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Shrinking the world: Digitising the ‘world’s most experienced airline’ and creating an aviation portal for the Digital Public Library of America
Journal of Digital Media Management,
11
(4),
341-354
(2023)
Abstract
In 2018, three peer institutions came together to digitise their respective collections related to Pan American World Airways, Inc., the self-proclaimed ‘world’s most experienced airline’. The institutions partnered with the Digital Public Library of America to engineer an innovative, subject-based portal related to commercial aviation, including a digital exhibit and primary source set. This paper discusses the challenges of creating such an innovative research tool, the lessons learned, and the overall sustainability of the project.
Keywords: Pan American World Airways; grant-funded digitisation; content aggregation; public history; digitisation; aviation history
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Gabriella Williams is the Digital Projects Librarian at University of Miami Libraries (UML) and has been working on grant-related digitisation projects since she began her employment there in 2017. She holds a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Iowa and a master of library and information science from Florida State University. In addition to her ten years’ experience at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Gabriella has a strong background in commercial aviation history, having served as the project manager for UML’s first digitisation grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission. She also served as the project manager and primary investigator for their second digitisation grant, awarded by the Council on Library & Information Resources.
Jacqueline Reid Wachholz Jacqueline Wachholz is the Director of the Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. Before becoming Director in 2004, she was the Reference Archivist for the Hartman Center. She was the Illustration Editor for the Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising, published by Fitzroy Dearborn in 2002. Prior to coming to Duke, she was an archivist at The History Factory and worked with corporate collections from Sears, Prudential, Goldman Sachs and GATX. She holds an MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in art history from the University of Minnesota.
Leah Tams is the Accessions Coordinator at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. She holds a bachelor of arts in history and mathematics from the University of Mary Washington and a master of science in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked on numerous digitisation and public history projects and has previously held positions at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the National Museum of American History and the Rubenstein Library’s John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Scott Williams is a Senior Software Engineer at the Digital Public Library of America. He has previously worked with museum data at the Yale University Art Gallery and University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He holds degrees in history and computer science from Miami University of Ohio.
Adriana J. Millares is the Director of Collections at HistoryMiami Museum. She holds a bachelor of arts in art history from Southern Methodist University and a museum studies certificate from Florida International University. Adriana started as an intern with HistoryMiami during her last year as an undergraduate, before beginning full-time in 2005. She is now responsible for the management of the Object Collection, Special Collections and Research Library and the Folklife Center at the museum. Adriana has dedicated her career to building, preserving and providing access to the museum’s collection.
