Calling all librarians! Researchers! Educators! Students! If you are interested in looking at a really revolutionary website, take a look at the National Archives Experience Digital Vaults (http://www.digitalvaults.org/). This is probably the closest I’ve seen to a 2-D interface replicating the experience of wandering through browsing library stacks and picking up any piece of information that looks interesting. It is, quite simply, very cool.
It is designed with Flash, which historically has not been friendly on the accessibility side of things. Regardless, it is an interesting experience and inspiring design. [Note: there is a HTML version, but obviously not as full featured as the Flash version.]
When you visit, you are asked to pick a starting point. From there, you can journey through 1,200 or so records. You can save what you find for reference later in your own personalized collection. You can also create posters and movie clips right there which can be emailed or saved to your account. Registration with the site is required to take advantage of these features.
Each time I look at it I am struck by how engaging it is. I think they’ve really accomplished something by taking what can be an incredibly frustrating experience (digging up archives) for some people and breathed new life into it.
Related Links:
Visitors are welcome to contribute feedback. Please be aware that comments are moderated and any post that goes against our terms of service is subject to removal.
Content © Office of Information Technology Blog
Powered by WordPress
Log in
36 queries.
1.837 seconds.
