Scrapbooks Group Contract
Scrapbooks Group Contract
Spring 2020 – 03/18/20 Online Revised Edition
Glynnis Farleigh, Piper Giannini, Emily Johnson, Erin Madden, and Mady May
As of 03/17/20, the University of Mary Washington has ended in-person class meetings and on-campus events for the rest of the semester. As a result, our group has made changes to reflect the new limitations of remote collaboration to our project.
Mission Statement
The mission for our website has two main goals:
First, we aim to provide insight into the contributions of select members of the Rowe family as it relates to their lives and experiences in Fredericksburg. To accomplish this, we will scan, transcribe, and analyze materials from the Rowe family scrapbook collection. We will also draw from pertinent histories of key locations in Fredericksburg. This section will also feature a comprehensive Rowe family tree.
Second, we aim to provide insight into the process and history of scrapbooking as a whole between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To accomplish this, we will gather contextual information on scrapbooking as a whole. This section is intended to inspire and promote further research on and with scrapbooks.
Website Homepage Structure
Our website will be split into two segments: the “scrapbook segment” and the “narrative segment,” as well as a “welcome” page that describes the purpose and process of and contributors to our project.
Our site homepage will be split into three main “squares” that link to their relevant pages and follow the outline below:
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Welcome Welcome to our scrapbook website! The purpose of this website is to both provide insight into the contributions of select members of the Rowe family as it pertains to Fredericksburg, Virginia, as well as the explore the scrapbooks of family members and the history of scrapbook keeping in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Click here to learn more about the process of creating this site and its key contributors. [Enter] |
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Scrapbooks Explore the scrapbooks of members of the Rowe family and learn more about the historical importance of scrapbook keeping in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [Enter] |
Biographies and Narratives Explore Rowe family tree and the individual lives of key members of the Rowe family, alongside their contributions to Fredericksburg. [Enter] |
Organization of Website
In addition to the layout for our website homepage listed above, additional pages of our website will be organized in the following manner:
- Scrapbooks Pages
After entering our “Scrapbooks” section, users will be greeted with a list of each scrapbook that we will be covering, which will total 11-15 (with 11 being our minimum and 15 being our maximum) depending upon how much we are able to successfully scan, as well as a thumbnail of the cover of each scrapbook.
Each of these thumbnails will be accompanied by a brief description of who the scrapbook belonged to and what time period it is from. From there, users can select which scrapbook they want to explore.
Each individual scrapbook will have its own hyperlinked page that includes a selection of 5-15 key scans. These scans will be accompanied by a description of their historical context and relevance.
This will allow users to get a broad understanding of the significance of each scrapbook without us scanning each page of the scrapbook.
- Biographies and Narratives Pages
After entering our “Biographies and Narratives” section, users will see a list of four women from the Rowe family accompanied by their thumbnail portrait and a brief description. The women that we are focusing on are Anne Wilson Rowe, her grandmother, Katherine Stoffregen Wilson, her great aunt, Jeanette Stoffregen, and her great-grandmother, Anne Gilmer Martin. These women and the rest of their families can be viewed on our Rowe Family Genealogy list.
Just as with the “Scrapbooks” section, users will be able to select which woman they would like to learn more about and be directed to their biography page.
On each woman’s biography page, we will include information about their lives and contributions to or relationship with Fredericksburg.
As necessary, we will include contextual information about key locations or organizations related to each woman.
Audience
Due to the variety of topics we will be covering, we imagine a few different groups will have interest in our project. In a smaller focus, we know that this project matters a lot to the members of the Rowe family, so we will keep in mind that they will be a part of our audience. We want to be able to represent these scrapbooks and the connection they have with the family.
Additionally, the scrapbooks deal a lot with Fredericksburg history, so we hope to appeal to residents of Fredericksburg with our content. This project will also take a specific focus on the female members of the Rowe family, which will likely appeal to people interested in women’s history.
There is also discussion of specific time periods in the scrapbooks, including the Civil War up until mid-twentieth century. This discussion will bring the attention of people interested in those time periods. Lastly, we believe that scrapbook enthusiasts will find our project to be interesting and informative.
We hope to utilize the tools available to us to give these potential audience members a good experience with our project.
Advertising
We have several goals regarding how we will advertise our website to the public. These forms of advertising exist in two different mindsets. Firstly, we want to make an active effort to announce our project to the public. Secondly, we want to make our website and project easy to navigate and contact.
For our first goal, we have several ideas. We plan to make a project Instagram account (@rowescrapbooksfxbg), managed primarily by Glynnis and Erin, making a project Twitter Bot, managed primarily by Mady and Piper, that will post images, and making a meme to publish on the UMW meme page. Due to the changes of the course, we will not be handing out buttons, stickers, or QR codes. We also will be sharing the project to our personal social media. These efforts will hopefully be successful in bringing general traffic to our website. Once the website is complete, we will make a post thanking followers for following our account and directing them to our website. This will “conclude” the active use of our Instagram. We will also give the log-in information to Jeanette and Florence, although we do not at all expect them to run the account.
Our second goal is more about accessibility and reaching out to the community. We want to make our website accessible to members of any level of technology expertise, cater the site presentation to members of multiple interest groups, and contact local relevant organizations such as the newspaper. Additionally, we have a gmail account for public correspondence which is rowescrapbooksfxbg@gmail.com. This email is managed by all group members. Just as with our Instagram account, we will also give the log-in information to Jeanette and Florence, although we do not at all expect them to run the account. Lastly, we will share the final project with the Rowe family.
Project/Data Sustainability Models
We have been researching tools that can be used to make our site more accessible. We will be sure to use correct heading sizes and write captions and alt-text for all images. If necessary, we plan on meeting with UMW’s Office of Disability Resources in order to make our website as accessible as possible by figuring out which considerations we will need to make to support our audience. We will also make content downloadable in PDF form and will compile each page of our WordPress site into a .zip file. We plan to export our project to a thumb drive. Additionally, we will be sharing the login information for our gmail, Instagram, and Twitter with Dr. McClurken.
Tools Planning on Using
In addition to WordPress, we plan to use several different software and add-ons to WordPress to help make our website accessible, in addition to a few other tools.
For WordPress, we plan on using the following tools, if we find that they will represent our project well: Timeline JS is a useful source for presenting the information the scrapbooks give us; Soundcite JS is also a tool that could be useful for including soundbites with text, which could be a useful tool for accessibility purposes. We are planning to use the NextGen Galleries plugin to present the scrapbooks as thumbnails linked to media files on our WordPress website. In addition to these, we will be using GroupMe, Slack, and Google Drive for communication and work on the project.
We will edit images using Photoshop. Photoshop is available both in the DAL and the other HCC computers, as well as the Macs in the library. Mady also has Photoshop on her laptop. We will edit sound using iMovie, which several of us have access to, in addition to HCC computers.
Subdomain URL Slug: rowefxbg.umwhistory.org
Schedule of Milestones
Mandatory Milestones
Our schedule of milestones corresponds with the due dates of Progress Reports. Below are all of the milestones that we will complete:
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Goal Date: |
Description of Milestone |
How We Will Know We’ve Reached Our Milestone |
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2/10/20 |
Group Contract Due Outline Areas for Contextual Research Have complete inventory for scans |
We will submit our “first” revised group contract. We will have a specific outline of what we will need to conduct research on. We will begin gathering sources or contacting appropriate organizations. Here is our inventory for what we will scan. We have allocated each selected artifact a number of scans that we hope to complete shortly after Spring Break. |
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2/14/20 |
Revised Group Contract Due Established a working Bibliography for Contextual Research |
We will submit our final revised group contract. We will have acquired all necessary books, articles, links, or interviews. We will outline their significance. One of the books that we are using is The Scrapbook in American Life, edited by Susan Tucker, Katherine Ott, and Patricia B. Buckler, which was recommended to us by Carolyn Parsons. We will work on a citation format for our scrapbooks. Our working bibliography is here. |
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2/27/20 (PR1) |
Contextual Research Complete Website Skeleton, and “Welcome” and “About” sections. Begin Creating Web Pages/Writing Information for Web pages |
We will finish up our contextual research and be ready to start writing and organizing information for our website pages. At this point, our website will reflect its permanent foundational elements. All basic pages and links will be in place. We will have a completed first version of our “Welcome” page and its subsequent “About” and “Contributor” pages. Using our contextual research, we will use Google Docs to write the information that will appear in each web page so that it can be easily copied over. This will be a rolling process but we expect to be finished with this by April 2. This process will also include using relevant tools/plug-ins to display information. (EG, if we are finished with research for a page, we will begin making the page itself.) |
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3/12/20 (PR2) |
Complete All Scans and Contextual Research 50% of Website Compiled |
All of our scans are complete, and all of our photos are transferred onto three thumb drives in the possession of Glynnis and Mady. We will work to transfer these photos to the WordPress. The pngs, held by Glynnis, are on WordPress. The .tiffs, held by Mady, will be compiled into a downloadable Zip File. We hope to have at least 50% of our website compiled. According to our estimates of how many scans we can complete, 50% of our website will encompass roughly ~50 (out of the potential 100-110) scans complete with relevant descriptions. We will also have 1-2 biographies out of our 3-4 selected women complete. Due to changes in the semester, group meetings will be conducted one to two times a week via Zoom. Other communication will be conducted via Group Me. |
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3/24/20 (PR3) |
75% of Website Compiled Completed Bibliography |
Research will be complete and we will have migrated 75%+ of our information to our website. We will be unable to complete additional scans. Our bibliography will be complete at this point and available on our website. |
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4/2/20 (PR4) |
100% of Website Compiled “Draft” Completed |
We will have completed all aspects of our website. All pages and links will work. We will begin fine-tuning areas of improvement as needed. |
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4/14/20 (PR5) |
Finalize Website |
We will finalize aspects of our website by checking formatting, grammar and spelling, and accessibility adding more information as we have room. |
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4/21/20 (Final Project Due) |
Submit Final Project |
We will have submitted the final, working project. We will have notes ready on what we will information to include on the alternate History Symposium presentation. (Such as what information to include in a video) |
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4/24/20 (Present Project) |
Symposium Presentation Makeup |
Because of changes to the semester, we will come up with a way to present our project in lieu of the History Symposium. We will wait to hear from Dr. McClurken as to what alternate assignment we will do. (Some sort of video>) |
Basic Division of Labor
We have created a group time log to track time spent on our project. This time log features group meet dates, course due dates, and our own milestones and can be viewed here.
We have assigned specific component(s) of work to each group member. The components can be viewed here:
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Component of Work |
Group Member(s) Specializing |
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Contextual Research: Because of their significance to Fredericksburg, there is a great deal of information on the Rowe family available online. Resources will be cited in Chicago style. |
Glynnis Farleigh Emily Johnson Piper Giannini |
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Website Construction: We will construct our website using WordPress. |
All group members |
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Digitizing of Resources: We will spend time in DAL digitizing necessary portions of the scrapbook. We will also be coordinating regularly with librarians. |
All group members |
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Library Communication: We will be working with and communicating with librarians regularly. This will entail emailing librarians to book the DAL or obtain help in other areas. |
Mady May will communicate with Angie Kemp in the DAL if needed, however, as of 03/13/20, we are finished with scans. |
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Transcription of Resources: As needed, we will transcribe news articles. We do not need to transcribe scans, as none of our selected scans require this. |
Glynnis Farleigh Piper Giannini Emily Johnson Mady May |
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Scheduling: We will need to keep a schedule throughout the semester to keep our project on track. This will help keep track of time and the goals/agenda of each meeting. We will use a rotating schedule. While two people are scanning, three will be doing other things related to our project such as website design and social media. |
Mady May All group members will log their work |
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Family Communication: Members will communicate, as needed, with members of the Rowe family, such as Jeanette. |
Piper Giannini Erin Madden |
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Community Outreach: Searching for people who used to know Anne and other family members and interviewing them to have extra stories to go with biographical information. |
Emily Johnson |
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Editing: We will need to check our writing for clarity, grammar, and spelling so that our site is as user-friendly and accessible as possible. |
All group members |
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Accessibility: We will need to make our site as accessible as we can. This will include tools for those who may need to explore our website in an alternative format. |
Glynnis Farleigh Erin Madden |
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Email Management: We will monitor our email, which will be linked on our website, to ensure that anyone who contacts us will get a reply. |
All group members |
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Instagram: We will maintain our Instagram account so as to advertise our project and keep followers updated on our progress. |
Glynnis Farleigh Erin Madden Piper Giannini |
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Twitter Bot: We will create and manage a Twitter bot that will help advertise our website and keep followers up to date. Because our Bot is managed by an algorithm, we have agreed that the Bot can continue to post Tweets after we have finished our project. If the Bot fails at any point during its lifetime, Mady will receive an email and be able to disable the Bot. |
Mady May Piper Giannini Emily Johnson |
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Original Contract
Spring 2020
Glynnis Farleigh, Piper Giannini, Emily Johnson, Erin Madden, and Mady May
Mission Statement
The mission for our website has two main goals:
First, we aim to provide insight into the contributions of select members of the Rowe family as it relates to their lives and experiences in Fredericksburg. To accomplish this, we will scan, transcribe, and analyze materials from the Rowe family scrapbook collection. We will also draw from pertinent histories of key locations in Fredericksburg. This section will also feature a comprehensive Rowe family tree.
Second, we aim to provide insight into the process and history of scrapbooking as a whole between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To accomplish this, we will gather contextual information on scrapbooking as a whole. This section is intended to inspire and promote further research on and with scrapbooks.
Website Homepage Structure
Our website will be split into two segments: the “scrapbook segment” and the “narrative segment,” as well as a “welcome” page that describes the purpose and process of and contributors to our project.
Our site homepage will be split into three main “squares” that link to their relevant pages and follow the outline below:
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|
|
|
|
|
Organization of Website
In addition to the layout for our website homepage listed above, additional pages of our website will be organized in the following manner:
Scrapbooks Pages
After entering our “Scrapbooks” section, users will be greeted with a list of each scrapbook that we will be covering, which will total 11-15 (with 11 being our minimum and 15 being our maximum) depending upon how much we are able to successfully scan, as well as a thumbnail of the cover of each scrapbook.
Each of these thumbnails will be accompanied by a brief description of who the scrapbook belonged to and what time period it is from. From there, users can select which scrapbook they want to explore.
Each individual scrapbook will have its own hyperlinked page that includes a selection of 5-15 key scans. These scans will be accompanied by a description of their historical context and relevance.
This will allow users to get a broad understanding of the significance of each scrapbook without us scanning each page of the scrapbook.
Biographies and Narratives Pages
After entering our “Biographies and Narratives” section, users will see a list of four women from the Rowe family accompanied by their thumbnail portrait and a brief description. The women that we are focusing on are Anne Wilson Rowe, her grandmother, Katherine Stoffregen Wilson, her great aunt, Jeanette Stoffregen, and her great-grandmother, Anne Gilmer Martin. These women and the rest of their families can be viewed on our Rowe Family Genealogy list.
Just as with the “Scrapbooks” section, users will be able to select which woman they would like to learn more about and be directed to their biography page.
On each woman’s biography page, we will include information about their lives and contributions to or relationship with Fredericksburg.
As necessary, we will include contextual information about key locations or organizations related to each woman.
Audience
Due to the variety of topics we will be covering, we imagine a few different groups will have interest in our project. In a smaller focus, we know that this project matters a lot to the members of the Rowe family, so we will keep in mind that they will be a part of our audience. We want to be able to represent these scrapbooks and the connection they have with the family.
Additionally, the scrapbooks deal a lot with Fredericksburg history, so we hope to appeal to residents of Fredericksburg with our content. This project will also take a specific focus on the female members of the Rowe family, which will likely appeal to people interested in women’s history.
There is also discussion of specific time periods in the scrapbooks, including the Civil War up until mid-twentieth century. This discussion will bring the attention of people interested in those time periods. Lastly, we believe that scrapbook enthusiasts will find our project to be interesting and informative.
We hope to utilize the tools available to us to give these potential audience members a good experience with our project.
Advertising
We have several goals regarding how we will advertise our website to the public. These forms of advertising exist in two different mindsets. Firstly, we want to make an active effort to announce our project to the public. Secondly, we want to make our website and project easy to navigate and contact.
For our first goal, we have several ideas. We plan to use several traditional advertising efforts, which may include handing out business cards/QR code cards, making a project Instagram account (@rowescrapbooksfxbg), managed primarily by Glynnis and Erin, making a project Twitter Bot, managed primarily by Mady and Piper, that will post images, handing out buttons and stickers, making t-shirts, and making a meme to publish on the UMW meme page. We also will be sharing the project to our personal social media. These efforts will hopefully be successful in bringing general traffic to our website. Once the website is complete, we will make a post thanking followers for following our account and directing them to our website. This will “conclude” the active use of our Instagram. We will also give the log-in information to Jeanette and Florence, although we do not at all expect them to run the account.
Our second goal is more about accessibility and reaching out to the community. We want to make our website accessible to members of any level of technology expertise, cater the site presentation to members of multiple interest groups, and contact local relevant organizations such as the newspaper. Additionally, we have a gmail account for public correspondence which is rowescrapbooksfxbg@gmail.com. This email is managed by all group members. Just as with our Instagram account, we will also give the log-in information to Jeanette and Florence, although we do not at all expect them to run the account. Lastly, we will share the final project with the Rowe family.
Project/Data Sustainability Models
We have been researching tools that can be used to make our site more accessible. We will be sure to use correct heading sizes and write captions and alt-text for all images. If necessary, we plan on meeting with UMW’s Office of Disability Resources in order to make our website as accessible as possible by figuring out which considerations we will need to make to support our audience. We will also make content downloadable in PDF form and will compile each page of our WordPress site into a .zip file. We plan to export our project to a thumb drive. Additionally, we will be sharing the login information for our gmail, Instagram, and Twitter with Dr. McClurken.
Tools Planning on Using
In addition to WordPress, we plan to use several different software and add-ons to WordPress to help make our website accessible, in addition to a few other tools.
For WordPress, we plan on using the following tools, if we find that they will represent our project well: Timeline JS is a useful source for presenting the information the scrapbooks give us; Soundcite JS is also a tool that could be useful for including soundbites with text, which could be a useful tool for accessibility purposes. We are planning to use the NextGen Galleries plugin to present the scrapbooks as thumbnails linked to media files on our WordPress website. In addition to these, we will be using GroupMe, Slack, and Google Drive for communication and work on the project.
We will edit images using Photoshop. Photoshop is available both in the DAL and the other HCC computers, as well as the Macs in the library. Mady also has Photoshop on her laptop. We will edit sound using iMovie, which several of us have access to, in addition to HCC computers.
Subdomain URL Slug: rowefxbg.umwhistory.org
Schedule of Milestones
Mandatory Milestones
Our schedule of milestones corresponds with the due dates of Progress Reports. Below are all of the milestones that we will complete:
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Tentative Milestones
We also have milestones that we would like to complete if time allows:
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Basic Division of Labor
We have created a group time log to track time spent on our project. This time log features group meet dates, course due dates, and our own milestones and can be viewed here.
We have assigned specific component(s) of work to each group member. The components can be viewed here:
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