Interview with Janneken Smucker, August 24, 2016

Partial Transcript: Okay so, so this is, this is Doug Boyd. I'm here with Janneken Smucker from West Chester University who, um, was one of the leaders in the 'Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration' digital project that utilized OHMS and we're going to talk about that for the podcast and the archive. Janneken, thank you.

Segment Synopsis: Smucker introduces herself and her digital project Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration. Smucker details her background in history, the humanities, and digital projects. Smucker explains the history of the Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration project and the importance of Charles Hardy's work and the original interviews he conducted during the 1980s with African Americans from the south who were part of the first wave of the Great Migration. Smucker also discusses some of the content of these interviews.

Keywords: Coding; Content management systems; Digital projects; Goin' North Tales of the Great Migration; Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration; Interactive websites; Metadata; Web projects

Subjects: African American families; African American neighborhoods; African Americans--Employment.; African Americans--Segregation; African Americans--Social conditions.; African Americans--Southern States.; African Americans.; Digital humanities.; Internet.; Metadata.; Migration, Internal; Oral history.; Philadelphia (Pa).; Philadelphia (Pa.)--Social conditions.; Race discrimination.; Racism.; Rural African Americans.; United States--Race relations.

Partial Transcript: Talk about what's happening here having students be the makers of this, 'cause the students are preparing literally the thing that the user, and users from all over the world, are now using this collection. Talk about that, because this is one of the coolest parts of this whole thing, that students were doing this.

Segment Synopsis: Smucker discusses the active learning aspect of her digital project. She also discusses both the limitations and potential in digital projects, particularly with respect to collaboration.

Keywords: Active learning; Archiving; Backend; Collections; Digital storytelling; Empowerment; Indexing; Pedagogy; Workflow

Subjects: Archives.; Digital humanities.; Internet.; Metadata.; Oral history--Methodology.; Oral history.; Public history.; Research.; Teaching.

Partial Transcript: Walk us through the Goin' North website.

Segment Synopsis: Smucker describes the Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration website. She also discusses the immersive potential of digital history projects.

Keywords: Archiving; Collections; Digital storytelling; Goin' North Tales of the Great Migration; Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration; Open source software; Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS); Startup companies; Third-party tools

Subjects: Digital humanities.; Internet.; Metadata.; Oral history.; Public history.; Research.

Partial Transcript: So, so what's next?

Segment Synopsis: Smucker discusses the legacy of the Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration project, and the potential of the project as a model for future projects now that the Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration project has run its course. Smucker discusses the future and other potential directions for Goin' North and other projects.

Keywords: Accessibility; Archiving; Collections; Curating; Digital storytelling; Goin' North Tales of the Great Migration; Goin' North: Tales of the Great Migration; Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS)

Subjects: Digital humanities.; Internet.; Metadata.; Oral history.; Public history.; Research.