Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Photo: ASP Archive
Carina Tokatian
Staff Writer
The Fresno State Armenian Studies Program received some exciting news for 2020. It is anticipating the publication of some of its digital archives on an online database known as Calisphere by the beginning of the New Year. The University of California first established the California Digital Library in 1977, later creating Calisphere as one of its branches. Calisphere is a free website that publishes a wide assortment of media including documents, recordings, and photographs of historic value. About a year ago, a representative from the website contacted the Armenian Studies Program, asking for permission to incorporate the Program’s archives into its database. With a librarian’s degree and experience as a book conservator, Armenian Studies Program archivist Malina Zakian has been working on the project ever since.
Zakian recalled how Calisphere initiated the project after coming across the Armenian Studies Program’s Flickr page. Flickr is basically a miniature online database, similar to Calisphere, where website visitors can access photos and videos independently published on the site. While viewers can access public webpages, the Armenian Studies Program had a Flickr Commons site, a page exclusively available to institutions, which is where Calisphere originally discovered the archives.
Currently, the Studies Program has six albums of around 350 photos published on its Flickr page. Many of these historic archives pertain to the Fresno Armenian community and were acquired from local Armenians.
“Fresno has a tremendous historic memory,” Zakian asserted. She contrasted Fresno to some of the more transient Armenian communities where Armenians tend to pass through and follow the flow of jobs. This unique quality of Fresno feeds into the reason why she is so fascinated with the project. “I am interested in the natural accumulation of community collections,” she revealed.
Zakian believes there are many benefits associated with the archives’ publication on Calisphere. She mentioned how Calisphere will increase “foot traffic,” broadening the exposure of the images to a broader audience. Unlike Flickr, any key phrases tagged to an image on Calipshere’s website will automatically cause that image to “pop-up” when typed into a general search engine like Google.
This idea of tagging images can pose challenges, however. For instance, Zakian explained how labeling photos is important, yet it still raises a “question of granularity.” If the description of an image is too specific in detail, it can restrict its audience significantly. On the other hand, if an image presents little context and is therefore labelled with a generic tagline, the image could become “amputated in value.” For this reason, the project is a very delicate and tedious task. Information matters. If an image is identified with an improper name or location, it could have serious effects on research accuracy. This can particularly be an issue after the information becomes standardized on Calisphere’s website.
The beauty of Calisphere is that it encourages “crowd-sourcing” or the idea of several individuals visiting these archives. Zakian suggested that this could be “a way of engaging the community.” Collections can be shared with the community, granting individuals full access without any website fees or institutional affiliation required to view them.
Specifically, for Fresno State Armenian Studies students, Zakian stated how she hopes “it will provide them with resources that they can use in their own research.”
She noted how “part of it is understanding the importance of primary sources.”
The exposure of students to the images, Zakian believes, will nurture their interest in not only their homeland abroad, but also their homeland in Fresno.