{"id":2326,"date":"2011-05-31T13:25:12","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T17:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/?p=2326"},"modified":"2020-10-08T16:03:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T20:03:27","slug":"visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting the Deena Larsen Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCollecting and hoarding, it turns out, are very important activities, since too few of our cultural institutions and repositories are yet engaged with acquiring and saving the rich and various creative legacy we have inherited from the first generation of personal computing.\u201d (About the DLC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In mid-April I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the hoarder\u2019s paradise that is The Deena Larsen Collection<\/em><\/a>, housed\u2014physically and electronically\u2014at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities<\/a> (MITH).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I drove to College Park from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to visit the DLC<\/em> for a couple of reasons. The immediate matter was to review the DLC<\/em> in fulfillment of an assignment for the Digital Humanities course, taught by GSLIS<\/a> Dean John Unsworth<\/a>. Further, I was curious to see if the DLC housed changing versions, programming notes, original image files, etc. for Deena Larsen\u2019s important\u2014and unreleased\u2014hypertext work, Marble Springs, Second Edition<\/em> which is the focus for my Master\u2019s Thesis, guided by Prof Jerry McDonough<\/a>. (I was not disappointed!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(A brief aside: The DLC<\/em> website on Marble Springs<\/em><\/a> focuses on Marble Springs, First Edition<\/em>, produced in Apple\u2019s HyperCard<\/em> software and published by Eastgate Systems in 1993. Marble Springs, Second Edition<\/em>\u2014expanded with new content added by Deena and contributed by a dozen additional authors\u2014was prepared for publication in 1997 by Deena and programmer Carlos Boutran.<\/p>\n

Sadly, MS2<\/em> was not released, although MS1<\/em> is still available<\/a> from Eastgate.)<\/p>\n

I spent two days at MITH, exploring the DLC<\/em>, talking with the MITH staff<\/a> (a shout of thanks to Director Neil Fraistat, Dave Lester, Seth Denbo, Christina Grogan, James Neal, and Alex Quinn) and interviewing Associate Director Matthew Kirschenbaum. Everyone made me welcome. And as I was the first external researcher to utilize The Deena Larsen Collection<\/em>, I felt like a bit of a celebrity: Matt even Tweeted about my visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At right, I am exploring the box with the paper version of Marble Springs<\/em>; Deena\u2019s 1992 Master\u2019s Thesis, Hyperpoems and Hyperpossibilites<\/em>, and other analog treasures.<\/p>\n

While talking about the DLC<\/em> with Neil, he was nice enough to invite me to post to the MITH blog<\/a> about my experience at MITH. I happily accepted. So this will be the first of a short series of postings highlighting The Deena Larsen Collection<\/em>. The posts will include what is special about the DLC<\/em>, issues facing the collection, and notes on my interactions with the collection, including suggestions to aid future researchers.<\/p>\n

I hope that you will find these posts useful and will make time to visit The Deena Larsen Collection<\/em> at MITH soon.<\/p>\n

Up next: <\/strong>The Deena Larsen Collection<\/em> as a Research Test Bed<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Want to schedule a visit to the DLC<\/em>? Use the form at http:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/larsen\/contact<\/a><\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/p>\n

The_Deena_Larsen_Collection.png, Leighton Christiansen, April 14, 2011<\/p>\n

Marble Springs, Second Edition<\/em>, cover card, MS2_001_01.png, screen capture, Leighton Christiansen, January 10, 2011<\/p>\n

DLC_Tweet.png by Matthew Kirschenbaum, 04\/14\/2011, screen capture Leighton Christiansen<\/p>\n

Leighton Christiansen is pursing his Master\u2019s of Library and Information Science Degree at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and threatens to catch that degree any time now.<\/p>\n

You can reach him at leightonlc@gmail.com, or @purpleleighton<\/a> on Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCollecting and hoarding, it turns out, are very important activities, since too few of our cultural institutions and repositories are yet engaged with acquiring and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66],"tags":[104,113],"yoast_head":"\nVisiting the Deena Larsen Collection – Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Visiting the Deena Larsen Collection – Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cCollecting and hoarding, it turns out, are very important activities, since too few of our cultural institutions and repositories are yet engaged with acquiring and […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UMD.MITH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-31T17:25:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-08T20:03:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DLC_collection.jpg\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/\",\"name\":\"Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/DLC_collection.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/\",\"name\":\"Visiting the Deena Larsen Collection – Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-31T17:25:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-08T20:03:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/d5ac27923416f4c796629ba15788267c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/visiting-the-deena-larsen-collection\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/d5ac27923416f4c796629ba15788267c\",\"name\":\"Leighton Christiansen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9af6d9ba12fa1867ca48dac2439c9beb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Leighton Christiansen\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21329,"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326\/revisions\/21329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mith.umd.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}