Revisiting Requirements Gathering

Today we reviewed our Requirements Gathering session from last fall. It is easy to have scope-creep on a project that spans several years. We were reminded that we agreed to do the following:

  1. Each member of the team will choose a site, organization, or monument in Morningside Heights to help tell the story of how the neighborhood changed between 1850-1950 with the addition of Columbia University;

  2. This resource is not an archive of the history of Morningside Heights. We will draw on archives to tell the story of the neighborhood, but this is by no means a comprehensive archive;

  3. We will use Omeka as the tool to tell this story, including Neatline to help visualize the story in a different way;

  4. Each individual will chose items to contribute to the narrative by adding items to Omeka, creating metadata, and forming exhibits;

  5. While the product is important, the process of learning together is the most important aspect of this project. We will return to these requirements often since our ambitions often exceed what can be done in the allotted amount of time for this project!

Barbara Rockenbach

Author: Barbara Rockenbach

A librarian and art historian by training, Barbara is interested in how the digital humanities provide libraries a new model for scholarly engagement. Her research interests include information ethics, pedagogy and libraries, digital humanities in libraries, and 20th century photography.