The recording of the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative’s 2023 Awardee Project Celebration is now available online!
CCDI’s Higher Education and Libraries, Archives and Museums awardees wowed audiences with their projects and shared their experiences using and re-mixing the Library’s digital collection collections. Keep reading below for a brief synopsis of each project.
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University of New Mexico (UNM)
Through their project, “Remember the South Broadway—Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Oldest African American Community,” UNM created a digital zine and 3D model of a local public library to document and amplify Albuquerque’s earliest African American neighborhood. Dr. Natasha Howard, UNM faculty, remixed an oral history collection and local and community archives (created by South Broadway residents) with a range of Library digital materials (maps, photographs and rare books) to create the digital zine, which will be used for UNM courses, K-12 classes and shared with the larger public in New Mexico. We also heard from two students who participated in UNM’s project, Omid Shafigh Khatibi and Brayden Palmer, and showcased their project contributions.
“New Mexico is known as a tri-cultural state which is to say that it is Anglo, Hispanic and Native American. And part of my reason for beginning this project was to bring in the voices and experiences and more importantly the sort of visual history of African Americans into New Mexico.” —Dr. Natasha Howard, UNM Project Lead
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Guild Hall of East Hampton
For their project, Guild Hall collaborated with its Community Artists-in-Residence, Wunetu Wequai Tarrant and Christian Scheider, and the nonprofit organization, The Padoquohan Medicine Lodge, to support the reclamation and revitalization of the Shinnecock language. The project utilized immersive 3D, virtual reality, and holographic technology to create two immersive orations to be exhibited at Guild Hall from May 18 to July 15. The project facilitated language research utilizing historical texts and the Library’s collection of digitized books from the 17th through the 20th centuries, including the Eliot Bible held in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division. This work resulted in the creation of an online database which includes interviews and stories shared by Shinnecock Tribal members, a compilation of materials utilized to help with Shinnecock language research and education, and a community-generated video archive for the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge.
“It’s a little ironic that a tool that was used to take our language from us is the very same tool that we are using to bring it back. I’m just eternally grateful that we have this and that we have access to it. That it’s in the Library of Congress’ collections and we’ll continue to reference this specific resource in our work because it is the closest resource we have of the Shinnecock dialect of Algonquin.” —Wunetu Wequai Tarrant, Guild Hall of East Hampton Community Artist-in-Residence
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Boone County Public Library (BCPL)