This week I took a break from editing our website. I plan today to look back at it today with fresh eyes so that I can fix and update it. Instead this week I reviewed and made comments on the St. Mary’s site using hypothesis. This was helpful for me because, not only did they use the same theme (Parabola) in WordPress, they also did a challenge about a book by Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon. I liked seeing the way they used Parabola to create their website and how they laid things out. It was helpful to see the way they set up their navigation because it lets me understand the way some people may approach a website, this will help me to make sure our website is approachable to as many people as possible.  I also like they information and especially the videos they included of Toni Morrison. I thought it was nice to hear her opinion on censorship, her process, etc.

Another thing I really enjoyed about their website was they way they incorporated all of their primary documents. Their website is a treasure trove of newspaper articles, and letters to and from the school board, as well as a large file containing the teachers collection of student writings on the book challenge. Because there were so many primary documents, they faced the challenge of incorporating all of the documents into the website while also providing context for the documents and connecting them to the case as a whole. I liked the way they provided the original documents, while also transcribing them into the pages to increase the ability to search for the text and the accessibility. I have to say I am very impressed with the amount of information on their site.

The main suggestion I had for them was to better connect their documents. After reading through all of their pages, I realized that I still didn’t really understand how everything fit together. I suggested that they add a few pages as jumping off points where they summarized what happened in their case, and give a master list of resources, linking out to pages where they go into more detail about different specifics on the case.

This week has been really quiet due to making comments on other groups websites while waiting on their suggestions. I decided to revisit the article “Why don’t archives digitize everything?” For me personally I think that everything should be digitized and saved because that’s just how I am. Every magazine, assignment, basically any piece of paper, I try to save. Even if it is never going to be looked at again I want to keep it. While I do end up recycling most of these things part of me wonders whether or not future generations would want to see a math test from third grade. Yes, I know it’s a tad crazy but I’m all about preservation of just about everything.

The first point that the article makes is that digitization is really expensive and time consuming. I found a website that sells these types of products and found that a thing called the ‘Preservation Pencil,’ which directs moisture, is $2000. This product doesn’t digitize, it is about preserving the paper and it is that expensive. To buy digitization products, you have to be a member of NARA (National Archives and Records Administration.) If money wasn’t a factor as to why more things aren’t digitized I would gladly spend all my time doing it because I love it. At UMW, we have a digital collection, but I have not spent time there. I know that one person works with the records so I assume that it is a small collection. There is also a digital archives class at UMW, which I regret not taking because I think that it would have been really interesting.

To manage a digital archive you have to be extremely tech savvy. You have to have a computer with a large hard drive and know all the ins and outs of the format changes that each piece of content brings. The article mentions that these formats are constantly changing, which is difficult to deal with when the process costs so much. Hopefully, the costs go down due to how digital our society has become. It makes sense to me that as tech takes over digitization of records would be a normal thing so the costs go down due to such high demand. At least that is what I’m crossing my fingers will happen.

I had a weird feeling come over me today when Sean and I were presenting our website. I didn’t realize until later that it was pride—in the website, all the work we did, and what we were able to present. It’s not that I wasn’t proud up until that point, but I’m usually not the best at public speaking, so I don’t usually experience that level of pride where I want to show everyone everything about my project if I don’t have to. But that’s what happened today. I wanted to brag about how awesome, at least to me, everything turned out. I was worried I was actually going to take up too much time. It was a great feeling, but I also know that it just means I’m going to take the critiques of my website that much harder. I understand the necessity and that it will only serve to make the website better, but I’ve always been a bit afraid of criticism even if it is constructive. I’m looking forward to improving my website based on the feedback, but I almost wish that part was over with already. Similarly, I find it hard to wait for criticism. I know, it makes no sense. Why would I say I hate criticism and then say I’m impatient for it? It’s because I know it’s coming; I want it as soon as possible, so I can address the issues as soon as possible.

I’m plan on keeping my fears in mind when using Hypothesis to evaluate UNC Ashville’s website. I can already tell they put a lot of work into it and that any suggestions I have are just things intended to strengthen the website rather than point out something they missed.

I’m been looking over the other websites for the past few weeks now, both inside and outside of class, but I’m looking forward to doing an in-depth study of Buncombe & The Bluest Eye. I have never read the book, but I have studied Toni Morrison, so I’m interested to learn more. Furthermore, their challenge was more recent, so I definitely think that will lend to a website structure and information portrayal that differs from ours. I’m planning on going over the website throughout the week to really get a feel for it, so that my feedback is useful and not just criticism, which I definitely understand is hard to take.

I don’t handle constructive criticism well at first, but after moving past the initial feeling of being uncomfortable, I take it for the often valuable advice it is. One thing I really like about the COPLAC class is that even though we are not attending in the same space, it’s such a small group that it makes for a more intimate setting. I’m more comfortable with these fellow students critiquing my website because I’ve known them—stared at them over a computer screen, really—for weeks. Sometimes, with a bigger in-person class that doesn’t happen. I’m glad I got to experience a class like this before I graduate.

 

Today is certainly a day of accomplishment with the draft of our website being completed! Liz and I had a Behind the Rainbow bash on Sunday night, eating various desserts and filling in what was left of our site. Though last week had some disappointments such as Reverend Morse and Carole Barnabas not responding to us, we still feel the site is complete and fair. Even without Carole, we had interviews with two supporters of Rainbow Boys who were actively involved in handling the challenge with Trish Warren and Carly Maldonado. As for Reverend Morse, a personal response would definitely have been useful, we found lots of useful context on the Reverend’s Facebook page and the church website where he used to work. Through these pieces of evidence and Trish’s recount of Morse’s positions in the District meeting, we are able to get a pretty clear, though not certain, grasp of our challenger’s concerns. Personally, I had to look back at my Trish Warren page and take out some of my excess commentary that sparked some debate last week. I thought the details of her spat with student Devin seemed less important upon reflection, and that is also where I what could be interpreted as criticism of Trish’s decision. Thus, I decided to take out the dramatic details of the Perks of Being a Wallflower case, and just include Trish’s flexible position on weighing book’s themes against gratuitous content.

Liz and I were unsure how to approach historical context, but we found there has been a pretty noteworthy shift in perception of LGBT issues, especially gay marriage, since the early 2000s. Not only has the general population risen from 35%-62% support of gay marriage but evangelical white Protestants, holding beliefs that closely align to Morse’s, have seen support of gay marriage rise from 12% to 35% since 2006. So today, not only would the town’s general response have been different, but it’s more likely that even religious figures would not take issue with stories that promote acceptance of LGBT life. Along a similar note, I’m thinking maybe we could still add the District policy on LGBT students. I’m not certain, but I’d imagine in 2006 there probably was no official stance on protecting and helping LGBT students whereas now there is one. It’s hard to imagine any high ranking District official in 2018 doing what Agostenelli did and swiftly agreeing to ban a book on the basis of same-sex relationships.  

Looking forward, we’re certainly open to all criticism, but especially suggestions on the organization of content and having the appropriate balance of words, images etc. on each page of our site. We’ll also need to consider some final reflections for what our research has meant to us, what we’ve learned, and how we’ll move forward with it as to prepare for our presentation and maybe a page on our site as well.

This past week has been really busy in terms of putting finishing touches onto the website. Drexel and I went to the third floor of the St. Mary’s library, the media center, and set up our little work space to edit the video and go over additional materials for the website. Our case of Song of Solomon is progressing well, I feel that everyday as we approach our deadline we discover more information about the book, author, and the controversy. The first thing I showed my partner was the photo of David Flood with Toni Morrison. He. Was. Shocked. In our research we discovered that Toni Morrison visited St. Mary’s College, but we were unsure of the specific time and needed to do more research. As it turns out, the controversy in St. Mary’s County affected everybody and the College decided to award Toni Morrison the Margaret Brent award.

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With this new information under our belt, I took out the rest of the paperwork that David turned over to me after our interview. His bag was old, it was falling apart at the seams, and smelled of old newspapers. I took out all of the folders of old newspapers from the Enterprise, Washington Post, New York Times, and the school newspaper. Sprawled it all out over the table and started to show my partner how much David kept over these 25 years since the controversy. As I was sifting through the papers and explaining the papers, Drexel asked me about the white binder that was in the bag. He was onto my little surprise. I reached into the bag and pulled out David’s white binder, this binder contained a major piece to our puzzle. Earlier in the semester it was made clear by my Professors that we need to find the original complaint against the book. This task has proved more than difficult because St. Mary’s County Public Schools did not have the paperwork digitized, because it was over 25 years ago. Drexel and I went to the offices of St.Mary’s County Public Schools and sought to go through files and additional paperwork at their offices, we were denied entry because we did not have an appointment and the County Schools were off that week. Our attempts were blocked by forces out of our control, but we persisted and continued to reach out and seek for the letter and complaint against Song of Solomon.

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I pulled the binder from David’s bag and set it on the table. Opening to the first few pages I handed it to Drexel and said its what we have been missing all along. The binder held a copy of the original letter that would start months of controversy and debate. This letter from one parent, started the entire debate. No formal complaint was filed.

If I can be honest, I didn’t get around to adding what I needed to on the website this week until this morning. Most of what I needed to do was scour The Bluest Eye for passages that we think sparked the book challenges we address on our website. That took more work than I was expecting, but I was at least able to mark everything I found with a red ink pen. So I just relocated all the passages I wanted to add to the website this morning.

I made sure to add a trigger warning on the page where I put down the passages. I figured their sexually explicit content calls for some caution.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing everyone’s websites here soon. I think it is going to be really cool to take a peek at what everyone has created so far. I think it’ll be great for me and Rosanna to get some feedback from our peers on our website. I want to make sure it is one hundred percent ready for when we present it to the COPLAC system.

Rosanna and I have had a lot of difficulty with being able to meet in person lately. She texted earlier last week saying that she had to cancel meeting with me on Wednesday since she had a doctor appointment scheduled. So she asked to meet on Friday. But I had an appointment scheduled then too and I couldn’t miss it since I had it scheduled for three weeks. As a result, we’ve been emailing and texting each other back and forth to communicate what we plan to do with the website and what we need from each other. It has worked so far, but I do hope we can meet in person and collaborate more this week. I’m not exaggerating when I say our schedules conflict completely.

In the meantime, I’ve been listening to a very interesting audiobook while I commute back and forth from school. It’s called Educated: A Memoir and was written by Tara Westover, an American author born to a survivalist and radical Mormon father who strongly opposed public education. (I take great care to say “radical” since his views are pretty extreme and not representative of all Mormons.) So she was virtually forbidden from attending school.  Most of her childhood was spent working in her father’s junkyard or stewing herbs from her mother, a self-taught herbalist and widwife. At some point she decided to follow one of her brothers’ footsteps and pursue a higher education to escape her dangerous living conditions and abusive environment. She taught herself algebra and trigonometry from textbooks so she could prepare herself for taking the ACT, the first exam she had ever taken in her life. She ended up graduating magna cum laude from Brigham Young University and winning a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned her MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2010. She was awarded a PhD in history from Cambridge in 2014.

I can’t even begin to fully detail how remarkable her journey to her educational credentials were. So far, I just got past the part of the book where she asks her art history professor what the Holocaust was and the backlash she got from asking that question. Her early life, to me, is an extreme case of censorship and shows what that level of censorship can lead to – a life of conformity to your family’s values or a life where a person struggles to assimilate into the very world your family abhors. I just find it fascinating and think everyone needs to read that book.

That is all I have for now. I’m finding it more difficult to write lengthy blog posts as we have less and less work to get done. We’re almost to the finish line and it’s bittersweet for me.

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 … Continue reading Progress Report #4 : Completion of Tasks