Notes from the Website Development Team
As exciting as it appeared at the beginning, this project presented a number of challenges concerning the organization of information, translating from Hungarian into English, and developing an information architecture that best represents the collection's scope and content. As the aim of this project was to promote the Canaday Center and general library collections, it was important to stay within the framework of the Library of Congress Subject Headings and its hierarchical structure. Yet, this approach was quickly challenged by the extent of interdisciplinary works (e.g., history-ethnography, or history-architecture) and the lack of space to present all subjects in the navigation bar.
I found a compromise by leaving the call numbers in place and adding additional subject tags to facilitate collocation with related materials. While subject searches are less commonplace that other methods on the Website it was possible to list a single item under mutliple subject heading.Another challenge was that there were more subjects than was space in the navigation bar to accommodate all.
Translating from Hungarian into English for the most was not a problem since it is my native language. However, some domain-specific technical (e.g., art- and architecture-related) terms, metaphorical expressions, and obsolete words were difficult to translate either literally or idiomatically. Not being a specialist or professional translator, I used the or browsed the Internet for plausible translations. Where it was possible, I aimed for idiomatic translations to achieve representational commitment to the original titles; elsewhere, I found literal translations to be more appropriate. I welcome suggestions for more accurate translations.
Finally, information architecture had to be addressed also. Representing all the subject areas in the library catalog in separate tabs would have resulted in a confusing design, so it was important to combine them in less than ideal ways. The subcategories represent the subdivisions in History, Art, Literature, and Architecture, and are not consistently identified along temporal, stylistic, or other topical lines (read more on navigating the site here). Also, the stylistic periods covered in Western Humanities courses did not evolve along similar lines in Hungary, given the turbulent history of the region. Disruptions due to strguggles against Mongols, Turks, Habsburgs, Germans, and Soviets have prevented these periods from evolving like they could in Western Europe. Regional history has instead lead to the development of uniquely regional taste for arts -- one which combined new European and ancient Asian cultural elements -- and approaches to sciences in addition to the infusion of Western knowledge. These regional contributions to global knowledge require analyzsis and interpretation on their merits.
Arjun Sabharwal
Assistant Professor/Digital Initiatives Librarian
As Arjun said, the development of the website was exciting, but did provide its challenges. Coming up with a suitable structure for the variety of books in the collection was one of the main problems we faced, given the range of topics. This was finally narrowed down to Arts, History, Literature, Reference and Social Sciences. Additionally, deciding the subcategories for each and the navigation setup proved time-consuming. We eventually created our own system of categorizing the books, choosing the best material from each work to scan, and implementing all that information into the site itself.
Not only was this project a challenging one, but it was extremely informative given my lack of knowledge of Hungarian history and the culture and struggles of its people in the past few centuries. Upon completion of this project I have a much better understanding of Hungarian history. I've also enjoyed the opportunity to work so closely with books much rarer than what I'm usually exposed to. Oh, and I can't forget that I am now a first-class book scanner (after 299 books and multiple pages/images scanned from each!).
Finally, the improvement I've seen with my knowledge of HTML/CSS and Dreamweaver is really great ; I can't say enough how much better my web development skills have become because of this project. It's exciting to see my own progression as a Web Developer, and to see to the progression of the site from it's beginning to completion.
Jenna Fausey
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Spring 2011
Art/New Media Student
