIC) at the College of Information Studies (iSchool), University of Maryland has worked to generate new forms of his- torical research, particularly in the areas of social justice, human rights, and cultural heritage, while pioneering advances in computational treatment of archival and cultural content, which is helping to foster understanding of our cultural heritage and educating students in the use of technology to bring history alive.
To highlight one project, DCIC is partnering with the Maryland State Archives on the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland Project. The program seeks to preserve and promote experiences that shaped the lives of Maryland’s African American population. As part of the project, students are working with two types of documents held by the Archives – Manumission documents that provide a record of enslaved persons who were freed by slave holders, and Certificates of Freedom that record proof of African Americans born free. These documents contain vital information about those who were enslaved; however, research of old records, whether in print or scanned is a very difficult task.
Other DCIC projects include:
• IRP2: International Research Portal for Holocaust Era Cultural Property
• Japanese-American Internment WWII Camps
• Mapping Inequality: Redlining the US
• Global Journeys, Local Communities: Tracking Human Migration Through Archives and Digital Curation
Read more, pg 7