Category Archives: History & Technology

Technology postcards, which are exciting to me (but probably not to you) because I made them!

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Miriam

Here’s something kind of silly: a set of postcards I made for Yale’s Instructional Technology Group to advertise the Teaching with Technology Tuesdays series of workshops on technology and pedagogy. Each one is an image of older reading technology, which … Continue reading →

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The internet worked again!

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Miriam

I was thinking about my last post, in which I said my experience with The Temple of Moloch was my first encounter with Internet-ty Scholarly Synergy. I remembered, though, that this is actually untrue. Back when I worked at the … Continue reading →

Posted in History & Technology, research | 2 Comments

Hey, the internet worked!

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Miriam

In theory, internet-based collaboration can improve the quality of scholars’ work. Though I didn’t have any reason to doubt this, I hadn’t actually experienced this for myself until recently. About a year ago I uploaded one of the films I’ve … Continue reading →

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Searchable database of AIDS-related obituaries

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Miriam

I think this is really powerful: the GLBT History Society and the Bay Area Reporter‘s searchable database of all obituaries that have appeared in the Bay Area Reporter (a newspaper that serves the GLBT communtiy) since 1979. I realized this … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Collections, History & Technology | Leave a comment

Beyond Bullet Points, or maybe not

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Miriam

I’ve been thinking about PowerPoint lately, and about how I might use it productively. It seems pretty clear that the blizzard-of-bullet-points method is not useful. Who can make sense of such tiny print so quickly? What’s the point of slapping … Continue reading →

Posted in History & Technology, Teaching, Tools | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Presenting, conferencing, sharing

Posted on April 26, 2009 by Miriam

I spent the last couple of days in Cleveland, where I was taking part in the American Association for the History of Medicine annual conference. I gave a talk on a project I’ve been working on, about the largely forgotten … Continue reading →

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I do not understand the point of curated databases

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Miriam

Lately I’ve been volunteering to do usability testing for Yale’s library. Well, “volunteering” is probably too generous a word, since Yale pays pretty well, in the form of iTunes and Barnes & Noble gift cards. I like the gift cards, … Continue reading →

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Technology and hyperbole

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Miriam

I’m a little creeped out by the messianic quality of a lot of talk about technology and society. Take the TED talks. Don’t they have a weird, hucksterish vibe? I love me some social networking and whatnot, but spare me … Continue reading →

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