About BUDSC
In the 2023-24 Academic Year, we tried some new things with #BUDSC. We hosted a series of virtual speaker events, and smaller working group sessions focused on developing a regional intercollegiate community of practice with colleagues at liberal arts universities in the Middle Atlantic states. Our plans for a Spring 2024 in-person event failed to come to fruition, but the idea of an in-person gathering persisted.
For 2024 -2025, we’re going to put what we learned into practice – we’re going to take what worked and continue our virtual Bucknell University Digital Scholarship Conversations, and revive an in-person conference in partnership with KeystoneDH. Our theme? “Linking: Projects, Data, & People”
More information will be forthcoming throughout Autumn 2024 and Spring 2025. We’re excited to continue this work together!
Spring 2025 Virtual Speaker
Ian Milligan
Title: Ethics, Emails, and Archives: Using (and Misusing) the September 11 Digital Archive
Date: April 23, 2025, 12 noon eastern
Abstract:
Minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North tower of the World Trade Center complex on September 11th, 2001, emails and online discussions surged, capturing real-time reactions from shock to speculation about global repercussions. Many of these digital interactions were preserved in the September 11 Digital Archive, an early example of an event-based archive. Despite the invaluable insights offered into collective responses, ethical complexities and practical challenges, including fragmented metadata, inconsistent file formats, and privacy concerns, have significantly limited the use of this collection (scholarly and popular alike).
In my talk, I discuss the challenges historians face using these materials today, the ethical considerations in repurposing digital personal communications, and offer recommendations for creating more usable, ethically responsible event archives in the future.
Short bio:
Ian Milligan is Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight and Analysis in the University of Waterloo’s Office of Research. Milligan’s primary research focus is on how historians can use web archives, as well as the impact of digital sources on historical practice more generally. He is author of: Averting the Digital Dark Age: How Archivists, Librarians, and Technologists Built the Web a Memory (2024), The Transformation of Historical Research in the Digital Age (2022), History in the Age of Abundance (2019), and Rebel Youth (2014). Milligan also co-authored Exploring Big Historical Data (2015, with Shawn Graham and Scott Weingart) and edited the SAGE Handbook of Web History (2018, with Niels Brügger). Milligan is principal investigator of the Archives Unleashed projec
Bucknell University
Library & Information Technology
With over 3600 Undergraduate students, Bucknell University is a national university where liberal arts and professional programs complement each other. Library & Information Technology at Bucknell University is proud to host #BUDSC24.
Safety and Inclusion
Creating safe spaces in Digital Scholarship for everyone.
BUDSC is committed to providing an environment where all participants feel safe, included, and comfortable at the conference.
