I recently finished the finding aid for PITT_EDU–medart. PITT_EDU–medart is a folder containing the earliest version of medart. It was the primary directory for medart until they created VRCOLL out of a need for more storage space. However, instead of moving the contents of PITT_EDU–medart onto VRCOLL, they continued to maintain it. PITT_EDU–medart served as the nucleus of medart in that the contents of VRCOLL often linked back to material in PITT_EDU–medart. Some of what’s on PITT_EDU–medart is no longer active on the medart site or in some cases never was. In this way PITT_EDU–medart is very much like a time capsule of medart’s history.
PITT_EDU–medart includes relics of medart’s past such as course materials from Alison Stones’ “Introduction of Medieval Art and Architecture” classes. We know from interviewing Alison and by reading her work that medart was intended as a classroom tool. The course materials are further evidence of this. Assignment outlines, images to be used in assignments, and quizzes on vocabulary are some examples of course materials found on PITT_EDU–medart.
There is also evidence of experimentation in PITT_EDU–medart. I found a version of the search feature that I hadn’t seen before. This further emphasizes that they considered a search feature but must have determined it wouldn’t work for medart since it was never made live on the site. The wording on the search feature (can be seen in the above image) indicates doubt on the part of its creator in regard to its functionality. It’s possible that it wasn’t that they didn’t think a search feature would work for medart, but rather couldn’t get the search feature to workv period.
Another interesting discovery while creating the PITT_EDU–medart finding aid was consistency in the inaccuracy of France’s alphabetical categories. Instead of a long list of sites in France, they are organized into sections such as A-C or D-K etc. However, when exploring the file trees I noticed that A-C or D-K was not always an accurate title for a particular section. For example, D-K has starts with Chadenac and ends with Montmouillon, L-Z starts with Lacharite and ends with Metz, N-R starts with Montmouillon and ends with Rouen. It was interesting to see these inaccuracies reflected in the hard drive. On the current medart website the sites are organized into the correct sections.
Creating this finding aid has given me the opportunity to evaluate the differences and connections between the VRCOLL and PITT_EDU–medart directories as well as with projects I worked on earlier this year.