This Hackathon was the first hands-on collaboration connecting the CDH, PUL, and PICSciE/RC, and it marked the first time many of the participants utilized a high-performance computing cluster allowing for much faster processing of large-scale data. “It was a unique opportunity to bring together developers that support computational research at Princeton in a wide variety of ways,” commented Ben Hicks, a developer with both CDH and Princeton Research Computing.
It also reinforced the ongoing partnership between the Library and the CDH as it built upon previous discussions that emerged from the “Collections as Data” Reading Groups - regular meetings among PUL and CDH staff held at least once a month where they examine Princeton’s library collections through short readings, discussions, presentations, and hands-on activities and coordinate efforts to sustain data-driven scholarship at Princeton.
The specific library collection used for the Hackathon, PUL’s Latin American Ephemera (LAE) collection, is comprised of a growing repository containing approximately 12,200 published items (pamphlets, posters, etc.) highlighting politics, public culture, and social change in Latin America. Materials include primary sources originally created around the turn of the 20th century, as well as newly acquired materials. Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies, has been overseeing the LAE collection for the past 16 years and introduced the collection to Hackathon participants.