Normally, I’m not one to praise politicians for fulfilling promises. After all, political vows usually ring hollow or aren’t met thanks to partisan wrangling, bickering, or compromise. I get that. Democracy itself is compromise, and sometimes politicians can’t follow through on the issues that they would like. But, at least in regards to his promise to provide “open and transparent government” – especially regarding the TARP and ARRA – President Obama has thus far delivered.

Case in point: Discretionary funding for transportation improvements.

Yesterday, I had a question at work regarding when the U.S. Department of Transportation would be able to release discretionary funding to the States. Thanks to an online version of the ARRA, the newly created Recovery.gov, and several other online resources I was able to find out exactly when the funding would be open for competitive bidding. Mind you, this let me sort through a 400 page legal document in 10 minutes.

If the Federal Government can keep this up then as someone who does this for a living I might just be impressed.

While my I haven’t had many substantial posts as of late I recalled an old conversation during my recent flight to Seattle. Brian, an old high school teammate, teaches Middle School History and Civics in Carthage, Missouri and tries to integrate new media into his curriculum whenever possible. I mentioned that there are quite a few online primary source materials. Moreover, there are several other organizations such as the Center for New Media and History at George Mason University which do some really cool work.

Most students are introduced to primary and secondary sources in Middle or High School, but I’m not convinced that they really get the full breadth of the two. I know that for myself  the idea was this:

Primary - original source

Secondary - interpretive source

The truth is that not all students take away anything here. Notably, it is very important to know that being able to distinguish between primary and secondary sources can be very helpful from a research perspective. And… the Internet can help. Here’s how.

For several years now librarians have been making the argument that we don’t need to get patrons to come to us but that we need to go to our patrons. Libraries need to adopt Twitter, use Blogs, and offer content online. Assuming that libraries and archives take this approach, it’s not much of a stretch to teach High School students (who rely on the internet anyway) that you can find digital copies of primary sources online. And, once they realize this, the point also can be made that they can find originals in their physical host institutions too.

Student familiarities with primary source materials are often limited by access. There just aren’t many obvious and marketed archival repositories in existence. For example, how many of you had a chance to utilize NARA’s resources when working on your High School papers? College papers? I’m sure the answer is none and I think it gets to very important point. If archivists can remove this obstacle then it’s more feasible for a teacher utilize a broad spectrum primary sources; online of course. Sure, doing so doesn’t ensure that that students will “get it” (that primary sources are historical artifacts which can commonly be used as evidence), but it certainly can provide more opportunities for them to learn.

My new job has begun in earnest and I have a dilemma. I won’t have to deal with it for a while, but eventually one of my bosses is going to ask me to complete revamp an old publication repository. So… friends, bloggers, tech-geeks lend me your ideas.

The MoDOT Innovation Library is an on-line list of all transportation publications created by the Missouri Department of Transportation. And, to be honest, it’s not so much a library as it is a static webpage. All files are saved and provided in PDF format. Moreover, previous cataloging records point directly to these files via their traditional URLs. I need to find a way to organize these files – hopefully in a way that is full-text searchable – and eventually provide access to them. I also have to do it without deleting the originals. Bottom line? I need to create something with tons of capabilities and to maintain what is already there. What are my options?

I could go with ContentDM and have the State Library help. My little library already does this with Connexion and Millennium.

I could use an open source piece of software like Omeka.

I could create a more organized and dynamic webpage.

I could leave the files on the server and simply revamp the main page.

To be honest I want to scrap the whole page, create a separate container for in-house publications, and create a library page in it’s pace. We don’t currently have one, but I’m not so sure if that will be allowed. Anyway, any suggestions out there?