Digital Doubloons

Title: Digital Doubloons

Ahoy, landlubbers! Digital Archivist, John Dunning, back one final time to spin a yarn about a piece of digital treasure we hoard here in Special Collections.

A common belief held about providing access to digital material in Special Collections is that everything is always available at the click of your mouse. Believe it or not, this is not true. We receive thousands of digital files yearly. In terms of size, this means terabytes of digital material. And despite nearly everyone having access to a computer and this content already being in a digital format, it is not all available for immediate access. A whole blog could be written discussing all the reasons why (stay tuned)! However, you are always able to view the digital material we have throughout our University Archives, the East Carolina Manuscript Collection, and the North Carolina Collection through our collection guides linked here. Once you see what interests you, contact us, and access can be provided directly.

That said, we do choose to make much digital content available for easy viewing in our Digital Collections repository. These are often items that are of high research value, frequently requested by patrons, or historically significant. They might include:

  A. Documentaries of barrier-breaking North Carolina women,

She Changed the World Documentary: https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/62715

B. Correspondence with renowned filmmaker Steven Spielberg

Correspondence from Roger C. Schlobin to Steven Spielberg: https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/85801

    C. Or East Carolina University Athletics programs.

ECU History: Athletics programs: https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=football%20programs&sort=date_start%20desc&filter_fields=subtype&filter_values=Image&filter_fields=collection_s&filter_values=ECU%20History:%20Athletics

As most creators have moved toward digital spaces to create their content, the Digital Archiving program is poised to continue to document the history and culture of East Carolina University, Eastern North Carolina, and its people.

Avast, mateys! This is the end of our 3-part series on Digital Arggh-iving! If you missed the other two posts describing what digital archiving is and the types of material we collect, check them out here: Post 1: Digital Arghhh-iving and Post 2: Digital Booty. Please contact me, John Dunning, at dunningj@ecu.edu with any digital archiving questions or if you have digital material you are interested in donating to Special Collections.