So far, I am really happy with how my project is going so far! As of now, the work that my project lead and I have been doing has been primarily parsing through the articles that will eventually encompass the entire database, and trying to categorize them by subject, keyword, and other methods. Along with this, I am also taking a look at other digital humanities projects, and making a mental list of traits that are in good digital humanities projects, and/or ones that have a long lifespan. My next steps would probably be to create the structure of the project itself, and right now I am deciding whether I should use Gale Digital Scholar Lab or Omeka, or both. Gale’s text analysis function and visualization capabilities are both things that I am thinking about when considering what I would theoretically be able to do with the text/information in the articles I have read so far. Additionally, with Omeka, while I still would like to do some more exploring regarding plugins and items, seems to be really useful in that it allows me to organize all of my files in a well thought-out manner.
In general, I am pretty proud of myself this semester. There have been times when learning about different digital tools has not been the most straightforward, but I have managed to work through any tough spots I have had. One thing that I am somewhat worried about as my project begins to ramp up is balancing everything in my life, whether it be academics, the Vivero Fellowship, or any personal extra-curricular activities I have going on. Moving forward, I would like to spend more time making my blog/website look better, as well as think about how I could theoretically implement the database I am making on my website. I will let my project lead know about Gale Digital Scholar Lab, and I will try to learn more about it after (or maybe even during) fall break.