Why create the Antarctica exhibit?
This project, like most of its kind, was done for a number of reasons. I
decided to join my Grandmother on her trip to Antarctica two years ago. At
that time, I didn't know anything about the World Wide Web or Mosaic. (Mosaic
didn't exist then!) I knew that this would be one of the most special trips
of my life, however, and that there would be a lot of demand for information
about it from people I knew.
A topic for a prototype exhibit
When I learned about Mosaic, I wanted to learn more about how it worked
and how to create HTML documents. I needed an interesting topic for a
large project: one that was rich enough to involve many of the needs of a
real-life information service and to require the deeper features of HTML
and HTTP servers. The Antarctica trip was an obvious choice. Not only
would I have a topic for an extensive exhibit, I'd also have a way to tell
curious people about the trip without having to explain it all over and
over.
The involvement of SILS
But there were other reasons as well. The School of Information and
Library Studies was also interested in Mosaic and the World Wide Web as an
information service medium. We wished to explore the possibilities of the
medium, and to begin developing training for our students in its use. As
Manager of Information Technology Services, I felt a responsibility to
learn for myself, and to provide a good example of what could be done with
the technology.
Our students are taught about the theory of information management and
intellectual access, and this requires case studies and laboratory
projects. In order to be able to do these, the students need access to
data in many forms (images, text, audio, video). Capturing information
about the Antarctica trip and making it available digitally creates a new
set of data for the students to work with, and I am making the pictures,
journal entries, and audio recordings of the trip available to the
students of our school (and anyone else in similar activities) for
educational use.
A unique information resource at the University
It is clear that in the digital age, with the Internet and the future
Information Superhighway bringing information services from all around the
world into our reach, the value of libraries and other information
storehouses will no longer rest solely in providing local copies of
information to local users, but instead will rely heavily on the types of
new information that are made available from each site to users all over
the world. The Antarctica exhibit also serves as a magnet to draw
interest to the University of Michigan and the School of Information and
Library Studies, as the providers of this information.
Bringing together Antarctica-related information to raise awareness
In surveying the information that was currently available on Antarctica
through the Internet, it became clear to me that there isn't much yet.
And what is available isn't provided in a coherent way (organized for
intellectual access). This exhibit serves yet another purpose by acting
as an organizational tool for the information that is already available,
as well as being a new information resource in its own right. The information
resources section was added for this purpose, as well as to teach me more
about Antarctica before I left. That section is also being added to the
University's Clearinghouse of
Subject-oriented Internet Resource Guides in order to help people who
wish to learn more about Antarctica. I hope that through this effort,
there can be a greater awareness of the importance of the Antarctic
environment, and a greater sensitivity for the need to preserve the
environmental resources of Antarctica.
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