magazén International Journal for Digital and Public Humanities

Journal | magazén
Monographic journal issue | 1 | 2 | 2020
Research Article | Neither Literature nor Object: Children’s Writings in the Digital Public Realm

Neither Literature nor Object: Children’s Writings in the Digital Public Realm

Abstract

The interpretation of children’s writings has often presented a particular challenge to Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM), as the represented child has historically been deprived of agency, and children’s writings are neither ‘literature’ nor traditional display objects. In this article we will explore the methodologies of representation that are associated with the merging of children’s history and digital humanities. We will lay out an approach for digitally representing children’s writings held in museums. We will demonstrate the possibilities that have been put forward by librarians, archivists and curators internationally, and explore the tools and approaches that have emerged from the field of digital humanities for re-presenting the agency of the child creator and the child visitor within memory institutions. Moreover, in this article we will propose that the digital environment facilitates a critical site of experimentation in displaying children’s collections that allow creator, object, context, critique, and visitor to be equally valued.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: July 21, 2020 | Accepted: Nov. 3, 2020 | Published Dec. 22, 2020 | Language: en

Keywords DigitisationMuseumsYouth cultureManuscriptsEthicsChild diariesDigital humanitiesGLAMHybrid digital spacesVisitor experienceHistory of childhoodCollections

Subtags Institutions Society Works of Art Audio-visual data Textual data 3d data Processing Visualisation Documents Participation Preservation Collection


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