Collaboration With NMAAHC and HBCU Partners Moves Into Beta Testing Mode

A team from RRCHNM spent three days in Atlanta in June conducting an Omeka S training workshop for the five HBCU partner institutions in the HBCU History Culture and Access Consortium sponsored by the Office of Strategic Partnerships at the National Museum for African American History and Culture. Our PhD students Timmia King (below, left) and Amber Pelham (below, right) worked closely with project teams from the five HBCUs in the project – Jackson State University, Tuskegee University, Clark Atlanta University, Texas Southern University, and Florida A&M University – as the project moves from the initial training phase into beta testing mode. Timmia and Amber designed the training workshop themselves and executed it with great skill. During the second day of the convening our team and the HBCU partners spent some time thinking through the critical metadata issues involved in such a complex multi-institutional public history project. Over the coming year the HBCU partners will populate the database with items from their incredibly rich collections and designers from the Smithsonian will develop the front end experience for website visitors.