Do you, or faculty you work with, use images in your research? Tropy (https://tropy.org/) is a free, open-source tool to help researchers organize and describe images of their research material. With features like annotation, custom templates, notes, and the ability to create robust description, Tropy has the potential to be useful to a range of humanities and social science researchers at all levels.

In many humanities and social sciences departments, faculty both assign students to do primary-source research for class and also supervise advanced students writing theses or dissertations from primary sources. These students and faculty then come to the librarians to learn how to deal with photos they take in the archives, wanting you to help them come up with a coherent and flexible system. Researchers in other fields may use photos to document specimens, artifacts, or other evidence, so the import of this tool is not limited to the humanities!

We’d like to help you help your patrons. On February 21, 2020, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. in room 314 of Main Library, Dr. Megan Brett, Digital History Associate, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media George Mason University will conduct a Tropy “Train the Trainers" workshop February 21, 2020, in Main Library 314 specifically for librarians and archivists who teach skills courses or instruct patrons about archival research. Our goal is to introduce you to Tropy, as well as offer suggestions for how to teach Tropy to others.

This workshop is completely free, but we do ask that you register in advance. Space is limited so please register now! Please note that the audience for these workshops is faculty; workshops for GAs and other graduate students will be scheduled in the future.

I would very much appreciate it if you passed along this opportunity to your colleagues. And of course please feel free to contact me with any questions.

A separate workshop will be held for research and teaching faculty. An invitation for that workshop is attached that you’re welcome to adapt and forward to individual colleagues or departments you work with.

Best,

Spencer D. C. Keralis, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Digital Humanities Librarian

Liaison: Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities

University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

spencerk@illinois.edu

Pronouns: he/they

ORCID: 0000-0003-0903-5587