• Silences as News: The Relevance and Urgency of Preserving Historical Newspapers in Postcolonial Settings

    Author(s):
    Amalia S. Levi (see profile)
    Date:
    2018
    Subject(s):
    Archives, Caribbean Area, Area studies, Imperialism, Slavery
    Item Type:
    Presentation
    Meeting Title:
    IFLA News Media 2018 Conference
    Meeting Org.:
    George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
    Meeting Loc.:
    Gainesville, Florida, USA
    Meeting Date:
    April 18-20, 2018
    Tag(s):
    digital cultural heritage, Digitization, grants, postcoloniality, Caribbean studies, Collaboration, Colonialism
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6R57B
    Abstract:
    In postcolonial countries in the Caribbean, more than natural disasters, newspapers are threatened by oblivion, stemming from indifference in and dismissal of a traumatic past. Traditionally, scholars have read historical newspapers for the information they contain. More recently, area studies and digital tools have enabled us to read them against the grain. The result has been greater awareness of the intricate web of silences underlying the information contained within. Making this content available for scholarship, safeguarding it for posterity, and facilitating access is a priority. This talk’s focus will be the digitization of The Barbados Mercury Gazette, a project funded by a British Library Endangered Archives Programme. The project is an international collaboration of scholars and practitioners abroad and in Barbados. The presentation will be in two parts: The first part will describe “lessons learned” based on the intricacies, unexpected delays and necessary adjustments during the project. The second part will discuss how the project team aims to promote the newspaper as a a fertile resource for research and a new understanding of the island’s history. The presentation will also examine the opportunities arising through this project for community involvement and empowerment. Finally, future directions and work inspired by this project will be presented. This presentation was given as a keynote address.
    Notes:
    These are the slides of the presentation. They have been slightly modified.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    Share this:

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf ifla2018humcomm.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 210

    Back to Deposits