Course Offerings

In this class, students will first learn some fundamentals of cultural heritage informatics and be introduced to the major kinds of institutions in this space: galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. Students will also see case studies of how fundamental concepts like access or metadata get used in contemporary examples.

This course we will explore the concepts and values of open knowledge and knowledge equity and how they intersect with the ongoing evolution of digital environments. Open knowledge can be described as information that is freely available to the public to use and redistribute. Knowledge equity extends beyond information access and use to also include what is valued as knowledge, whom that knowledge represents, and who creates it.

Engage in modern ethical dilemmas within archives, libraries, and museums, considering issues of collections management and preservation within changing cultural frameworks. This I 320C topic carries the Cultural Diversity in the United States flag. The purpose of the Cultural Diversity in the United States Flag is for students to explore in-depth the shared practices and beliefs of one or more underrepresented cultural groups subject to persistent marginalization. In addition to learning about these diverse groups in relation to their specific contexts, you’ll also reflect on your own cultural experiences.

This course introduces digital archival collections that can be accessed and used as data for research and inquiry. Topics will focus on the transformation, analysis, and interpretation of digital cultural heritage in archival contexts, including digitization, web archiving, software emulation, and data archiving. From text messages, Spotify playlists, to the President's tweets--how are digital traces collected, preserved and managed by archives? What are the ethics of managing digital archives and making them accessible to researchers, the public, and machines?

In this class, we will explore different strategies for including games in collections across libraries, archives, and museums using case studies of specific institutions. We will also address unique qualities of digital and board games that make them challenging to existing practice in the field. Students will have hands-on experience with games through the semester.

Learning key data wrangling maneuvers in abstract and implementations in SQL, Excel, R Tidyverse, and Python Pandas. Maneuvers in data transformations include Nest, Pivot, Mutate (inc. separate/unite), Group/Summarize and Rectangling. Projects include working with "wild caught" data datasets (usually CSV or JSON) and computational notebook environments (e.g., iPython, Jupyter, Rmarkdown, Quarto). Fall 2024 has changes from previous syllabus now that we have Database Design and Introduction to Programming. Nonetheless, the previous syllabus is still useful as it links to course materials that show the teaching approach and type of assignments. http://howisonlab.github.io/datawrangling/#Schedule_of_classes

Exhibits are a powerful way for libraries, archives, museums, and cultural institutions to engage the public with their collections. This course offers students the opportunity to plan and install an exhibit, focusing on objectives such as: crafting a narrative around physical objects; drafting exhibit text; accommodating media preservation issues; building basic display supports; and publicizing the exhibit. Students will learn about the historical origins of modern-day exhibit practices and will visit and evaluate current exhibits on campus and in the Austin area.