Posts – Max Corbin Course Blog

Defense of Contract

This is my final blog post on this website. While I did not manage to post every week as intended, I did as much as I could. This post is a defense of the USAO Contract regarding our project site for The Catcher in the Rye – Catching Their Ire.

Tools Used

WordPress was obviously used and was helpful in our project. Robert and I both have experience working with the site prior to this class, he specifically with the Pique theme, and I feel it worked well. There were occasional difficulties with my understanding of the drop-down menu as when I added a page a certain function would allow or disallow the page to jump straight to the top bar, causing a bit of frustration. This is part of why our pages were published so late was to avoid this background issue. Pages would sit in the back as we finished them in order to allow for a bulk of finished pages to appear on the site in their proper places.

Storymap.js was used to show where Catcher was banned between the ’60s and ’80s. This map displays how far flung the challenges were and gives hints as to other cases. Because they would require as much or more digging than our personally chosen case, we decided not to focus on fleshing out the other challenges and leaving it up to individuals who visit the site to choose which challenge they are personally interested in and look into it.

Coggle was used in the background to organize our ideas initially. As we delved further into the project, it was tossed to the side. We mainly kept each other accountable through discussions over messages or emails.

Gimp 2 was our primary source of picture editing when it comes to the newspaper articles. Articles were copied, sometimes more than one to a page for simplicity, and needed cleaned and labeled once scanned into the computer. This experience allowed me to get a better feel for Gimp, which I hope to use on a personal basis.

Online Databases gave us a good chance to find information. Unfortunately, a majority of the information found may not have been used.

OneNote2016/Evernote were somehow difficult for me to use and due to continual email errors which were experienced, we ditched the programs.

Division of Labor

The legislative and historical context became one and the same, aside from synopsis and biography. As such, the legislative section may not be as fleshed out as previously hoped for, however there is context provided as to the racial tension of the 1960’s. While this is not necessarily tied in to the Tulsa case, it is important to note any kind of political tension can cause tempers to flare. The synopsis page, while short, is exactly what we said it would be. A brief introduction for those who have not read the book.

The StoryMap, as discussed above, was to discuss the bannings of a 20 year span. The commonality found was profanity and obscenity, we are hoping that as this site is more targeted toward high school or college level and above audiences they will be able to deduce the thread between bannings.

All transcriptions were done by hand and uploaded to SoundCloud for a clean appearance. While typos occurred, that is to be expected and cannot always be fully avoided. These interviews did not have much to say about our case in particular, though they do highlight the contexts of Catcher in the Rye and Oklahoma as a state.

Milestones

I don’t recall if I really made any of the milestones aside from having a completed rough site and now having a final site. This semester was a wild ride from start to finish with many large projects that kept battling each other for my undivided attention. I put the most time out of all of them into this class and I hope it shows in this final site.

Progress Report

This week we are critiquing each others sites and working on correcting ours. I was assigned to critique To Save a Mockingbird .
Unfortunately, this post is going to be briefer than my last due to the pressure of finals here at USAO and the crunch of attempting to correct the website before I return home where I will have no access to wifi and working on my phone will be incredibly difficult.

Progress Report #4 : Completion of Tasks

Finally, the website has been, to my knowledge, prepared for critique.
My aunt has never gotten back to us, so we are considering that a dead lead for the time.
I am so happy to be completing this seemingly monumental task. I know this is not the final step, however it is a big portion of this project completed and it feels nice to have that effort put forth.
All three interviews which we have selected from our initial compilation to be the most beneficial for the site have been transcribed, edited and posted. The historical/legislative context has been posted. While it is not as magnificent as I had once expected, it is satisfying to myself to see it done and at least giving some relevance. The storymap is up, on the front page currently, and gives some connections throughout two decades of time just in bannings. Robert has been a tremendous help in making sure the website looks professional and clean and I’m sure in the polishing stages will continue to be even more helpful with many aspects.
This post is relatively short due to my intense focus on classwork and inability to fully put into words how accomplished I feel just to have gotten this far with this website.

Readings #2 : Why Don’t Archivists Digitize Everything

With the opportunity to look back on previously assigned readings, I selected a piece which made sense at the time I was reading it, however makes a different impact after certain research experiences. When discussing why archivists choose to not include certain information in their files, the reason can be explained with something such as “it was not pertinant to the purpose of the file”. When discussing why not everything can go on the internet, answers can become more complex.

One important factors which can be overlooked when wanting to be able to find all archived information through the Internet is the sheer volume of papers that would have to be entered. This data not only includes the piece itself, but also the information which accompanies it, such as date, persons involved, or author credit. It must be considered when entering a physical archive to search which boxes may contain the information one wishes to look for. This is because of the potential miles of information gathered over one topic. Going into an archive with no regard for where to look is going to create a meaningless task.

Barbara McClintock. Smithsonian, 1947. Image. Smithsonian Creative Commons.

Other items are not as easy to scan as one may believe. Newspaper clippings which take up the majority of the front page may be bigger than a standard size scanner can handle, creating the need for an archvist to stitch together photos which may not match perfectly for several atttempts. Other materials may be preferred to digitize, however the question of how and how much to reveal comes into play as they may have sticky notes attached which obscure portions of the data.

Images, such as that of Barbara McClintock which is owned by the Smithsonian Museum, are digitized and placed within the creative commons due to their importance. Materials such as photographs of important figures can be counted easily as items to digitize without question a majority of the time. That person’s video slide, however, may not be as easy to digitize due to the way a scanner or camera is unable to capture what is seen when viewing the slide in its physical form.

Ensuring files are all digitized properly is another issue. Having been involved in the digitization of campus files, it is easy to see how taking the time to digitize all of even just one box takes so long it feels unworth doing. The papers tend to bend or be caught, and with one-of-a-kind works that is detrimental to their health and longevity.

Finally, while many of us think of digital files as “create and forget”, this is not the case. Over many years, corruption occurs on even the must sturdy of hardware, erasing portions of data. These files must be updated in this case, in which instance the physical files are once again. needed.

Digitizing records is nice for those who want to keep them short term and for a specific purpose. In the effort to bring information to everyone all the time, perhaps asking an archivist to find a particilar file or box and send pictures to ensure it is what one is looking for may be better than anticipating all archives to be digital soon.

This post is in reaction to Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives’ Why Don’t Archivists Digitize Everything? at PeelArchivesBlog.com, which can be found here.

Progress Report #3 : Possible New Connections

Some people are willing to come forward at the first mention or are easy to find within a few searches. For example, it didn’t take much to realize asking to speak with the board members or superintendent may be one way to gain information from Tulsa Schools. People who may not immediately come to mind are extended family.

One of my great-aunts, now the oldest of my grandmother’s siblings, lived in Tulsa for a large portion of her life. I did not recall this information and was reminded on my visit home this previous weekend during which I got sick. My great-aunt Karen lived in Tulsa with her now-late husband. During this time, she was a hairstylist. When I traveled to Tulsa, I did a short Facebook Live during a break to keep myself awake and interacting with familiar people. A week or so later, Karen visited my grandmother and asked if I had gone to speak with one lady in particular. I am still working on getting the details, but it appears as if Karen was a hairstylist for a woman who may have been at Edison Prep School in 1960 when The Catcher in the Rye was challenged. I have yet to be able to tell Robert about this possible break-though as I have been attempting to rest and he is traveling.

Baby Shower Gift. Bobbie, c. 2000. Painting.

In other news, we are taking feedback to heart. While this will be the only post to any website I will be able to make this week due to a lack of internet access at home, I will still be using physical copies of information to create the information to be posted on the site. Robert and I hope to have a large quantity of our content prepared and on the site by next Monday. Details are important to each of us, and this may be supported by the picture included in this post. I have had this painting around my entire life and only a few days ago realized it said “Tulsa World” on the red mailbox because at the time Mz. Bobbie lived in Tulsa.

This week may be a bit of downtime due to illness and stress, however there will still be work put in to maintain our schedule.

Meeting People #4 : Post-Interview

Thursday, Robert and I met with Dr. Finck at USAO. While we unfortunately did not gain as much information as we had hoped, Dr. Finck was still a wonderful resource and pointed us in other directions to further our search. He had not yet read The Catcher in the Rye, though did understand the stance of wanting to censor from the parental level if something were to be considered pornographic. This was a large claim in our case, so having a parental viewpoint aside from that of our own is useful.

Desk Capture. Max Corbin, 12 March 2018. Image.

Dr. Finck explained his area of expertise to us, which is good for future class references. We were directed to Dr. Hester, the American Indian Studies and Oklahoma History instructor here; Dr. Anderson, one of the Literature instructors here; and Dr. Rees, who may have instructed a class which discussed The Catcher in the Rye. That information will be followed-up on in the interview this Friday.

Dr. Brown was our interview last Friday and also incredibly helpful. She discussed censorship in general with us and reiterated parts of why Catcher is so controversial. She invited us to come back if we had any other questions for her and seemed whole-heartedly interested in our project.

Robert and I interviewed Dr. Hester today. His faculty page lists him correctly as the American Indian Studies professor and advisor, however there is little to no mention of his involvement with Oklahoma History outside of Native American context. This lead us to believe we may not receive helpful information from him. We were absolutely wrong, however, because Dr. Hester helped enormously in the context of Oklahoma in general. He corrected us on the belief of political lag, citing it as more of a strange inverted social atmosphere. Oklahoma began as a socialist-leaning state, housing more socialists than New York at one time, and during the era of the Tulsa case flipped to conservative views. Oklahoma does, however, have a social lag that can be about seven to ten years in length. This may be important as we look further into the historical context of the Tulsa challenge of Catcher in the Rye.

Overall, much information was gained from these interviews. While we may not have found the exact insight we were looking for, information was uncovered. One important take-away from these interviews, for me, was none of these individuals had heard of the Tulsa challenge much if at all. This really emphasized to me how much bannings in general get covered, but also just how far people were willing to go to in order to cover unfavorable events.

Meeting People #3 : Interview Prep

On the morning of March 5, I received emails from both USAO professors who were contacted and both are willing to do interviews. The process to select these instructors included personal experience in classes with them and reading the
university’s faculty and staff directory page. Dr. Brenda Brown is the American Literature expert at this campus and Dr. James Finck is the American History expert. As our book was published in the United States and our cases will all be located within the United States, we decided these two would be the best candidates on this campus to interview. Below are questions we intend to ask each interviewee.

Precautionary

May we record this interview?

May we transcribe this interview and quote it?

May we place this interview on the USAO project site for historical and educational purposes?

Both

What controversies arose during the time period given?

How was censorship handled during this time period?

Does the 1960 Tulsa banning of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger make you think of anything significant?

Dr. James Finck

What was the American political climate during the 1950s to the 1960s?

What were some of the domestic policies at the time?

Do you know the Oklahoma political climate during the aforementioned time period?

Who were in administrative positions within the federal and Oklahoma state governments of this time?

Dr. Brown

What were the literary movements during the 1960s, and how did they impact Oklahoma if at all?

Do you know of the controversies surrounding The Catcher in the Rye and what is your opinion on it?

What do you know of the bannings of The Catcher in the Rye in Oklahoma?

Old book bindings at the Merton College library. Tom Murphy VII. 25 August 2005, Image.

Robert has also contacted some of his previous instructors from another college to attempt to obtain information from them. To my understanding, one is offering library resources which may or may not be available at USAO and others may be willing to give interviews. If necessary, more instructors will be contacted for interviews. The transcripts should be available by the end of next week on the team project site.

Progress Report #2 : Furthering Research

Thus far, Robert and I have chosen our book, chosen our local case and begun to connect nation-wide instances of challenges and bans. Our book is absolutely The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and we are looking into the instance of a Tulsa teacher leaving the district in 1960.

Robert has emailed a school is Issquah, Washington, regarding their challenge in 1978. While we have not yet heard from them, this information will be used in a StoryMap to connect cases. As of the writing of this post, Robert has just heard back from the Oklahoma Historical Society and his email is being forwarded. I will soon be emailing another member of the Tulsa Public School District Administration to find information regarding the Tulsa case.

On Friday, February 23rd, I traveled from Chickasha to Tulsa in order to visit the Tulsa City-County Library. While there, I discovered multiple newspaper clippings in the vertical files for ourselves and others to use. These ranged from directly discussing the Tulsa teacher leaving and reasons for the book challenge, to how the challenge was used in what we are calling the “Smutmobile Case” a year later. There was also an article regarding Muskogee banning To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Files Pulled from the Vertical Files. Max Corbin, 23 Feb 2018. Image.

The Smutmobile Case lead to legislation in 1961 regarding the distribution of pornographic material. While similar laws have been on the books since at least 1958 from what I could find, this was a major instance of civilian protest which influenced the outcome. Our Tulsa case was mentioned in the news articles regarding the hearing as evidence censorship was necessary to protect the children from the evils of the world.

After making copies of the articles I found, I realized how much time I had left before the end of the school day and decided to visit Edison Prep to try to find more information. When I arrived, the office personnel seemed enthusiastic to help, although they knew what I sought could not be found at the school. I was given directions to the location of the School Board and went across town to visit there. At Tulsa Schools Board of Education, I met with the Board Clerk for a few minutes. She showed me “The Vault” where minutes are kept and gave me contact information for another person who was not presently in and could better help me. She was incredibly interested in the case of censorship and enthusiastic to provide as much support as possible. She also gave me a small idea of how challenges are progressed in the Tulsa Public School system.

Overall, I had a fantastic and fruitful day trip to Tulsa. The library is simply beautiful and the people were more than happy to interact and help. There was little, if any, red tape I had to step through to talk face-to-face with someone even on a moment’s notice. My next step is to email the person whom I was directed to and see what information she has after recovering from the flu. I will also be compiling information for the StoryMap.

Meeting People #2 : Survey of Technology

Tuesday, February 13, 2018, Robert and I went to our IT Services to inquire about what technologies are available to us on the USAO campus. Mr. Adeel Siddiqui, the network administrator, met with us and gave us some advice on where to find various tools and equipment, along with people who could be good resources.

Mr. David Duncan is the TV/Video specialist at our school. We learned of his office, phone number and email address. Mr. Duncan could assist us if we desired to use some of the campus audio/video equipment to record anything for our project. He also has drones and possibly voice recorders, which are interesting and practical, respectively. Thankfully, for class purposes, I already have a personal voice recorder which we have used already in doing research.

Motherboard of Toshiba HD-A1. 26 Oct 2008, Simpsons Contributor. Creative Commons.

The next big piece of advice and information we were given by Mr. Siddiqui was how to find all of the computer labs on campus. This is the web page provided to students which lists the location and number of computers to each lab on campus. These computer labs are accessible by all students unless otherwise noted, in which case the person in charge should be easy to reach. There is at least one computer lab listed as public that not many tend to use as it is commonly attributed to being the Art Major lab where they can process their digital art best or access specific programs they are required to use. My understanding is this lab also prints color images, which is not noted on the page.

We were told about the lecture capture which is available for some classes and the school’s intent to put the technology in nearly every classroom on campus. This was pleasant to hear, as well as helpful in giving advice to other students in the future, despite not being immediately relevant to our situation. Mr. Scott Haselwood, director of instructional technology at USAO, is in charge of the lecture capture, as well as any technologies used in the classroom. He could be incredibly helpful with finding additional online tools we do not already know about or troubleshooting with certain tools we are already using. Mr. Haselwood sends a monthly newsletter email regarding technologies in the classroom, each displaying new tools or programs available to students and instructors alike. Mr. Siddiqui gave us Mr. Haselwood’s office, phone and email as well to contact him with any questions.

Overall, I have a sense that any tools or resources we do not have that we may need are either already available or able to be obtained here.

Readings #1 : Writing History on the Web

Having created some minor educational content on the Internet previously for classes and for personal projects, it had not occurred to me that some individuals do not see a need to create academic work when writing online. I have difficulty in the learning curve, however I do attempt to point viewers in the direction that I gain information from, especially when the topic is politically or historically relevant.

Accessible writing is necessary, although target audiences may still need to be kept in mind. If writing for an upper level academic endeavor, perhaps some jargon without explanation is needed. As is quoted from George Orwell “…Break any of these rules sooner than say something barbarous”, which is, to my understanding, a rule for all variants of writing.

Johannes Vermeer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
United States Public Domain according to PD-1923

Hyperlinks can be a great resource when the information is universally accessible. Academic papers, especially those in journals rather published on personal websites, can be next to impossible for someone who is trying to do research outside of a higher education setting if they do not have the funds available to purchase subscriptions or individual papers. When the information is free and readily available, it can lead to a fantastic rabbit-hole of source after source, deepening knowledge of the subject.

While some are aware and others are not, each person is currently living in what will become history. By taking pictures of what is important or what is right in front of them, individuals can contribute to the greater overall story of humanity. When tragic or monumentous events are documented on the Internet, they become recounts of individual perspectives which can be traced and researched in the future. These are the kinds of “paper-trails” children can trace their heritages through, similar to the digitization of physical papers which are placed on sites such as Ancestry.

Events are now recorded as they happen from many views, including that of perpetrators. Take for example the instance in October of 2016 when Michael Vance recorded Facebook Live videos of his run from police. First hand accounts are often retold to children, however these stories, an subsequently cultures, are lost due to oppression or loss of memory. Audio and some videos are additionally helpful for the visually impaired to access information in a way that allows human-like connection.

The article was informative as to the perspective of those who typically do not consider an audience when writing online. It causes curiosity on my part as to what practices have caused me to overlook a site because it had an inappropriate audience focus, looked incredibly unattractive or generally created dead ends for my research.

This post is in reaction to Sean Kheraj’s Best Practices for Writing History on the Web at ActiveHistory.ca, which can be found here.