Kimberly Isom and Professor David A Day, Harold B Lee Library
The International Harp Archives at Brigham Young University has attracted the attention of many harpists from around the world. Recently it has received acknowledgement at conferences held in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Geneva, Switzerland. The Archives have also been introduced to the American Harp Society in their last semiannual journal. The International Harp Archives has one of the largest collections of harp materials. It has photographs, manuscripts, recordings, harp scores, and many more valuable items. One concern the Archives has is how to make it more accessible to harpists throughout the world. This year I have worked on a website that would bring even more recognition and support from a larger realm of harpists by making the Archives more accessible through the use of modern technology.
The foundation of the Archive website was posted in March. More has been added since its premiere. The website is accessible through the BYU Music and Dance Library Department website or by going directly to the web page http://harp.byu.edu. Since its posting in March, I have received feedback from people desiring more information about the actual website and about the International Harp Archives.
The first step of the project was to decide on the basic design of the web page. This includes the functionality, appearance, and setup of the actual website. After trying many different layouts I finally decided on a layout that looked professional yet “visually pleasing” (fig. 1). Part of the challenge was editing each photograph with a limited understanding of the Photoshop program. However, after some trial and error I was able to master the program and then create the look that I desired for each photo (fig. 2). After setting up the basic design of the website, the next challenge came when I wanted to maintain that design “theme” throughout the entire web page. I was able to manipulate the homepage to fit each additional web page throughout the Archive website (fig. 3).
With the design and theme of the website taken care of, I proceeded to add detail throughout the website. The “detail” included such things as links, rollover images, animation, etc. I found that these extra features helped keep the interest of many Internet “surfers.” The first noticeable detail that I added is found on the navigation list (fig. 4). The next is found on the Photo-Gallery page to add “color” to the page (fig. 3). The most challenging detail was an animation of the logo on the top of each page (fig. 5). This was challenging, simply because I had never had experience in web-design. I read many chapters of the instruction manual and reviewed many alternative web pages to learn how to create these basic “details.”
Adding the actual information of the website was the next stepi. In order to complete that step it was necessary that I gather the information, organize it, and then format it to fit on the site. The main section of information that I added was the American Harp Society Audio and Video listings. I produced this section so that it could be presented at the American Harp Society conference held this past June in St. Paul, Minnesota. This has provided a convenient source for members of that society to be able to request many of the available Audio and Video Recordings from the Archives.
The problems that I encountered, for the most part, were manageable, and therefore were solved. However, a few significant dilemmas arose. First, I was limited to what ideas I could use for the website due to my lack of experience in web design. Therefore, I was unable to create the searchable database I originally had anticipated for the Photo Gallery. Second, the ideas that my faculty mentor had in mind for the website and the ideas that I had were as polarized as night and day. Consequently, I spent much of the available time discussing a compromise plan for the website, thus not allowing as much time for further production of the website. The final difficulty arose when an opportunity to go to St. Paul, Minnesota, and Geneva, Switzerland, to film for the Archives was offered to me. I felt as though this was a justifiable distraction since it helped fulfill the role that the website proposed to do, which was to “aid harpists around the world in accessing these archives. This will include researching the aspects of the harp, such as the history of the harp, harpists and harp musicii.” These two opportunities provided positive acknowledgement for the archives, as well as provided much insight to “the aspects of the harp, such as the history of the harp, harpists and harp music.”
Although the website is not finished, I have completed enough to allow another person to add information. I understand that the Archives will be hiring a person to fulfill this responsibility. I am unable to follow that portion of the project through due to the nature of the Archives, which is to continually add to its Archives. I feel as though I have succeeded in completing my project because I have created the site which will be used to access the Archives. As more and more information is added to the International Harp Archives I am confident that it will find a place on the webpage and thus increase its availability to harpists around the world.
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i Note that this step is not finished. Much of that is due to the large amount of information already in the Archives. Also, one of the roles of the website is to encourage more donations to be made to the website thus creating more information to be constantly added to the website.
ii This is taken directly from my proposal submitted in fall of 2001.