Skip to Main Content

Museums Concentration Capstone Seminar

Creating Your Digital Project

This guide will help you get started with each of the digital tool options for this course: TimelineJS, Wordpress, Twine, Storify, and LibGuides.

TimelineJS

TimelineJS is a tool for creating interactive timelines that can integrate many types of media. Timelines can also easily be embedded in a WordPress site.

Getting Started

Create a TimelineJS account

 

Example Projects

Blackness in the Americas Timeline

Smith students in SOC222 created a timeline of historical events related to the history of blackness in the Americas using TimelineJS.

Through Time: Student Timelines of Women's Studies 101

Wheaton College students created timelines on a variety of topics related to women's history using TimelineJS.

Twine

Twine is a digital storytelling platform that can be used to create text and image-based non-linear stories and interactive fiction.

 

Getting Started

Download Twine

 

Example Projects

Neilson Library Mobile Tour

Smith Librarians used Twine to build a semi-linear self-guided tour of Neilson Library, which included games, quiz questions, and detours along the way.

Climbing 208 Feet Up The Ruin Wall

Twine artist Porpentine tells a story of climbing a wall with stolen archeological artifacts.

 

Wordpress

Wordpress is currently the most popular content management system (CMS) and blogging platform on the Internet. A wide variety of themes and settings give users broad control over the look and functionality of Wordpress sites, and allow easy integration of text, audio, still images, maps, and video into sites.

Getting Started

You have two options for creating a Wordpress site:

Smith Wordpress

To create a site, email Alex Martines (amartines@smith.edu) with:

  • Your course information (MUX300)
  • Your website address (e.g. mywebsite, historyofmuseums, etc.)

Smith's WordPress How-To Site gives easy-to-follow, basic directions in creating pages, adding images, and lots more!

The Center for Media Production offers drop-in support and workshops for Wordpress.

Wordpress.com

Create your own free site at www.wordpress.com. Wordpress.com offers some different themes, but fewer plugins than Smith Wordpress.

Example Projects

Alaska Natives and the Silver Hand

Smith Students in ARH292 used WordPress to explore issues of race and representation around the Silver Hand designation for Native Alaskan handicrafts.

Global Impressions

Smith's student-run journal, Global Impressions, publishes travel writing and essays by Smith students.

 

Storify

Storify is a tool for curating social media and building stories around it. 

Getting Started

Create a Storify Account

Email Brendan (boconnell@smith.edu) for more help using Storify!

Example Projects

China Through the Looking Glass

The Met used Storify to capture and curate Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter activity around their exhibit China Through the Looking Glass.

LibGuides

LibGuides is a tool for creating collections of resources. It supports the integration of many kinds of media, including maps, videos, and more. Your LibGuide can become part of the Smith College Libraries website!

Getting Started

You will need to create a LibGuides account to get started. Contact Brendan (boconnell@smith.edu) to create a LibGuides account.

Example Projects

[Student Perspectives]: Cultural Landscape and Historic Preservation

Smith Students in LSS240 used LibGuides to curate a collection of resources around cultural landscape and historic preservation through the lens of Northampton.